70% of Horses Sell for LESS Than $3000!?!?!?

[coloredcowhorse]

[QUOTE=Kyzteke;5663383]
My area has alot of auctions as well and prices vary widely. They had a big one 2 months ago in Salmon, ID (150 horses & 50 mules)and the top seller was $14K, but there were plenty of horse/mules under $2K go as well.

I guess I just thought this was more in my area…

So – do you guys think that if breeders have truly cut back the last few years (and it seems they have, based on the fact that registrations are down in ALL of the biggest breed registries: AQHA, Paint, Arab, TB) – this “typical” (rather than average) price will go up in the next decade?

Will horses TRULY become a luxury item? Out here there is so much land almost everyone has a horse or two…[/QUOTE]

There has been a cut back in registrations but I’m not entirely convince this is a true reflection of a cut back in breeding. Registration can be expensive and I think there are some breeders that have done both…cut back in producing foals and also not registered everything they have produced…esp in Paints where, unless a foal is eligible for double registry with AQHA, a solid has almost no value no matter how nice it is or is bred. That’s one thing. I do think a lot of breeders have reduced production…I know I did and almost all the breeders of registered stock that I know have as well. Some are starting to pick up a bit…I produced 6 foals this year compared to 1 last year and 2 the year before…and I will have three next year but those are mares I’m buying already in foal…none of the mares here are bred for next year. On the other hand I’ve also seen some of the folks owning just a single mare and usually unregistered out there producing a foal every year from her to whatever cheap stud they can find. Drives me nuts.

Add in the changing population of horse ownership…the baby boomers have driven a large segment of the horse business for the last 30 years or so and are now reaching retirement, have less in the way of retirement funds than they anticipated, have lost value in their home, are still having to work and are now beginning to feel mortal…most of them are selling off or at least not buying replacement horses when theirs are put down. The next generation or two out there are not as much into horse ownership so the demand is down as well.

Horses have always been a luxury item for the majority of owners unless they are required to work your land or in some other form are vital to making your income…ie…ranch horses. On the other hand, money has always just moved around…it doesn’t disappear but rather changes hands. And those with money have always liked to play with horses. The middle class, from shortly after WWII on, had money and bought horses…maybe not to the extent, price wise, as the upper class where you find polo and dressage and a few things like that much more than trail riding and weekend roping and rodeos, but they had horses. That middle class is now getting seriously squeezed and they are getting rid of luxury items they can’t afford any longer.

Combine the age related changes and the financially related ones and there is just less demand for the average horse.

[tabula_rashah]

I don’t find it hard to believe at all. Honestly I have and have had some really nice horses- most I’ve ever paid for a horse is $1500.

[Personal_Champ]

Yep. I believe it.

I do hunters, locally, on a rather competitive circuit. I have been buying/selling, primarily OTTBs, for about 10 years.

In that time, I have had 12 horses (including the one I now have). Purchase prices for all of them combined were $7800, with the most expensive being a $3000 and the cheapest (7 of them, actually) being free.

Just for reference, sale prices for all of them totaled (excluding the mare I currently have) was $32450, which is still only an average purchase price of $2950 each, though the high sale price was 6k.

[MardiGrasTimeStable]

I believe it.
We’ve been breeding 2 - 3 every other year, had 2 born this year, have maybe 2 mares bred for next year (suspect that one slipped, other 2haven’t been confirmed yet). But there are a ton of backyard breeders breeding that unregistered mare to their “neighborhood stallion” every year - some get lucky with a nice enough foal, other are just on that “WTF were you thinking” scale.

And as for purchasing I’ve never paid more then $1500 for any horse - and most were in the 500 - 750 range (and a few given to us). And those were nice enough horses that we got for those prices - usually OTTBs. And we usually sell for under $2500 off the farm as well. We’d rather see them in new homes where they will be used then sitting on our feed bill doing nothing. And I have never been above free leasing a few out to the right situation to give them a job.

[blackstallion2]

not hard to believe at all when the market is flooded with free horses

[WB_Mom]

I believe that is spot on.
Taking into consideration the entire country and all disciplines, I’m sure it’s true.
Let’s face it folks, how many people have THAT much disposable income?

[JoZ]

I would also bet that 90% of the horses in the $3,000-$80,000 range* are between $3,000-$10,000.

I have never spent over $2,000 for a horse.

*Seriously, who comes up with a range of $3,000-80,000 even if it does make each range roughly 1/3 of the total? I’d love to see 3K-5K, 5K-10K, 10-25K, 25-100K, and 100K+.