Fair enough. Assuming I had the connections to sell the horse myself (which in my price range, I do), I’d be pretty miffed at someone putting their hand in my cookie jar.
I also don’t need training rides, etc. So I’m just not a “fit” for that lifestyle. You’re right.
I won’t harp on this after this following comment. That is because YOU think $60k is a lot of money.
To someone who indeed does have the ability to purchase a “sport pet” for their teenager at $200k, $60k SHOULD be rather negligible.
Speaking from experience (I work in very high income fields, I have had coworkers with annual cash compensation of $750k+/year), these types of folks really don’t think twice about $60k. And they SHOULDN’T if they’re buying sport pets for $200k for a kid that could wake up tomorrow and say: “I wanna follow X significant other to Bali instead of riding anymore, Mom.”
I don’t make $750k a year, but I do “okay” and I dropped mid to high 5 figures (more than $60k cash, it was imported, had to take full title, could not finance it) on a car in the middle of the pandemic and never thought about it twice because it isn’t that significant compared to my overall income / wealth and to ME and MY BUDGET a $60k+ imported eco-friendly car is like a normal expense that doesn’t phase me…
Folks who can safely spend $200k on a “sport pet” generally play in arenas where a mid 5 figure expense is “mehh annoying, but is totally just me not going to Copenhagen house for 6 months with the live-in nanny and short term renting it to luxury vacationers for a few weeks”.
Note I said safely spend. Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
If you are dealing with under 10k horses, do you know who and how to market 200k horses? That’s a little different market. Do you know who you can and can’t trust? Can you present the horse to a buyer as well as a high end pro rider? Do you have the facility to market a horse like that? It’s not the same.
I’m not talking about me personally. It was all a hypothetical “if an owner were well connected” right from the start.
Yeah, I laughed when the OP said they weren’t wealthy. If a person who can buy a $200k horse plus campaign it in the Big EQ universe isn’t wealthy, then I don’t know who would be! 
People can afford what they can afford. It could be that the horse (and horsey lifestyle) are a huge financial stretch for the OP, who is trying to make their kid’s dreams a reality by economizing in other portions of their life. Yes, of course, anyone with a $200,000 asset has wealth! But the fact that they have a $200,000 asset does not necessarily mean they have an extra $60,000 in liquidity.
I didn’t say that—just that I find it funny that they claim not to be wealthy.
Fair!
I tried this when I was young and naive. Spent 6 months trying to sell a really nice jumper, nothing. Sent it to the trainer and it was sold in 10 days for 3 times what I was asking. I made MORE money sending it to a pro.
Many pros won’t buy from an amateur, they want to buy from other pros, who then will buy their clients horses from each other, etc.
I know a few amateurs who have tried to get into the buying/selling market with little success. It’s difficult.
Not to be rude but I feel like horse isn’t worth $200k (note wording said “worth” – meaning they likely didn’t buy it at that purchase price or anywhere NEAR it) and kid isn’t doing the Big Eq that we thinking of …
SO expensive to campaign at that level. My friend (lol I’ve known her since she was a grade school kid, she’s now 18) her parents were WEALTHY think several $5m+ homes - strings of $200k+ horses for Eq and Hunters across 2 KIDS (younger sister doesn’t ride much anymore).
Her dad works in a tangential field to mine and I used to chat with him about how the “purchase price of the horses were the LEAST of his concerns” and that “campaigning for Big Eq to Maclay (she never made it fully there) was expensive and exhausting”
If this is the case where they don’t have a “measly” $60k liquid, they shouldn’t be buying a $200k sport pet. It takes me 24 hours to get $60k liquid and I am not buying a $200k animal ever.
That is the point we are all trying to get across. They are overbuying for their budget.
Also I have a CPA license (from my former life before Tech), horses are not assets unless you’re trying to screw over the horsey individual in divorce court. Horses (in practice) are liabilities and should never be considered an asset. Any money that goes into horses unless you’re a horse professional should be thought of as put into a paper bag and burned for pleasure. Horses for us normies (ammys, juniors, and not income deriving professionals) are sport pets that are luxury expenses.
You guess wrong, but I am not going into details.
Not having to deal with buyers and trials is 100% worth paying a trainer for!
I have a friend who’s kid has some talent. They have literally packed up everything and moved to Welly to chase the Olympic dream. But, as another friend who is in that 1% put it " good luck. to get to that level, it doesn’t take millions, or 10s of millions. It takes hundreds of millions!"
I have two in my backyard 
we haul-in for lessons and do our own thing at the shows. Both horses have stellar show records on the A circuit.
I also have friends with FEI horses at their house and show from FL to Spruce. While not the most common, it’s not unthinkable.
a $200k horse is not an asset! A horse in general, is not an asset, unless that is your business.A horse is a financial liability
When co-workers ask about buying a horse, I always ask if they would be comfortable standing in a field, shooing away flies, and tearing up $100 bills.
Now that I can understand!
but that’s in your backyard, not you boarded at a training facility with a trainer. Different situation.
This. I could sell and market my horses myself easily, but I would instead have a friend who did sales list then and market for me, and cut her commission. Helps her out and helped me out!
This year I sold one myself and it was through word of mouth and reputation only.
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