Heritage owns several amazing equitation horses for their students to ride.
I was wondering what was to deal with those horses, students lease them? for a year? a circuit? or for finals
anybody knows ?
It depends. Some might be leased for a year or season. Some might be available for a one time ride, or finals. It really depends. I’m going to assume the top horses are in high demand and usually the ones who can afford it will lock down the lease for the season.
All of the above. Some of those horses don’t do too many qualifying shows, they are older and well protected from year long campaigns. Often the big Eq kids have at least one horse of their own to use most of the year, since the emphasis has gone more towards Jumping , they can use their High Children’s or Jr Jumper for qualifying and just lease one of the big guns for Finals week. Missy Clark probably has a couple of these master Eq horses too.
In house clients only would be offered the opportunity in most cases.
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I am wondering, if they have their own horse they qualified on, why wouldn’t they ride it at the finals? They would probably know the horse better than one they just leased for the finals. I think I know the answer, but just the same it doesn’t make alot of sense to me.
Would you ride your own horse that’s never been to a national level Finals instead of a specialist veteran out of your trainers barn that has carried 6 top 10 finalists in last 10 years, including a winner? After spending mid 5 figures just to get qualified? I wouldn’t if I had the choice. Finals is a great springboard to jumpstart a career. If you do good. Hard to do your best if you are under horsed or preoccupied with less experienced horse issues. Finals is a one shot often once in a lifetime deal. No excuses.
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Also, most of the kids who are talented enough to ride the very, very top horses (I assume Heritage has enough clout to be selective about whom it chooses to allow to ride those stellar mounts) do ride multiple horses and are very comfortable switching it up.
Sometimes that is part of the work-off, anyway. A person who is intimidated by riding a new horse in a high-pressure environment is unlikely to be competitive (not a criticism, btw, because I would die from nerves even if I could jump that high, just a statement of fact).
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I don’t know. Maybe it is just the trainer in me, but I would rather ride my own horse, even if it hadn’t been to the finals…If I did well I would truely feel it was earned, whereas I wouldn’t feel that way riding a specialist veteran. But it makes sense that is why they do it…it just doesn’t make sense to me personally.
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Just because the horse is a finals veteran doesn’t mean its an easy ride, nor does it mean that the winners didn’t earn their victory x. Lots of the first timers on their own horses don’t even get around the course, or have very poor rides, that’s not my idea of accomplishment, although they probably wouldn’t get around the course on a Heritage horse either.
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So I was wondering though, a lot of times these top barns may have their super competitive working student ride these top horses at finals. Do the working students pay, or do the Trainers take that one as a campaigning “write off” cost? I think it was Adam Edgar who is the working student at Heritage right now and rode Kori Di Oro at finals last year. Now Daisy Farish is showing the horse at WEF. Just wondering how it works there? I would think Daisy is paying a lease fee, but what about the working student when it was the horse’s first Finals appearance?
I am also super curious about Taylor St Jacques and Charisma. She talks about not being a “very wealthy Kid” in interviews and how she works really hard to get all the help she can and is so thankful to Andre for everything he does for her. Now mind you she has enough money to have multiple top horses herself, but also may not be the very tip top of clientele at Heritage. With that kind of a rider, is she still paying to ride Charisma at finals or is that a move by the trainer to up the value of the horse knowing that if she wins X number of final this year, he will get XYZ for leasing that horse to a different client next year? Not that Charisma is new, but just curious?
SIDE NOTE: would love to see a behind the stall door with Charisma!!!
“Wealthy” is a relative term, as in compared to whom? The top barns are extremely selective with WS, tending to pick them from their own clients or occaisionally from a trusted trainer friends barn but that student would be quite accomplished at the Junior levels, 3,6" for Hunters and around 4’ in Jumpers.
Far as preferring to ride your own Green Horse with limited mileage over honest 3,6" fences and no real Indoor experience If you want to spend close to 20k or more hauling and showing to get qualified, maybe have to then haul to Regionals, and haul back east to go into tne Finals risking an expensive, embarrassing trip in a class of 150+? Remember too there’s little or no warm up space. That’s up to you…or should we say your parents who have to fund it with no chance of making the call back sheet. Be a shame if you were seriously underhorsed, aging out and it was your last chance. Especially if there was an opportunity to lease a seasoned veteran to improve your chances.
At Kentucky Horse Park in the spring right before Pony Finals- Lots of availalable equitation horses there, ALL priced at $100k, no matter size, resume, etc. Just all $100k.
Daisy Farish is extremely wealthy. Her parents own/breed top TB racehorses in Lexington KY.
First, I agree, iD love a feature on him! Second, I can’t comment with any authority about TSJ or her personal situation, but I’d have to assume that isn’t a free lease. When you have an amazing junior hunter talented enough to win at Jr Finals AND a Grand Prix Horse, i don’t think a top barn would risk losing income on a horse like Charisma just to get a kid a free ride when she has an excellent Eq horse of her own (who won the WIHS! He is dreamy) But, again, just an assumption about the economics of it all.
Does anyone know what happened to Clearway? I know Emma Kurtz was riding him after Betsee bought him but I haven’t seen his name around much lately.
Cooper Dean not Adam Edgar. Very different people.
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I recall a thread on COTH where someone commented that one has to have multiple horses at Heritage in order to be considered a “good” client. There was also a comment somewhere that working students at Heritage aren’t getting a “free ride”, that they still have to pay a considerable amount of money, just not as much as the top clientele.
You’re absolutely correct about what defines a “good” client at a top barn - multiple horses is key. TSJ owns a jumper or two, and she also owns Di Samorano with whom she won WIHS and East Coast Junior Hunter Finals. It’s interesting to note that TSJ won everything as a junior - but is only a top 5-7 AO as a hunter rider. The reasons for this are two-fold: There is a different “type” for AOs and Heritage horses just aren’t that fancy. They’re incredible eq horses - but they’re just not at the absolute top of the hunter world. Even Andre would 100% agree with that - it’s not what they do. They do eq better than anyone. You want to win Maclay - go to Heritage. You want to win in the hunters, well, Heritage will win some of the time. Not all the time. Which brings me to my second point - at the absolute top of the hunter game, amateurs aren’t showing as part of anyone else’s stable. The top of the hunter pyramid is mostly private. Think Becky Gochman and Lindsay Maxwell and their hunters. They’re private. Sure - they have big name trainers - but their horses stay with them at their farms, managed by their team, ridden by their riders. They don’t live with other clients. It goes back to what you’re saying about wealth being a relative term. Multiple horses (3-5) makes you a good client at a top barn. 6-8 makes you one of the best clients. But the top of the market are people with 12+ horses who have the world coming to them. And, if you want to know the cost of a top eq horse, well, the top of the market commands $350 per year. That’s what it takes to get a made big eq champion.
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Modify that number by three orders of magnitude :lol:
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Ha! Fair enough! I’ve seen multiple $350,000 annual leases for a top eq horse - but if some people are getting $1M per year, then, Wow! And we wonder why this sport reliably prices people out of participating!
I was just making a joke that I thought there should have been a “k” after the number.
But seriously, what do people pay for a year lease on a top horse? Or if the top horses only come out for key shows, how much are people paying in lease fees at places like Heritage?
