Sounds to me like you’ve made up your mind and the expensive horse is what you want. No, there is no justification for it at a “local” level but if it’s what you want and what you can afford, go get it. You might want to rethink fox hunting though if you’re going to get an expensive dressage horse. Just something to consider. I have my filly insured (mortality and medical) for her appraised value and my insurance premiums are about $4,000 per year. If I was fox hunting her, they would be MUCH higher. The other option would be for me to under insure her (only insure her for 12-15k) and keep the premiums down around $2000-$3000 per year if I want to foxhunt BUT if something happened, I’d be back to square one with just enough seed money to start with a young horse again… I’d lose the money I’ve poured into training. That’s what I mean about decide what you want to do before you get the horse.
I plan on taking the OTTB out on a few hunts after the baby and before the season ends. Not all OTTBs are “nuts.” This guy is a VERY solid citizen and I think with a few months of training he will be husband and kid suitable. He’s also VERY pretty and well put together. That said, we’ve only got him insured for $5000 so the premiums are VERY manageable even with the “fox hunting” penalty.
I showed a young QH gelding who packed his beginner rider around like a saint but turned it on for 2nd level dressage. When he came together, you couldn’t tell he was a QH. His owner had the money to spend and had been riding for about 18 months. She wanted a “fancy” dressage horse but the WBs and the Iberian horses with upper level training that we looked at for her turned out to have too many “buttons” for her to inadvertently push. She paid $9,000 for him, which got her a VERY nice QH but would have only scratched the surface if she’d insisted upon having a brand on her horses butt…
