I have a friend who is looking for a horse in the $10,000. range. He wants to do local B or non-rated shows, jump 3’3", good jumper and moves nicely. Is that even possible nowadays? He’s getting back into it after a long hiatus. Any suggestions? I show on the A circuit. I know what horses can cost.
Depends on the your local market of course. A quick scan of regional sales ads would be a good start. Where I live I don’t think you could get a solid going 3 foot 3 horse for $10,000.
But after a long hiatus is your friend really ready for 3 foot 3? He might be happy jumping lower.
Agree it depends on your market, but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility. Especially if he’s willing to look at a non-warmblood types. I just saw a nice OTTB, had auto lead changes, started over fences a year ago who seemed athletic enough for 3’3 fences in that price range. It may also be that he ends up looking at horses in that range with some health maintenance issues, bad habits, still a bit green, etc. Just depends what he’s willing to handle and work with.
He’ll need to buy a TB but that’s doable. He should look at event horses particularly, they are cheaper and come with most of the skills needed.
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Fordtraktor is right. I found this while doing a quick search of eventers in So Cal: https://www.dreamhorse.com/ad/2137655.html
about the same exact thing I was going to post. Not sure about where the OP is from but where I am in Zone 3 (MD/No.Va) you’d be hard pressed to find any local show that has a 3’3" hunter class, and could run into same issue with jumpers. Shoot some local shows have light turnout for 2’6" these days. A novice or training level event horse - with a few recognized or unrecognized events would be worth taking a look at - and could potentially be under $10K depending on market area.
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Why did I think we were Zone 1? 
At any rate, my daughter’s barn attends several local series with 3’ hunter classes with a decent turnout and often a 3’3" if a catch rider is available. Most of the non-rated jumper shows will also have a healthy 3’3" and often a 3’6" as they attract UL show jumpers and eventers wanting cheap mileage. There might be 30 entries in the 2’6" and only 4 in the 3’3". But it will go off and be pretty darn competitive (at least in the jumpers). However, I do live someplace where I can bump into an Olympic gold medalist in the produce section of the grocery store in town. So I suppose we’re outliers for what’s available at local shows.
It’s also fairly easy to find an athletic, honest OTTB that can do what the OP’s friend wants for around $10k in this area. It won’t win anything in the fancy pants hunter shows but it’ll get you around the course in one piece.
Hunter or Jumper?
where are you? VHSA Associate shows have more 3’ classes and specs say not less than 2’6 for a lot of divisions - which is good IMO. Where I am in MD - the 2’ classes are full, show grounds empty when the jumps go up to 2’6" some series have folded altogether but many of the H/J go to rated shows primarily and we have a slew of eventing and dressage barns.
Virginia is Region 1 for dressage, Area 2 for Eventing, and Zone 3 for hunter/jumper and most other USEF disciplines.
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Gosh I saw an event ‘packer’ that was going prelim for 65k. My jaw dropped to the floor. I remember (7ish years ago) in area 5 a good solid prelim horse with a good record going for 20k ish, and lots of nice horses in the 10k range. I had just purchased something that has several solid starts in training, with double clear efforts for all jumping parts but he was kinda a jerk.
Im still shocked at with the giant price increases. I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, respectively the most expensive horse I’ve bought in the last 3 years was 1k.
There is lots of nice thoroughbreds who are jumping 3ft courses and several single 3’3ft under that 10k price, might not be local but I see nice ads on FB often.
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Oops I meant zone 6 for eventing. I don’t even know my zones / areas anymore.
Ah. I’m in my little dressage bubble. Lol
@gottagrey I’m in Middleburg. To be fair, the Benefit Hunter is definitely the largest class of the day at the local shows that we attend. And you do have mostly trainers riding in the higher heights. In the jumper schooling show series, it will typically be a few UL amateurs and/or pros riding more than one horse. It is what it is, I suppose. But the classes normally have enough entrants to be held as scheduled.
yes prices are going up, especially now more and more eventers are importing young stock from Ireland to develop. a prelim packer is kind of a special horse, too – to pack someone over solid 3’7 technical jumps is a very special level of saint! but the TB market is still much less expensive. A friend recently sold a really nice little TB with several years of local events, going Training, for under 10k. Would have been perfect for the OP’s friend, it just wasn’t going to the upper levels.
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