In quarantine recently I’ve spent a lot of time watching Grand Prix classes and listening to the commentators and it appears most of the riders don’t own their horses? I’m sort of confused about that because it doesn’t sound like its necessarily a lease. Are there people buying these riders their horses? If so what are said people (the owners I suppose) getting in return? A cut? Is that cut anything near a profit as to what they paid for for the horse? Thank you!
Yes, the owner buys the horse for the rider to compete. In return the owner pays the horse’s bills, the show fees, and pays the rider to show the horse. Rarely is there financial profit involved. The owner gets the prize money and usually the rider gets a cut.
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And then you have people like Jos Lansing, Jan Tops, and many others at various levels who make a lot of money selling horses that their hired riders are riding and showing, from national shows to the Olympics. I cannot remember which one of Tops riders went to the Olympics a couple cycles ago and was making like 1300 a month. The olympian I worked for is now mostly riding other people’s horses as her big time horses have retired, and she no longer has the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from family, and her breeding program is mostly very young horses.
My rider just posted video of him showing a very grey Clooney a few years back when he was riding for Lansink before heading out on his own. He spent literally just a couple years owning all the horses he was showing before going back to first partnerships, and then primarily riding for another one particular owner.
He comes from a very wealthy and very horse famous family, and has here and there made some good money selling, but for one rider doing it by himself, it is financially very very difficult without considerable non horse money backing you.
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Keep in mind: these owners are people to whom money is no object. To some, it’s just plain fun to watch their horse(s) compete and win at the elite levels.
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For some, but for some this is how they earn a living, some a very good living. These are usually former top top riders themselves, as referenced above like tops, lansink, of course schockemohle, people who have created empires of breeding, training, and sales, and need a lot of riders out there showing the wares. Money very much is their object :lol::lol:
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Ocean yacht racing was once described as standing in the shower and ripping up ten pound notes. A lot of people nonetheless enjoy the sport and take part. Horses are pretty much the same.
Speaking as a Brit, probably the vast majority of riders view equestrianism as a sport and would never imagine making money from it. A hobby and a lifestyle. “Investment” and “horse” are words not commonly found in the same sentence. I’ve just glanced at H&H horses for sale and found “prospect” and “potential” but no “investment”.
Flat racing is the exception, as there is good prize money and an owner with an exceptional stallion can rake it in, but only 1 in 7 race horses in the UK will even cover its annual training costs. Hence the development of syndicates to spread the costs of ownership.
Showjumping now has some big prize money on world tours and the price of the good horses has also soared. At an average UK workaday BSJ affiliated jumping show, however, £1000 for a win would be good money. It is better on continental Europe.
In eventing, aside from Burghley and Badminton, top prize money would be a few tens of pounds. The professional riders are a small elite, paid to train and ride for owners, but the vast majority of competitors in BE are amateurs paying for their hobby. Sponsorship is particularly important for eventing and works because of the demographics in the sport and the scenic locations and great shopping at so many events.
Dressage is possibly the one discipline where people would speak of investment in a young horse but, like racing TBs, more are bred than ever win. Top horses are extremely rare, hence massive prices. Those sales can be life changing for owners and their riders.
Friends with (part) ownership of event horses do it because they love the sport, all volunteer at many events, all enjoy seeing the progress of their horse, possibly up to Olympic level, and see performance far beyond their own level of riding skill - and they find it very rewarding doing the equivalent of ripping up £10 notes in the shower.
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There are 2 ways to make monet out of horses.
1 ride someone elses horse.
Or
follow them with a shovel.
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