What is the current price range for a competitive child/adult jumper. Specifically if its max is 1.15.
My friend just got one this spring, from that experience I’d say high 5’s unless it’s small, doesn’t vet well, or is old. Low 6 and up for anything that wins at good shows.
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If you want a winner who can bail out the kid at 1.10 and 1.15, six figures. If you are ok with older/not perfect vet/maybe at top of scope at 1.15/not fast, you can get away with mid-high 5s. I have been in this part of the market for quite some time (without the “winner” budget” lol) and have had success finding very sweet safe packers for 1-1.10 for 25k a year lease (which I find to be a steal), but think the average solid 1.10 horse is in the high range (70k+).
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Agree with the above - high fives, low sixes, depending on if you need big or the winner. I haven’t shopped for one myself, but kids in the barn have.
I will say, shopping specifically for a TB can save you a ton for the same horse.
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Thank you for the great info. I’m a little surprised to learn that a horse that maxes out at 1.15 could still go for 75-125k. I tried to sell one a few years ago that would jump literally anything. Not necessarily the winner but a goat could ride it around 1.30 safely and I couldn’t get any one to even try him for 50k. The horse world is a funny place 
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yes the best way I found to sell a horse is to tell others it is not for sell, we have sold several that we were not thinking about moving on.
I am still wondering about a purchase at the 2023 Morgan Nationals where the winner of a division bought the reserve horse for $140,000. Horse was not for sell but the offer was evidently too good to refuse. check was handed over within minutes
Asked why they bought the second place horse, they said they like him better than theirs
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Having been in this part of the market for awhile, I think there is a huge range and it really depends on what you’re willing to ride/manage, trainer connections and where you look. I got an older, smaller one with a manageable quirk for 20K (purchase) and had success at WEF / indoors etc. On the flip side, I was also riding one that was “the winner” earlier this year and it was for sale in the lowish sixes. Also did a lower cost short term lease on a TB who wasn’t as careful but still jumped around at big venues with decent success. I also think it depends on whether it really maxes out at 1.10 with the occasional 1.15 single jump on classic day or whether it can truly get around 1.15 technical tracks at bigger shows. Creative places to look: eventing world, TBs, a lucky in-barn situation where owner cares more about good home, older with maintenance. If you are just looking in all the typical places for something with a record, agree with high fives / low six.
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If you’re OK with one that is green but with way, way more scope than that, I know of one available in the mid-Atlantic for a fire sale type price. Big young horse that has gone to some local shows.
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I could buy a going TB showing at the 1.1m and doing well for less than $20k tomorrow. I know of three for sale right now One could easily be a 1.3m horse with the right rider.
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I think TBs remain vastly overlooked as viable options for this height range, maybe less so than hunters but still pervasive in jumpers. They are always significantly cheaper than a Warmblood, but I think there continues to be major bias against them, even in jumpers. Most people don’t want a thoroughbred for whatever reason and you can typically find one doing the 1.10 job with a smile on its face for far cheaper than an import. I find it’s one of those “caveats” - if you’re willing to look at a TB, you can get it done for far less than high 5s, just like if you give on age or size or soundness. Not saying it’s fair - but the breed bias bleeds into the jumpers too, sadly. (My best hunter as a kid was a TB - love the breed!)
Today’s jumper courses are just not really designed to allow a TB to excel, even at the 1.15 height. Many upper level riders have said this often about the tops of the sport and the window may be a bit wider for a 1.10-1.15 horse, but still there. I find it fascinating to hear about why upper level jumper riders don’t prefer a Thoroughbred anymore and have to think that contributes to the distaste even in the lower ranks.
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Can you expand more on this? I get judge preferences evolving in hunters but how could a speed and accuracy based division be designed for a specific breed not to do well?
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I helped facilitate a sale like this last year. 150k, did not include commissions. Horse really grabs a piece of the pie in almost every class entered. Child was 15, horse is a little smaller, not a ride for a big person… With a 3k PPE, horse passed with flying colors.
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Courses are smaller and more technical, so raw power and speed are not rewarded as much as adjustability. TBs can jump just as big and are fast but are not necessarily as good at compressing the stride or jumping the less-forward-riding combinations. They are not being bred to be as fanatically careful as a lot of WBs are. A lot of this is individual to the horse though, there are absolutely TBs who can do it and some of the bias is due to commissions for sure.
From the amateur side: riders are a lot bigger (taller and heavier) than they were 25+ years ago and overall people showing in the amateur classes are older and less fit and less skilled than in the 60s-90s which I think leads to people wanting a bigger, less sensitive horse that doesn’t get as fit and is therefore easier to manage.
One huge benefit to TBs is that in my opinion if they are sound at 10 they will very likely be just as sound at 21. WBs not so much.
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This is also a category where there are some deals to be had in Europe. Not a lot of scope or talent, might not be careful enough to be the winner, or maybe not fast enough for the big classes. And if not hunter pretty, there are some more budget friendly options. Making sure it’s ready for an amateur may be the biggest question mark versus a 6 year old only ridden by a professional, strong man its whole life (though they do exist also if you are a good judge of character).
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See Amberlys’ excellent description above. Courses of 20-30 years ago really awarded speed and scope, but todays tracks are designed to be much more technical to require a quick balance, a VERY fast stride adjustment, and adjustability and rideability to make every part of the course work. Todays TBs are to many sport horse trainers not the right horse for that track work - a long flat gallop that would win in yesteryear may not have the adjustability and cattiness that todays purpose bred WBs do. Now, your average 1.10-1.15 course isn’t the GP or FEI level, but that perspective trickles down - thus continuing the bias. I also agree that the “dullness” and rideability of a big warmblood may be the going preference for an amateur or kids horse, as opposed to a typically more bloody, sensitive TB. (Not all TBs are like this, just like some WBs are firecrackers but - regardless - the breed opinions typically prevail).
I would still say on average, on the East Coast across the generally quite competitive circuits I frequent, even a good natured competitive TB 1.10 horse for a child or adult won’t be $20k. It might be 50, not 90, but it’s definitely not cheap!
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Super interesting and I can understand those differences. Not being a jumper I hadn’t thought about how some of those purpose bred traits might play out in the jumper ring. Thanks for explaining and of course it makes sense there are tons of exceptions but that more broadly the different types of courses are playing to different general strengths and breeding goal.
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Arguably it’s more that the competition standard is being changed to help a few big breeders sell more horses but that’s another thread.
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Wouldn’t it be more that we are running big classes in smaller and smaller arenas? Gone are the days of galloping around grass derby fields, at least for most venues. If you’re going to run the World Cup in a basketball arena, you need a horse that can jump big fences three strides out of the turn, over and over and over again.
That type of horse looks very different from the average TB, and people jumping 1.10 can get sucked into wanting a horse that “looks” like a GP horse. And they’ll pay more for it. When trainers make a ton of money off commissions, there you go.
I think that’s a far more believable situation than a whole industry making venues and courses and such just to cater to a few breeding moguls. There are far more realistic places for corruption.
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So to answer the original question, I sold one last year that wasn’t the winner (he could be careless and punch a rail) but was safe as the day was long, had scope and step to spare, and took a joke like no one’s business. He went for highest of five figures, and I could have sold for more but I knew and liked the kid.
To get into the “why not a TB,” there are multiple reasons. First, as some have said, the courses and jumps have changed. You have very shallow cups and lighter rails that require you to approach with some impulsion, not a flatter canter. There are TBs that can absolutely do it, but not all of them.
Second, at the 1.10m height, you are more likely to be in the same ring as the 1.20m - 1.30m (and sometimes even the 1.40m) than you are the 1.0m, .90m, or .80m. Why is that important? Because the courses tend to be stridier, scopier, and ask for a lot more adjustability. I’ve been in venues where they don’t move the oxers in from the 1.30m to the 1.10m even after trainers and riders complained. Those courses got sketchy even for purpose bred sport horses. I’ve also been in rings that run the Take 2 classes with the 1.0m jumpers. Many of the TBs I’ve seen have struggled. I’ve watched more than a few put two in a one stride because of how those combinations are set. Again, not every TB, and the ones that can play in these classes are terrific.
My junior jumper was a TB because I couldn’t afford a warmblood as a teenage, and he bombed around the 1.20m. But the courses have gotten more delicate and technical and scopier since then. I don’t think he could handle today’s tracks, and I’m only in my 30s. This wasn’t a million years ago that I had him, but there’s been a real strong shift in the tracks.
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This argument makes no sense as big wide fences are where TBs excel. National Hunt fences range from 1.3m to 1.55m. With ditches. A 1.1m oxer being a foot or two wider than average is absolutely un-noticeable to a nice jumping TB. A cob or a pony might notice, or a more up and down moving WB.
Back in the 90s we all showed in the 1.4m junior jumpers on Tbs with absolutely no problems with the height or width. It was not uncommon to go to a B show, have 30 in your class and have 14 jump off, all at absolutely max height. On scrubby footing and in tiny arenas. If anything the striding has gotten shorter than it was back in the day, which is a problem for very scopey but flatter jumpers. Jumping into a modern triple is often an exercise in how fast you can hit the brakes before the second fence which is inevitably a vertical barely balanced on flat cups. Watch enough rounds and that’s where the differences in placing typically happen. Exact same in eventing showjump phase.
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