On both my current horses, I paid a third less than asking price. Considering I have had my older mare since she was a yearling(20 this year) and she is still rideable and pretty steady eddy, I consider it a great bargain. My younger mare is going to easily step into the older girl’s shoes with a little more mileage and some training, I consider her a bargain as well.
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7590915]
Opposite of bargain - (I have paid 100% for my horses, all in the 3 or low 4 figures)
I sold a horse (actually only horse I have ever sold!) at 130% of asking price when two buyers got into a bidding war.[/QUOTE]
I also paid 100% of the owners asking price. It wasn’t that she was a jumping machine but she had such a lovely personality and was such a beautiful horse with so much spirit, I knew we would make a good pair (I was new to eventing, she had been started eventing) that it felt like an insult to offer less. She also had a perfect PPE. It was the best money I ever spent! So I lose here!
One of my best bargains was a horse that I paid 110% of the asking price for. The mare was probably priced a little low, and the owner had second thoughts about selling when it came time to finalize the sale, so I offered extra to close the deal. Similar to CindyCRNA it was some of the best money I ever spent–I had years of fun riding and showing that horse and then her beautiful offspring. An expensive or full price horse can be a bargain if it is the right horse. A discounted or free horse can be a bad deal if it has issues or you need to spend a lot of time and money to train it or keep it sound.
I bought two horses that were never really for sale- never advertised- just sold to me and that was that! 
My current horse was to be sold to Canada by my trainer as a GP prospect for 2.5x what we paid for him. She had really fallen in love with the horse and didn’t want him to leave the barn. He went on to be my Jr/AO jumper (and later hunter). 14 years later, I still have him 
While there was no bargaining about it, I got my horse for roughly 50% of what his asking price had been. He had had a PPE prior to me trying him and been passed on, for an apparently wonky x-ray (the potential buyer wouldn’t release the films and was very vague about what was the issue, other than what limb it was in). By the time I got around to sitting on him (I’d been told for a couple of months that I needed to try him by his trainer), they just wanted to make sure he got into a good home with someone who would appreciate his unique take on life.
They offered him at a drastically reduced price for what he was worth, I got the one limb x-rayed (and several top vets looked at it and said the people who turned him down were crazy), they even gave me a year to make sure that “issue” didn’t become an issue, and were just generally the most awesome people ever. I’d buy another horse from them, asking price, in a hot second.
Nice young OLD gelding. Owned by a trainer I worked for and sold for 35k as a hunter to someone else - pending vet check. Failed vet check badly.
Seller called me about a week later and said if I wanted him to get my trailer now or he was being donated to the vet school.
Went and picked him up. Gave him a year off and then brought him back into work and gave him to a friend who rides dressage. She’s had him 10+ years now with no problems.
