Commissions largely are a matter of contract. If you don’t want to pay the commission your trainer charges you can go do business with someone else. If you’re happy with the program and they’re providing a service that benefits you (i.e. you couldn’t buy/sell six figure horses for yourself) then put some real thought into whether you’d be better served elsewhere. But at the end of the day, if you don’t like the prices you can always change to a different program. It’s your call.
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I’m assuming that OP’s trainer may have developed the big eq horse into a $200k horse, so perhaps the commission on, say, that horse’s $50k purchase price was more palatable to them… In which case, even more reason for trainer to get their nice commission check, given they created ROI for OP.
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Buyer usually pays their trainer on top of the purchase price. Seller pays their trainer out of the purchase price. So, Buyer would spend $110k in total, and seller would net $90k.
I am also a little perplexed about how you get to the buying $200k horses phase of this sport without having encountered industry-standard commission practices?
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ok that would make more sense haha
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Real estate commissions are not really comparable and don’t include sellers costs to repair, spruce up and stage the property plus there’s no convenient MLS to index and filter available prospects with contact info for sellers agent.
Even in our digital age, most of that is in trainers head or private files and in their personal network of trusted contacts. That’s what you are paying for.
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If only people would be as eager to defend the salaries of teachers, many of whom make less in a year than the 30k + 30k commission to switch from the Big eq horse to the jumper! Just injecting a little larger world in here, for variety’s sake.
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Talk about first world whining problems…
The horse industry could disappear tomorrow and the only people who would notice are those who rely on it. This is a luxury sport geared to the wealthy such as the OP (and the OP can not claim otherwise given just the commissions discussed is more than the median salary in the US). The OP, by stating prices and making sure the commission prices were highlighted, basically is making sure they are bragging about how wealthy they are and honestly are not that interested in an actual understanding or resolution. The topic can be discussed quite simply and openly with no actual numbers other than percentages presented.
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Then don’t use your trainer when selling or buying? I am assuming it is optional ? If not , that is unfortunate but from others answers you may have no choice.
This is an important point for buyers to remember. If your budget is a MAX of $100k, you and your trainer need to be on the same page that the number includes commissions and vetting. It’s a bad surprise if you think you are spending $100k total and then the other bills/commissions take you up to $115k and you aren’t prepared. Communicate!
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Oh, stop, the whattabout-ism isn’t really relevant here.
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Yeah yeah, fair point. Couldn’t help it.
in a dangerous job, I might add!
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When you buy and sell expensive horses, you pay expensive commissions. It’s the cost of playing the game at that level.
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Negotiate…
Commission amounts are open for discussion - no difference than the price of the horse is up for negotiation.
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I don’t see why on a $200k horse that fees of transaction of $60k would be like an issue or shocking?
As your son is a Big Eq rider, these amounts are common knowledge in high competitive circles.
That’s like me complaining about paying taxes and import fees on a foreign made luxury SUV that I paid for in cash. Those numbers are known to me & I am choosing to do the transaction regardless.
OP are you not particularly horsey / involved besides the financial aspect? Or did you / your son “make” the Big Eq horse from say a $70k purchase price two years ago (I can understand the annoyance here bc off your efforts the horse now fetches the higher price and therefore higher commission to selling trainer)?
Maybe sell your $200k horse at $230k and reduce your overall cost?
I would think that with this much disposable income, you should be more than willing and capable to play the financial, strategic, contractual game to get what you want financially, strategically, and contractually out of this situation…
^ assuming you had to use those skills to make the money that funds your purchasing habits in the first place.
Also $200k Big Eq horse =! $200k jumpers. Jumpers on average are cheaper - very many high quality, ultra-competitive 1.50m+ animals not at $200k.
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That’s a weird flex. I didn’t see any “bragging” in the OPs post.
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This is where paying attention to words and how a case is presented comes into play. I’m sure you familiar with the term, humble bragging.
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@RAyers, I disagree The $ are important. It’s a lot of money. That implies a lot of effort and or some connections that have value. Those are different for high $ horses than for lower level local horses (I don’t have to explain this to you - I know). I think the $ and % are important to the discussion. Like some posters said, % commissions can vary as sales prices increase, in a lot of industries. I usually agree with everything you add to the discussion, but not this time - unusual!
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Ehhh I kinda agree with @RAyers - poster joined yesterday and asked this question within 24 hours.
Feels weird - why wouldn’t they ask other Big Eq riders that their son competes with regularly. The folks I know in Big Eq, WEF/Thermal Hunters, and FEI Jumpers/ Dressage all talk very, very plainly about money and commissions and going rates of things.
Could be that OP is just the non-horsey parent with cash and is bugging out. This feels like the most probable scenario. I know a lot of parents (fathers mostly) who blindly write checks until a scenario like this crops up and they’re like WTF this isn’t industry standard in real-estate, private equity, investment banking etc.
But like… as @dags & @mrs_beasley said… they have a Big Eq horse going already – so they would already know the commission rates because assumedly they’ve already bought and sold several high quality animals before Big Eq horse was theirs over the last idk 10 years the kid was riding to get to this level… commissions haven’t changed dramatically for show horses in the last decade… not on the coasts thats for sure.
It is also easy to just say 15% commission without disclosing the purchase prices or simply saying 15% of a 6 figure animal - just sayin’.
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Meh - what’s the point of “bragging” to a bunch of strangers on a forum you just joined a couple of days ago? It’s not like anybody here knows or cares who they are IRL or how much money they have. And most of us in the horse world aren’t impressed by wealth anyway, because it’s all around us.
I don’t see it as a “humble brag” but I also don’t resent people who have more money than I do. Even if I had 200k to spend on a horse, $50k would be a dream horse for me and I’d do many things with the other $150k. But I don’t compete and don’t ride in the kind of league where a $200k horse is necessary. At a certain level of the sport a $200k horse is ordinary and “low end” compared to what some spend. It’s all relative.
I used to work for a billionaire and at first I found it shocking and disturbing to see the sums spent on his yacht, cars, travel, etc. (he also donated tens of millions to charity each year through his foundation, which is where I worked.) But once I started looking at his expenses as a percentage of his income, and comparing my expenses as a percentage of my income, his didn’t seem outrageous anymore.
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