Amish Horses - Sale Prices

[Big_Tag]

@Liscar

Good luck to you. If you can appeal to his softer side, it might help. Of course, the Amish I know and deal with are not like those that some like to paint with a broad brush; they have a heart and they take very good care of their animals with proper feeding, vet care, retire when its time to their own pasture, etc. I’m surprised with her being donated to New Vocations, she ended up pulling a buggy.

Yeah I am sort of disappointed about it too, but the original adopter had her for the appropriate amount of time mandated by NV before she changed hands, and then she did so several times over the course of a few years. It’s really nothing NV did or could control. I agree that there are plenty of Amish with great horse care skills, and this man sounded as if they genuinely liked her. He said their plan was to keep her until she died.

I’ve seen the good and the bad and the in-between with Amish horse care. Another mare currently on my payroll who we bred and raised and thought she was still with her most recent registered owner surfaced at a slaughter lot, and thank goodness for freezebrands bc someone looked her up and contacted me (bc all of our are registered with an “in danger, please contact” clause on their registration, which is something the standardbred harness registration (USTA) has in place). She was most decidedly Amish-owned, and was in beautiful weight, with some sort of “corrective shoeing” in place, but she was not sound and clearly cast off, at about 18 years old or so. On the other hand, I’m currently supporting one (not one we bred or owned at any point, just one I felt sorry for) who was emaciated and with a possible broken jaw from them.

I think it’s a bit of a hard life regardless. That said, that’s not the reason specifically we want her back.

[WendellsGirl]

In my experience, many of the families have a soft spot for their buggy horses but at the same time they have no pension plan to support the old timers when they can’t do the longer trips anymore. Either feel him out for a sale price presently or make it clear that you are ready to buy the moment the mare isn’t holding steady anymore. It’s hard to guess what she might be worth, there 's so many variables, but I imagine he has a price in his head already. Best of luck. I made an offer on my favorite mare’s daughter who was just starting her buggy career and was I unsuccessful. She is still on the road as far as I know.

[BasqueMom]

My first horse came from Shipshewanna back in 1987, green, didn’t like men, feel in love and bought over trainer’s
objections and had him until he was 30 and ready to cross the bridge. Trainer was right–would have made a better second horse than first and I’d have a lot less owies now in my old age from falls. He was thought to be an Amish buggy horse who spooked at one too many stop signs. About four years after I got him, had the opportunity to have him harnessed and ground driven by the barn manager(had moved to CO by then) and he thought he had more time in harness than under saddle but didn’t know his commands. Probably were in dialect.

Now decades later, have learned to drive and my remaining horse is an elderly OTTB with a heart murmur. Am leasing
a Gypsy Vanner who is awesome but would like to have one of my own and perferably solid colors…more points for
presentative type classes. The combined driving is what I’m aiming for though.

[Dressagelvr]

I hope you get her back. The Amish are not known for their excellent horse care.

[appybeads]

As with the Amish, like people with cars. What they have may be worth more to them than the “kelly blue book” of cars. Can you go see the horse and have cash in hand. Maybe he’ll make a deal. I have heard from friends who have purchased horses from Ohio, IN and the like from the Amish have paid 2K-8K for a great carriage horse. Good luck and hope you can make a fair deal for all.

[quietann]

@MuddyHalter

I used to live on the border of Lancaster County, Pa, where there are lots of Amish people. I would frequently see one young man driving his flashy chestnut that looked like it may have been a Saddlebred: going down hills, the guy would have to stand up and hold that horse with everything he had. I was told that for the Amish teens, this is the equivalent of having a hot rod.

“A boy’s horse” in their world. Flashy, hot, and powerful.

BTW the Buckeye Morgan auction happened this past weekend and prices were up. Wall to wall Amish and ‘English’ spectators and bidders. Top horse may have gone for $77,000 IIRC.

[Big_Tag]

@appybeads

As with the Amish, like people with cars. What they have may be worth more to them than the “kelly blue book” of cars. Can you go see the horse and have cash in hand. Maybe he’ll make a deal. I have heard from friends who have purchased horses from Ohio, IN and the like from the Amish have paid 2K-8K for a great carriage horse. Good luck and hope you can make a fair deal for all.

Unfortunately, she’s nearly halfway across the country. I made a call to the man today. We’ll see if he gets back to me. Fingers crossed.

[jvanrens]

@Big_Tag

Unfortunately, she’s nearly halfway across the country. I made a call to the man today. We’ll see if he gets back to me. Fingers crossed.

Good luck! I’m getting one of our old racehorses back. SOSFS found him in a kill buyer’s barn. I’ve always loved this horse and can’t wait until he’s home. Slight strangles issue slowing down the process though. Guess my next riding horse is going to be a 17 hand pacer.

[cutter99]

@Big_Tag

Unfortunately, she’s nearly halfway across the country. I made a call to the man today. We’ll see if he gets back to me. Fingers crossed.

Don’t be surprised if he gets back to this evening. They usually only check their phones in the early morning and early evening, especially if they work away from home.

Just a word of caution- don’t be surprised if he tells you how much they love this horse in order to get the most money out of you as possible. I worked in the feed industry in Lancaster County, PA with the Amish community for many years. They are very shrewd business men, not beyond telling a lie to make an extra buck. Not all of them are like this, but they are out there. And taking advantage of an “English woman” is fine in their book!

[Wanderosa]

@Dressagelvr

I hope you get her back. The Amish are not known for their excellent horse care.

They could make the same assertion about English horse care - horses overfed and underworked to the point that it’s killing them.

Look. As many PP have noted, Amish are people, too, and run the same gamut of personalities and behaviors as we do. I’ve had extensive dealings with them bewteen driving horses and farming. Many are among the most genuine, lovely folks I’ve met. There’s a small minority I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw them. Some of the men that don’t have many dealings with the outside can be difficult to deal with as a woman because they’re unsure how to approach you. (Oddly enough, IME Amish men who have frequent outside contact tend to be better at taking women seriously than a lot of English men. I’ve never had an Amish guy attempt to mansplain anything to me. Even something they’re undisputedly the expert in, like fitting a collar.)

They have a different relationship with horses than we do. They need their horses to to survive. They don’t have the luxury of working to support their horse’s needs as we do. Many genuinely love horses and will do whatever needs done to keep the family horses healthy and working working. Their methods may be somewhat clunky and old school to us, though. They’re good trainers because, well, they spend most of their day around horses and are calm and non-reactive handlers.

On the flip side, we all have friends that are terrified of horses. Imagine being afraid of horses but still having your survival rely on getting them to successfully complete complex tasks. Pretty miserable existence, I bet. Doesn’t justify mistreatment of horses. But I can see how easily it could happen.

They will get a horse going. It’s pretty rare for them to declare a horse untrainable. I trust Amish trained driving horses. I know they had tremendous consistancy in their training (who else is able to spend 8+ hours a day with their horses?) and they will have been exposed to a ridiculous variety of stimuli. My Belgians were Amish broke. They were young and acted like nuts out of harness. In harness, you could’ve relied on them to ferry you backwards through the Apocalypse. If it’s a nice, sharp horse it will have a price tag reflecting the amount of work put into it. If you don’t need a horse young enough for heavy work, an older Amish horse is practically perfect as long as you can afford maintenance.

[tabula_rashah]

@Wanderosa

They have a different relationship with horses than we do. They need their horses to to survive. They don’t have the luxury of working to support their horse’s needs as we do. Many genuinely love horses and will do whatever needs done to keep the family horses healthy and working working. Their methods may be somewhat clunky and old school to us, though. They’re good trainers because, well, they spend most of their day around horses and are calm and non-reactive handlers.

They DO NOT need horses to survive. They CHOOSE to follow a ridiculous and hypocritical religious lifestyle that uses horses. Are there some that treat their horses well? Of course. Do I think the majority don’t- hell yes. Go ahead drive around Lancaster County PA and try and find more than a handful out there that aren’t pounding the pavement lame as can be. I have zero problems with working a horse hard, I have a whole lot a problems with using a horse hard and not caring for it.
I had a job for years where my boss was friends with many Amish- there were so many that owned cars who were registered in English names, etc. We had several fax lines in our office that belonged to Amish businesses because they weren’t supposed to have them. Or all of the families that had electric to their garages but not their houses so that it kept it “inconvenient”. Or when I worked for a local vet who had many Amish clients- trying to convince them to use vaccinations, get coggins tests, use antibiotics, etc was ridiculous. And I won’t even get started on the freaking puppy mills :mad::mad::mad:

[endlessclimb]

I live near Shipshewana myself, and have to say that I haven’t seen the world’s best horse care from the Amish in the area. Seeing Belgians in the auction, broke down, tired… it’s hard to see, honestly. Used up, broke down, garbage to them now.

And I will second the “be careful” notion. This guy sets off my spidey senses of someone who is feeding you a line to get more money…

[Big_Tag]

@endlessclimb

I live near Shipshewana myself, and have to say that I haven’t seen the world’s best horse care from the Amish in the area. Seeing Belgians in the auction, broke down, tired… it’s hard to see, honestly. Used up, broke down, garbage to them now.

And I will second the “be careful” notion. This guy sets off my spidey senses of someone who is feeding you a line to get more money…

Yeah I understand that. I also tend to be suspicious of “oh she’s our favorite.” I was able to determine he actually has multiple horses actively registered to him; not sure if that matters.
We do have a limited amount to spend on her (so it’s not like we are going to get swindled out of some exorbitant amount). I have yet to hear back; my hope is he will at least respond. He did reach out to me initially from my letter, so I’m hopeful I’ll hear something back.

[OneGrayPony]

It also depends on the sect. I was in an area that had mostly black and brown buggy Amish. The black buggy Amish were very good businessmen and generally speaking no, did not have lame horses pounding the ground. The brown buggy Amish were a bit poorer, and you were likely to see some poorer doing horses among them. I’m not sure what made the difference between the sects, but they were different. One valley over, there were yellow buggy Amish - and they seemed to be relatively wealthy as well (they also put their corn & hay up very differently than the Black/Brown buggy Amish). There were no puppy mills in my area.

My closest neighbors growing up were Amish. I put up canning with the kids, and helped to garden. They hayed our fields in exchange for leaving us enough for our animals. I believe they moved to Indiana after we moved away. Super nice people who cared for their animals well. They had draft mules instead of Belgians/Percherons. They were well fed, well kept, and huge.

Again - there are many different sects, with different approaches to life. I wouldn’t paint them all with one broad brush. And the attitude of getting more money out of non-farmers isn’t unique to the Amish either. A number of farming folks are tired of dealing with the holier-than-thou attitude of AR types, and will react accordingly. Honestly, I don’t blame them. I’ve seen ugly attacks coming from the “English” as we’re typically called. A little understanding goes a long way.

[bingbingbing]

Have you seen her in person? If not, I would go, bring what you are able to offer for her and your trailer. But see what condition she is in before making an offer.

[Big_Tag]

@bingbingbing

Have you seen her in person? If not, I would go, bring what you are able to offer for her and your trailer. But see what condition she is in before making an offer.

Again, she’s 850ish miles away. I don’t really care what condition she is in…we know what we can spend to get her back and if she needs care to get her back to comfortable, we will do that. We’d like to breed her - part of the impetus for wanting her back is, she is part of a bloodline we are interested in continuing. But…even if she can’t be bred, that’s fine. Her post-NV years prove that if she’s riding sound, she will be great to have around for that. In my quest to locate her whereabouts, I talked to 3 of her 5 owners after us (including current owner), and two were using her for riding. All accounts point to her being a good citizen for that, too.

I just hope to hear back from him.

[Kirikou]

OP, since she’s so far away, I wonder if you might reach out to someone local to the horse (like one of the vet clinics the Amish community may use in this area) to find out more about the mare and perhaps remind the current owner you’re interested?
They might be easier to contact than having to wait for this gentleman to check the neighbors’ phone or for you to have to write another letter.
(Members here might also be able to point out which vet clinics/businesses do the most business with Amish families in that area too if you wanted some recommendations - at least around here I would know which 2 specific vets to contact if I wanted to find out about Amish ponies and I suppose that might be the same in other areas).
Good luck in getting this mare back!

[2DogsFarm]

@Kirikou

They might be easier to contact than having to wait for this gentleman to check the neighbors’ phone

@Kirikou While I agree with the rest of your post, this is not totally correct.
Amish phone use is very much like the old Party Line system - one farm will have a Phone Shack that has incoming lines for everyone who uses it. Voicemail messages are retrieved whenever the owner chooses.
Also, cell phones are in use by some sects.

@Big_Tag If you can let COTHers know what Amish community you are working with there’s a good chance someone on this BB might be able to become a local contact for you.
If you are dealing with Amish in NW IN I may be able to help.

[HappyTalk]

@WendellsGirl

In my experience, many of the families have a soft spot for their buggy horses but at the same time they have no pension plan to support the old timers when they can’t do the longer trips anymore.

This is true. An acquaintance of mine fostered a retired Amish buggy horse and ended up adopting her. The Amish ex-owner did contact her to see how the horse was doing. So some do have sentimentality about their horses.

[Big_Tag]

@2DogsFarm

@Kirikou While I agree with the rest of your post, this is not totally correct.
Amish phone use is very much like the old Party Line system - one farm will have a Phone Shack that has incoming lines for everyone who uses it. Voicemail messages are retrieved whenever the owner chooses.
Also, cell phones are in use by some sects.

@Big_Tag If you can let COTHers know what Amish community you are working with there’s a good chance someone on this BB might be able to become a local contact for you.
If you are dealing with Amish in NW IN I may be able to help.

She is in Jamesport, Missouri. I haven’t heard back so I guess I have my answer