Budget Horse Shopping Woes -- Young? Older? Issues?

Weird because I thought you were in the Southeast and I saw someone on one of the Aiken FB pages posting an ISO ad for just about the spittin’ image of what you were looking for.

That said, I thought we had spoken with our real names via PM a long time ago and your first name, as I remember it, didn’t match the FB poster.

In any case, if you (or any of y’all) find a good-jumping** Arabian/WB would you please send it my way? I have been (casually) looking for a long time.

** By “good jumping” I don’t mean it has to jump huge. If it topped out at 3’ that would be fine. But it has to get down the lines at a modest A show in Aiken. And it needs to not jump out over low, uneven knees and not just spring off the ground with no bascule to speak of.

Other specs: it can be a mare or gelding be as green as 30 days under saddle, as small as 16 hands, assuming it has the stride to do my job. I don’t care what the cross is, so long as it is a huntery-moving beast. I can ride/improve everything else about it. I would consider the unstarted horse, but I’d have to see all three gaits and enough jumping in a chute or whatever to get a sense of that.

I have my own farm, have bred and raised them before, treat them like expensive horses even if they were cheap, and I get along with any horse that has a work ethic. A sensitive mare is my sister animal, LOL.

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I’m just outside of Nashville. :slight_smile: Unless someone posted for me, it wasn’t me.

Chiming in as someone who just went through this.
I have WBs (h/j and fieldhunters) and DH’s draft mare is ready to be retired. DH is an experienced horseperson, but not a strong rider. Our budget was even smaller than yours, and we’ve been casually looking for several months now. He just wasn’t able to find anything that met the criteria (size–DH is big, pretty, sporty, good brain, potential for producing WB foals in a few years). We found a very cute, green, OTTB mare locally. While she’s not broke enough for him to ride her right now, let alone hilltop, I can put those miles on her. DH will hilltop one of my horses this season, and I’ll develop his new horse so she’s safe and fun for him to trail ride and hopefully hilltop next season.
So I sympathize about not having the budget for the horse you need ‘right now’. Would your DH be willing to step back and let you, or your trainer, take the lead on bringing along a green/young horse for a while? If you don’t have the resources to buy the fancy going horse now, buying a prospect and investing in its training over time can be like buying a nice horse on layaway…

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@ParadoxFarm, have you been in touch with Lauren Romanelli (@eponacowgirl)? She’s an eventer based just outside of Nashville who does a lot of project/resale horses that tend to fit the type and price range you’ve laid out.

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I will definitely see what she has available if the horse we are going to look at does not work out. Doesn’t she head to FL for winter, though?

Thanks.

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She does go to Ocala in the winter. There is now a trainer who stays home and does winter lessons, but I don’t know which horses travel and which ones stay up here.

Good luck with the hose you are going to try!

Thanks. :blush: