True, but I wouldn’t have anything to play with in the mean time. 
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So, important horse shopping question. How early is too early to call about a horse? I don’t want to be rude, but I have never been known for my patience!
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Yeah, so out of my price range anyways.
Buy the filly! I am very good at enabling if you need a push! 
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It depends. If you are talking about ridden horses, don’t call unless you are ready to buy. If you are talking about babies owned by the breeder, I suspect they’d be happy to hear from you 6+ months before you are looking to buy so long as you are up front about that in the first communication and you aren’t asking for them to do lots of work - take new videos, etc.
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Oh no, lol, I mean what time in the am is too early? I am thinking it would be a very rude to call at 6am.
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I try to only contact people about “business” (this includes my vet, farrier, hair stylist, etc) during typical work hours, so 8AM-6/7PM local time for them. Yes they can always just not answer if someone calls or texts at 6 AM but the person doing the calling or texting that early isn’t setting themselves up well IMO.
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Ok, thank you. I wasn’t sure if 8 would be too early.
I generally call between 8:30am and 5:30pm
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I know you said your budget is now 5k, but did you see this girl? Seems like a pretty nice filly for the price, but maybe there is a catch.
https://warmblood-sales.com/horse/daydreamer-gsf
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And most are bred to pace and the canter quality can vary from WTF to WOW. As much as I adore Standardbreds, my last riding horse was one, and I’ve seen some (often pacers) with what looks to me to have the potential to be good dressage horses, it might be a tough unicorn to find to get to the level you aspire. If you want a great equine companion, go for it. I’ve met very few I didn’t want to be around.
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I spoke with DH and we decided I can go a little higher. I inquired about a lovely weanling this am and left a message for this filly just now. Thank you!
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Some of them most certainly are! All? No. The ones who make their business breeding and selling horses - yup, some of them lean heavily towards the English sport horse market. They aren’t all about just fulfilling their own buggy market, in fact, they’ll often purchase retired Standardbreds for those purposes. You haven’t lived (kidding) until you wander over to the racing side of the barn from the riding side and find an old Amish dude with his iPhone whipped out 
taking pictures of a questionable ankle to be sure his business partner is on board before making a deal to put it on a truck to the US.
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Just from a quick google search, here are three Standardbred rehoming organizations:
You can’t go wrong with a STB for an ammy riding horse! But I have no experience with their potential for higher-level dressage.
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Now is actually a good time to shop. Look in areas that had a bad hay crop this year!
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Yes, that is true. My statement was a bit too exclusive. As I mentioned earlier, they do sell what they know is marketable or profitable. So then, naturally, they get into the sport horse market.
I don’t know how in touch some are with dressage, or how closely they follow anything dressage related, but if they have iPhones…
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Yep! Business purposes only, but they definitely have them.
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Yeah, I’ve definitely seen Amish with phones/known that they can use them. Generally within certain rules. Also depends on their church, order, etc.
Interestingly the German dialect that I am most fluent in (besides “proper German” if you will) is quite close to much of the Amish language. So I can generally understand much of what they say when they aren’t speaking English, which surprised me at first, because I never really thought about it until one day at an Amish greenhouse…
Now that I’ve completely gone off on a tangent 
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I just saw an ad on FB…
“Andalusian mare, 5 yrs old, 15hh, not currently registered but bloodlines known, very lightly started wtc, the absolute best girl, North Georgia. Upper Four’s.”
A bit far from you, OP, but I’m just sayin 
I have not seen video of this horse though. The photos aren’t super impressive, but they’re photos, she’s young, and some other variables… Could be a nice little horse for someone though!
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Generally, the Bishops determine what is allowed.
I take my feed sacks and baling twine out to an Amish farm that has a recycling business. One day, I got out there and there was no one around to tell me where to put my stuff. I wandered over and found an Amish kid in a shed on his computer. I glanced at the screen, and he was googling something.
In the 70’s, when I first bought horses off of the road from the Amish, they hid their phones in a shed on the property. Then, they were in the offices of the Amish who had businesses, along with their fax machines. Computers followed, along with cell phones.
The Amish have the ability to benefit from that lovely thought of their bucolic existence, and pure living. They also are the leaders in puppy mills. They’ve gotten really savvy in sanitizing the whole deal, but nothing has really changed. They are also often guilty of animal cruelty. However, the threshold for the PA Dutch is pretty high, as they bring in a huge amount of tourism revenue to PA.
A group of the Amish rented a very large store in a strip mall not far from me. They created areas within the building for a dozen or so Amish businesses. A butcher, a poultry guy, a guy who does all kinds of salads, etc., the produce guy, a big bakery, etc. All Old Order Amish. All an hour or so from the fringe of the PA Amish country. There isn’t enough ground for them to all make a living for their families in farming, so they have expanded their reach, and it’s really, really smart. The pricing is probably a bit higher than your local grocery store, but there is that whole farmers market experience. And, they have some really, really good stuff.
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