Not everyone has showing, or moving up at shows, as a goal.
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I have to agree with this. I equate it to dressage. You school level two at home, and you show first level – or training. 
For jumping, I always jumped higher at home than at shows. I didn’t show often, and didn’t feel as comfortable showing bigger at those shows – but it doesn’t mean I didn’t want to do it at all.
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You might want to reach out to somebody who has experience with one right off the plane. Most are not what you think…and lord help you if you have even a cross rail in your ring with a flower box in front of it. Even if you are just flatting, flower boxes are known to attack without warning and seldom seen over there.
There can also be riding style differences that can be surprising and frustrating, have some help lined up.
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Right, but more often than not, there is a lot of difference in price and temperament between a 1.15 good boy amateur horse and a game 1.40 horse who might not be so patient with mistakes or happy to lesson and practice at home. I know these days many want over-qualified, but its not always a bag o 'roses. I’ve been there.
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But OP doesn’t want a 1.15 horse, so I’m not sure why the price of one is relevant?
IMO, its a lot easier to find a horse who is better at home than at shows (maybe it doesn’t like the open water, maybe it isn’t the best traveler, doesn’t like the schooling ring or ingate, etc.) than one who doesn’t want to lesson/practice at home and only wants to show.
I’m really surprised by some of the responses on here. OP doesn’t need the winner. Doesn’t want something super fast or super careful. Doesn’t want something with a ton of show miles. Doesn’t want to show outside of the local circuit. Is fine with young and green. Wants to find something that has scope to eventually, hopefully, school some bigger tracks at home. Isn’t in a rush, and doesn’t need to be schooling the height tomorrow. For a budget of up to $100k, this sounds incredibly reasonable to me.
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I bought this horse at the height of Covid (when prices were most inflated) from a contact in the Netherlands. Even then, he was mid-fives landed.
The horse in question was coming 5, with his breeder still, having done the young horse classes. I had the upside of having some good contacts over there, and spelled out to them that I wanted something super brave (my previous import had a dirty stop, no medical reason we could find for it, and killed my confidence). I needed something that would jump through fire, and I got that. The horse was big (too big, he ended up 18.1 lol) and I never felt safer.
Unfortunately, brave and a good doobie don’t always make for a super competitive horse. He had oodles of scope but not much carefulness. We were constant four faulters. But if you don’t care about showing, it’s certainly possible to find this sort of horse overseas.
Now the downside—my husband and I import a LOT of horses. Together we’ve probably had over thirty in the last few years. We have good contacts who know what we want, so we don’t always go over there to try them. Most of the time, it works out. We know what to expect when they get here, and we purposefully shop for horses I find to be easier to Americanize (like ones with junior/children’s miles, not just a record with a pro). We have subscriptions to clip my horse and rimondo, and look up every available video, not just what the seller sends. Even still, we’ve ended up with a couple that were not what we thought (like my aforementioned dirty stopper).
So while you CAN find this horse overseas, it may not always be the first horse you find and import. Do you have connections that can help you sell (hopefully at a profit) if it’s not a match? Are you willing to put time into Americanizing something that’s not your ride? Or invest in show miles to get it sold so you can move on to something else? If so, it could be worth the gamble.
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This is such a great point and I think it’s why posters on here are trying to caution OP. From their post, they’re looking for a long-term horse. I’m not hearing a lot of language that is thinking about the what if’s it’s not a good match.
That their trainer is more focused on local horses gives me pause they’re not as comfortable with Americanizing horses. From the sound of it, a lot of us have bought things that were quite different than they seemed on a buying trip. For some owners, that’s ok. They recognize that’s why the horses are cheaper right. For others, that’s a really poor result bc of the stress, disappointment and lost money.
It absolutely IS possible. OP has a reasonable budget and a reasonable wish list. It’s just not as RELIABLE a way to get the desired outcome and folks are trying to set reasonable expectations. And that in general, if you only have one horse, you probably want to roll the dice a little less?
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This is not a thing. Horses don’t want to horse show. They may enjoy it when they are there, but no horse is standing around in their stall/field going “wow I really wish I was cooped up in a box away from home and my friends.” 
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That is literally the point I was making.
“ IMO, its a lot easier to find a horse who is better at home than at shows (maybe it doesn’t like the open water, maybe it isn’t the best traveler, doesn’t like the schooling ring or ingate, etc.) than one who doesn’t want to lesson/practice at home and only wants to show.”
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If you’ve developed a good relationship with someone, you might be nervous sending a completely random stranger who might be a weirdo/tirekicker/pain in the ass to a good contact who normally doesn’t deal with sales to the USA other than to a select group of people with whom there’s an existing relationship. I can see where people are coming from there.
I bought my horse from France, from his breeder. They are lovely people but don’t usually deal with the US. I am not hiding their identity or anything but I am not going to send every Tom, Dick, and Harry that way because they don’t need the hassle.
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Thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful - I will discuss these possibilities with my trainer, and how we might proceed with a dud. I have basically no overseas contacts. Would love to at least find a reliable agent but it seems like there’s always at least a few people with negative feedback for any name I find!
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With your budget I’m finding it hard to believe you can’t find something stateside. Seems like the safer more logical option seeing as you have no real showing aspirations. Or do you have your heart set on owning an “imported” horse?
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Agree. Does OP want an “import” for clout, or do they want a packer to ride at home and maybe do some occasional shows for fun, or do they want a young GP prospect with 1.60 potential? That’s at least 2 different horses, both of which can be gotten stateside which lowers the risk.
With OP wanting a sparkling clean vetting and an “easy” ride, this is not something to try to DIY unless you’re already importing a ton and have the connections. You need an established contact and a trainer at home that can Americanize the horse (or is very good at coaching owners through the process successfully).
Can it be done? Yes. But I fail to see why upper fives-low sixes can’t get a scopey youngster or ~10yo good egg that has tapped out at 1.30 or whatever, without the importation risks.
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This is 100% my point. Find something delightful that you can try a few times and you can vet the seller/trainer representing the horse as much as you vet the horse itself.
OP has your trainer shown above 1.3m, trained clients above 1.3m or developed young horses to this level? If not, it would be wise to start thinking about your next trainer as well as your next horse.
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100% you can find this in North America for your budget. Sounds like your trainer isn’t very well connected or trying to take you for a ride.
Lots of horse stepping down in the high fives/low sixes and lots of 5–7-year-olds in the same range.
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I realize this is a tangent, but several posters have talked about “Americanizing” a European import. Can someone provide some clarity on what this involves? I have a fair amount of experience riding recently imported horses, and I don’t remember them having significantly different buttons than horses that have been stateside for a while, so I feel like I’m missing something.
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This is a generalization OF COURSE but in certain parts of Europe, the riding is pretty different. Young horses are largely ridden by big, strong men who ride ATHLETICALLY. They go on and GO and the horses are expected to go FORWARD at all times in a way that we don’t really do here.
There isn’t the “starting slow with flatwork and building up” approach we use for hunters. We sort of take baby steps towards a goal. In a lot of places they have herds of horses and have to decide relatively quickly which ones are going to hack it and which ones won’t. So there’s very little slow and steady. It’s get on and go and decide quickly if this horse has the stuff or not.
In some places you have horses that lived out in a herd until they were 3, 4, 5 and then someone just gets on them and starts riding them and that’s being broke and on they go to doing a job. None of this “lightly backing at 2” and lots of handling as a young horse, exposing to show, showing as a baby green, etc. They go from basically feral to being ridden strongly to medium sized jumps and being ready to go to shows. I’ve seen lovely horses imported that were being ridden over big tracks and didn’t have training level dressage skills.
Also there are small things. Some horses come having never really seen a mounting block or encountering fly spray, etc. Some of the most random “horse experiences” that seem every day to us may be completely foreign to an imported horse.
Again, this is a generalization. Every place is different. But I can tell you that there are a lot of places where they start horses and work horses pretty differently than we do here.
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I would say (generalizing) horses are ridden more actively with more contact than American hunter seat. Don’t forget, in Germany at least, dressage (with a big D) is the basis of riding. If you are at a German jumper barn and people are flatting, it is really dressage. I guess this is the same in Holland or Belgium.
American style (generalizing) is lighter, letting the horse find the contact, horse is not immediately ridden in a frame but worked into it, riders tend to not sit so deep in the saddle and give the horse more space.
Some horses seem to adjust easily to the difference, others not so.
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I guess for me it’s not about “clout” but about value. I have a European husband (non-horsey) but when I travel to Europe with him I visit barns and see what’s available over there. I know enough about horses to see that the 5 y-o EE import warmblood that my friend paid 75k for stateside wouldn’t go for a cent over 15k in continental Europe. For me it’s about not squandering my budget on inflated US prices when I have no interest in the hunters anyway… I feel like just because I might have the budget to pick up a horse that might just have the ability to do what I want over the fences here, I could spend the same amount, maybe less, and get something that can jump the moon from Europe. And while there are real risks to an import, there are also plenty of shady horse deals that happen stateside as well in terms of lameness, behavioral issues, drugging, etc. I don’t feel like staying local would necessarily be guaranteeing me a perfect lesser quality horse. If something amazing came along stateside, I’d absolutely take it, but I’m pretty sure all those horses get scooped up for way more than my budget allows anyway. Anyway, this is my very long-winded way of saying I’d like to do my homework now and find some reliable European sellers. I know I have a long road, but this thread has already been so helpful in guiding me already 
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I imported a horse who loves American riding and is a very nice “ladies horse” type plus a bit of a push ride. I imported him as a late 7yo. He still took quite a bit of “Americanizing” despite being a natural for our style of riding.
He has a naturally super light mouth and is sensitive without being too quirky or too careful. Never bats an eyelash at the jumps. Can get distracted by stuff outside the ring like a lot of WBs.
He was ridden by a tall man exclusively until my friend snatched him up as a sales horse when the breeder needed to downsize. He was used to a LOT of leg, seat, and hand. Half of the gas pedal was in his mouth. Like if you told him to go and didn’t have a strong contact, he was just confused. Didn’t keep the strong contact and the driving aids? He’d break gait. Not that he was strong in the mouth at all. He was also used to waiting for the rider to tell him the distance over fences. While he’s pretty “Americanized” now, he still might listen to rider instructions to a fault (like you make a really dumb decision and he just goes, well ok!). I could tell he’d also been really driven the last few strides before the jump because he didn’t rush but it was easy to move up too much if you saw a little forward distance. He had a lot of correct flatwork “buttons” but he just expected much stronger aids.
He’s a very good boy personality, and the first time I just wanted to get in my 2 point and go for a little gallop, he literally cocked his head and rolled an eyeball back at me, lifted his neck, and started to slow down, like, hey lady? You ok up there? You about to fall off? Why don’t you sit down? Should I stop?
First time I did that 2 point canter (after teaching him it’s a thing lol) and I went to give him a little pat on the neck, he spooked.
He’d also been poled I think at some point (so schooling areas at shows went quite differently than I expected!) and needed to be desensitized a bit to the whip. He did not understand this whole back to back rounds thing we do in the hunter ring. So we tended to win the first class and then second class, after jumping the first jumps going away from the gate, some squealing and porpoising might happen 
. At least because he was a little older than most in my budget, he did have a better understanding of going forward and back and general steering and bending. A lot of the 4-5 year olds might jump a big fence (compared to what most would do here) but the steering can get questionable!
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