Best Places to Shop for a Hunter on a Budget

[horseygurl182]

So I’m slowly ready to start looking for my next horse, but I have a small budget (think $30K or less) and of course, a laundry list of requirements

We’re based in NY (about 1.5 hours North of NYC), so fairly close to the Canadian border. While we’re not opposed to buying off of a video, we’d love even more to find somewhere that has a few horses in the wheel house I’m looking for so we can go try them.

I’ve been perusing the likes of BigEq.com, Epona Exchange, FB groups, etc, but it seems most sellers only have one, maybe two horses that fit what I’m looking for.

I would also welcome stories based on your experience buying a horse just off of videos and how that went for you!

I’m open to mares or geldings, prefer WBs, but open to bigger boned/fancy TBs or other similar breeds. Looking for that future A/O hunter prospect, but willing to take my time, which is why I’ll look at older 3 year olds (about to be 4) up to about 8 or 9 years. The older they are on my age range, the less green they can be. Height wise I really need something 16.1 and bigger bodied.

[GraceLikeRain]

How important is disposition? Aside from soundness, the inability to assess disposition is a big challenge with buying off a video. Several COTH members have done is successfully many times. The ones who do it consistently seem to have a strong working relationship with a specific breeder or trainer who understands what the buyer is looking for in a horse.

As a pretty chicken AA, disposition is a huge factor for me. If you tend to click well with most horses and can handle green/spooky/hot, I think your odds of being happy with buying sight unseen are much better than someone who likes a very specific feel or only clicks with certain horses.

[horseygurl182]

@GraceLikeRain

How important is disposition? Aside from soundness, the inability to assess disposition is a big challenge with buying off a video. Several COTH members have done is successfully many times. The ones who do it consistently seem to have a strong working relationship with a specific breeder or trainer who understands what the buyer is looking for in a horse.

As a pretty chicken AA, disposition is a huge factor for me. If you tend to click well with most horses and can handle green/spooky/hot, I think your odds of being happy with buying sight unseen are much better than someone who likes a very specific feel or only clicks with certain horses.

I’ve ridden and owned all types although my preference is one that takes you a bit (not a total kick ride). I do prefer the “puppy dog” type horse as I’ll just go to the barn some nights to groom and give them a cookie, which I know is near impossible to asses over video, even with some of those clever “getting to know me” ones that seller’s are doing now. Given my smaller budget and the fact that I live in an area where $30K doesn’t go very far, I’m willing to make some concessions.

[vxf111]

Overall I think Canada out West has the most uniformly low prices. Toronto area not bad though. Some parts of Florida (i.e. not the heart of Wellington and Ocala) are also lowish. Also more out of the way Southern states.

Atlanta area is crazy. Cali is expensive too. Mid-Atlantic is higher priced than I remember. New England too.

I ended up buying from Knoxville. I’ve never before had to even LOOK South of Charlottesville. Never! This this I went to Canada 2x and was all up and down the east coast before finding something.

[DarkBayUnicorn]

http://www.charlotfarm.com/
https://www.ashlandfarm.ca/

[horseygurl182]

@vxf111

Overall I think Canada out West has the most uniformly low prices. Toronto area not bad though. Some parts of Florida (i.e. not the heart of Wellington and Ocala) are also lowish. Also more out of the way Southern states.

Atlanta area is crazy. Cali is expensive too. Mid-Atlantic is higher priced than I remember. New England too.

I ended up buying from Knoxville. I’ve never before had to even LOOK South of Charlottesville. Never! This this I went to Canada 2x and was all up and down the east coast before finding something.

Yes, seeing VERY similar things to what you are describing - I remember when $30k was a reasonable budget - now I feel almost apologetic when I post an ISO ad or make an inquiry!

[TatteredDaydreamer]

@horseygurl182

Yes, seeing VERY similar things to what you are describing - I remember when $30k was a reasonable budget - now I feel almost apologetic when I post an ISO ad or make an inquiry!

I feel like having to state that shopping with a budget of 30k is a low budget these days is sad! Reading this makes me think I’ll not be ready to look for one of my own for a veryyyyyy long time, lol!

[dags]

$30k for a 3 year old is not chicken scratch and should get you a pretty solid horse. I would line up a list of breeders along a certain route, grab a riding buddy, take some vacation, and have a heck of a road trip. Midwest states are also good for that; have a seller with that horse in MN. I also have a seller with a jumper for that in KY, and pretty sure my NC breeder would have something too. Really, pleeenty of sellers of 3 year olds would be perfectly happy to see you walk up with $30k right before winter.

[horseygurl182]

@dags

$30k for a 3 year old is not chicken scratch and should get you a pretty solid horse. I would line up a list of breeders along a certain route, grab a riding buddy, take some vacation, and have a heck of a road trip. Midwest states are also good for that; have a seller with that horse in MN. I also have a seller with a jumper for that in KY, and pretty sure my NC breeder would have something too. Really, pleeenty of sellers of 3 year olds would be perfectly happy to see you walk up with $30k right before winter.

Yes, my only hope right now is that we’re approaching winter and the end of the show season, so might be able to squeeze a little more out of my budget then normal!

[222orchids]

Is David Hopper still in the sales business? In his day he always had a whole barn full of horses at lots of price points. He is close to you (Amenia) if still doing this.

[horseygurl182]

@222orchids

Is David Hopper still in the sales business? In his day he always had a whole barn full of horses at lots of price points. He is close to you (Armenia) if still doing this.

As far as I know he’s still in the business. I think one of his associates posted an inexpensive TB jumper on FB not too long ago.

[comingback]

I found one like that at a breeder in PA. Bought him as a 4 year old. I can’t tell you how great his mind is, and apparently his sire stamps all his offspring with that same great disposition.

http://flowerfarmhorses.com/

You may want to call some places in addition to looking at websites. My experience is that sites (even Facebook) are not always up to date, and they may have something they haven’t advertised yet.

[StormyDay]

You could import a pretty darn good horse with 30k, especially if you look at some of the ‘off’ countries. Just sayin.

[541hunter]

I went shopping in British Columbia with $20k a couple years ago and saw quite a few over the course of two weekends. One of my barnmates was also shopping with around your budget and we saw some very nice prospects for her. If you were willing to fly out for a long weekend you could see a ton in a very short period of time. The barns were all very close together and all the trainers seemed pretty willing to give recommendations for where else we should look. One of the weekends my trainer and I sat on 35 horses between the two of us! Ultimately I bought my horse from one of the sales barns we visited and I really feel like I got a steal of a deal on him.

[Cocorona]

Its possible to have a great experience sight unseen! I just imported a horse off of a FB video for an affordable price- (took her to her first show and was offered quite a bit over her total purchase/import on the spot- she’s mine though!:)) and to @StormyDay 's point she was from an ‘off’ country… which didn’t come without its own amount of hilarity and hiccups.

the biggest things for me were 1. I was not concerned with disposition and assumed I would get some sort of personality quirk/flaw and was prepared for that 2. had an independent and extensive PPE done prior to import.

Once nice thing was the seller consistently sent me videos of her working, they would state the date at the start of the video to time stamp it, as we went through the process so I got to see her under saddle not just in the selling video but multiple times over the process. If the seller is willing, a spur of the moment iPhone video can go a long way in seeing day in/day out disposition.

[TSWJB]

I bought my horse of a video from Germany. And I did not know the agent. He is the best horse I have ever sat on and there is no way I could have afforded him in the USA! He is an amazing horse and he is a 10 mover too! People call him a “freak of nature” he has the best of everything. Great jumper, fantastic mover, long strided, sound, fantastic brain, great work ethic! The thing is I had a lot of back and forth conversations with the agent and I had him make videos of what I wanted to see. I did vet him and had him reviewed by my American vet because sometimes the German vets say horse’s x-rays are good and the American vets say they see things on the x-rays. The reason I felt comfortable in purchasing him was because I looked at his bloodlines and I had a very good vetting. This horse is just like his Mom and dad. I think breeding while not fool proof, is a good indicator of the horse’s nature. If you are willing to take a chance and develop a rapport with the seller, I think buying off video is an excellent way to increase your chances of getting a fabulous horse.
And BTW this is the second time I have done this. The first horse was amazing as well. I did the same thing in purchasing. I developed a relationship with the breeder and we are still friends. The horse was absolutely amazing, but very sadly died of colic surgery a few months after I bought him. It was something that no one could have predicted and can happen to anyone even if you had the horse on trial.
If you want more details private message me. My agent was so honest that the wire transfer had not gone thru when the horse shipper came to pick my horse up. (it was not my fault) They were at the bank and the horse shipper was at the farm. In the end they put the horse on the trailer and the money was back in my account in the USA. As a matter of fact, they didn’t actually receive the money on the second wire transfer until after I had picked my beautiful horse up from quarantine.

[horseygurl182]

@StormyDay

You could import a pretty darn good horse with 30k, especially if you look at some of the ‘off’ countries. Just sayin.

Which would you consider to be the “off countries” LOL feel free to PM me

[Andrew]

David Hopper Amenia NY

[BAC]

I would recommend David Hopper as well. As a junior many of the people in our barn bought from him, all really nice horses at various price points, including some that went to the Medal and Maclay finals at MSG. Olympic bronze medalist Out and About came from David too. In those days if you were unhappy with your purchase David and Ira would take the horse back and let you exchange it for something else in the barn, not sure if David still does that.

[BITSA]

Canada, specifically Ontario. FB has some good Canadian H/J sales groups