How to price a horse?

[Nahar]

I will probably be selling a pony in a few months. I’ve never sold a horse before, and haven’t bought any of mine in the normal style.
I have no idea how to price her. Shes a 14.1, 8 year old grey (lightly fleabitten) (unregistered) Arabian. She’s green, but free jumps really nicely (haven’t done too much, but she can clear 3’), has good extension in all gaits, and is very cute (not biased, I swear).
Honestly, if I throw an add up with a 10-15k price, is there a chance some rich sucker out there will be interested?
Ive thought about selling her through local trainers to get their connections, but they’ll require her to be in training while for sale, which will probably cost more in the end than it would help.
I wouldn’t be in a hurry to sell, so whats my best bet for getting the most? Start stupidly high hoping some millionaire finds the add and knock off like 10% every week or two? Start reasonable and if there’s a lot of interested pull her off and start over at a higher price?? Or…?

edit- I don’t think I made it clear: I’m very aware she isn’t worth much. My question isn’t what to price her, but how to price her to get the most

[Charanga2011]

I just think that price is incredibly high for a grade Arabian, unless she has an extensive show record behind her. That, along with her being short and green, limits her from being a child’s mount as well. At least around here, you would be lucky to get $1500. Maybe it’s a totally different market in your area. What location are you in (state, or region?)

[Dutchmare433]

Agree with above about realistic price being around 1/10th of what you’ve mentioned. 10-15k for the horse you describe is not remotely realistic. If you try to play games with the price to try to get the most money, people will catch on quickly. Particularly if you price her appropriately enough to garner interest then proceed to ignore all interest and up the price. No one is going to bother with that kind of seller. As an aside, free jumping has little (or no) value in a horse already under saddle, particularly one of the age/breed you mention.

[dancerflash]

Think you have horse a bit over priced being green she’s short and grade. Around here you’d be lucky to get 800 $ for her.

[fordtraktor]

This is a sub-$1k sounding horse. Green broke reg Arabs are a dime a dozen due to overbreeding. An unregistered one…hard sell. I think you will save money giving it away because you won’t have to feed it as long.

a donkey can clear 3’. Literally.

[HungarianHippo]

What are simliar horses selling for in your area? When I see craigslist ads for similiarly unremarkable horses, I shake my heads at the owners who think they’re worth even $5k. If she’s way overpriced, lots of people who might be good buyers for this mare won’t bother calling you to make an offer, if you price her way above the market, because who wants to deal with a crazy, unrealistic owner.

If you don’t want to pay a trainer, then get her ready for this year’s show season yourself, and show everyone what she can do. As a green 8y/o grade horse, she is only worth the skills she demonstrates, not her potential. If you don’t have the training chops to bring her along, then cut your losses and offer her to a quality training barn as a cheap project horse. Every month she stays in your barn, she’s costing you money–so every month that you are not adding to her skills and value, you’re digging deeper in the hole.

[enjoytheride]

Sounds like a 1K horse to me. Green broke and grade. I bought a green registered 8yo arab for $500.

[Halt_Near_X]

Agree with the others that realistic in this case (grade horse, older, green, no show record) is likely 1/10th what you are dreaming of.

Price her realistically and sell her sooner than later. That’s how you’ll get the most money for her. Otherwise, you’re just sinking more board/vet/farrier money into her while you play pricing games that are extremely unlikely to get you anywhere.

[Ladylexie]

@nicolebaar

I will probably be selling a pony in a few months. I’ve never sold a horse before, and haven’t bought any of mine in the normal style.
I have no idea how to price her. Shes a 14.1, 8 year old grey (lightly fleabitten) (unregistered) Arabian. She’s green, but free jumps really nicely (haven’t done too much, but she can clear 3’), has good extension in all gaits, and is very cute (not biased, I swear).
Honestly, if I throw an add up with a 10-15k price, is there a chance some rich sucker out there will be interested?
Ive thought about selling her through local trainers to get their connections, but they’ll require her to be in training while for sale, which will probably cost more in the end than it would help.
I wouldn’t be in a hurry to sell, so whats my best bet for getting the most? Start stupidly high hoping some millionaire finds the add and knock off like 10% every week or two? Start reasonable and if there’s a lot of interested pull her off and start over at a higher price?? Or…?

Oh my that price is far to high. You could start at $1200

[Scribbler]

Yes, I’d say under $2000 here for sure.

For $5000 to $10,000 here you can get a kid safe horse that is trained and has show miles in the low jumpers.

For a pony the #1 thing is it needs to be broke for a child.

Eight is getting old for a horse to be green. The horse is not registered so there is no place for her on the Arab circuit

I would sell her as a project for $1000 to a kind local trainer who can put some training on her and maybe break even in the end.

Note that if mare is 8 and green then her value is dropping every year.

[joiedevie99]

IMHO, if she walks, trots, canters safely under saddle (albeit green), I’d say list her for $3-4k and hope someone offers you 2500. If she is too green under saddle for a mediocre rider to w/t/c around the ring during a trial ride, it will be less.

[Toblersmom]

Unless there’s a real shortage of ponies and real excess of rich people where you live, you are dreaming. I’m maybe not quite as pessimistic as some of the others, I think a grade, green, 8 year old pony might fetch around $2k or a tiny bit more if she is absolutely sound, SUPER cute, and has the most wonderful personality ever seen on a pony and you have a way to demonstrate that to possible buyers.

[ladyj79]

Greenbroke grade grey pony mare.

older? I mean do you know she’s eight?

unless there’s a very very real shortage of older greenbroke unregistered grey pony mares who might be arabs, I don’t see these into the four figure price tags being really reasonable.

If really pretty and easy, maybe.

I’ve been given this grey pony arab mare with papers for free.

In the mid-Atlantic (unless she’s beautiful, huntery, and easy) I would say 800-1200. If she really isn’t that pretty and moves like a sewing machine? 400-600.

looks and movement and temperament can raise that number accordingly.

[Nahar]

I should have made it more clear, but I’m in total agreement- I thinks she’s worth under 1.5k as well! I was just wondering, since there are suckers out there who pay 5 digits for cross rail ponies, if there was a chance one of them would fall for her.
But thank you! You guys who actually answered my question gave some good advice.

[fordtraktor]

There is no chance. The expensive ones come with long show records of carting kids around safely and winningly.

When you price even a little too high you have to consider the costs of keeping her until she sells which takes much longer and you may still have to drop the price. If you really intend on selling her, price her to move. at her price range nothing else makes sense.If you don’t want to sell her, price her at, say, $3500 and see what happens.

[Malda]

@nicolebaar

I should have made it more clear, but I’m in total agreement- I thinks she’s worth under 1.5k as well! I was just wondering, since there are suckers out there who pay 5 digits for cross rail ponies, if there was a chance one of them would fall for her.
But thank you! You guys who actually answered my question gave some good advice.

But do you want to sell your nice pony to a sucker? Aren’t you more interested in finding her a good home? Just because someone has lots of money doesn’t mean they can/will take good care of a horse.

I’m horse shopping now, the only way you can sell a five figure green broke horse is if it’s gaited.

[HungarianHippo]

Just for grins, go ahead and write the sales ad for this pony in a way that you think would convince a sucker to pay 10-15k for the pony. How much of the ad would be honest?

Consider that people who might buy one of your other horses (or even future employers, who may search the internet as part of background check process) are likely to run away from someone who conducts herself in business like that.
Preserving your character and reputation for integrity is worth far, far more than your profit margin on this pony.

[rockonxox]

@nicolebaar

I wouldn’t be in a hurry to sell, so whats my best bet for getting the most? Start stupidly high hoping some millionaire finds the add and knock off like 10% every week or two? Start reasonable and if there’s a lot of interested pull her off and start over at a higher price?? Or…?

I would highly advise against this. Just the other day I saw someone post a horse for sale, then did a little searching and found that they originally priced at $20k and every few months dropped it down and current asking is $5k. No biters. So… makes me wonder what is wrong with the horse that it has had a $15k deficit in price in under a year. Maybe there is nothing wrong with the horse and the seller was over eager in their pricing scale… either way, people notice changes like that and it could make it harder for you to sell or get an offer. On the other hand, someone could see you dropping price constantly and just wait until it is really low and low ball even more… because you’ve proven you’ll drop the price with that kind of scheme.

Pulling a horse off the market to repost at a higher price is a good way to get people to not trust you. Unless that horse gets more pro training and show miles to make it worth a bump up in price it isn’t worth more just because it gets 10 offers at once. If you do bump up the price like that to create a bidding war you likely will end up with 0 offers on the table.

Put her up at a reasonable price, maybe a touch higher than you think she is worth to give room to negotiate if you need to (ie: if she is worth $1000 go ahead and try $1500… but $15,000 is just silly).

@nicolebaar

since there are suckers out there who pay 5 digits for cross rail ponies

I don’t see this as being true (at least in my experience and in my area), but regardless it doesn’t sound like you have a crossrail pony… you have a green arabian (that breed can turn some buyers off esp if you are trying to market as a hunter just fyi - she may be cute and great but arabians get a bad rap) that can free jump (which btw means nothing to most people unless they are looking at a youngster). Be honest about her abilities. Be honest about her movement, temperament, faults, experience, capabilities, etc. Price her based on those aspects.

[Scribbler]

@nicolebaar

I should have made it more clear, but I’m in total agreement- I thinks she’s worth under 1.5k as well! I was just wondering, since there are suckers out there who pay 5 digits for cross rail ponies, if there was a chance one of them would fall for her.
But thank you! You guys who actually answered my question gave some good advice.

You don’t have a cross rails pony.

You have an older green pony that isn’t yet child safe.

A cross rails pony would have a show record taking small children around safely and getting ribbons. Pony would be point and shoot, understand pacing between fences, no dirty stop, no buck or bolt.

A pony like that could be quite sought after not just for the six minutes a month it spends in the show arena during the summer, but because it will teach generations of children to ride safely.

If you have the training ability to spend a year or two getting pony ready for a ten year old beginner, go for it. But that’s a big cost in maintenance plus your time.

That is why well trained horses are expensive and green horses are cheap unless they are very well bred, registered, very young, and can fit into a high end training program. Then they triple or more in price. The $20,000 two year old if all goes well is a $60,000 plus show horse.

And the $20,000 two year old is invariably a big warmblood with fashionable bloodlines. I don’t typically see these prices for young stock in other breeds, though I am not familiar with the economies of all the disciplines at the high end.

[red_mares]

@nicolebaar

I should have made it more clear, but I’m in total agreement- I thinks she’s worth under 1.5k as well! I was just wondering, since there are suckers out there who pay 5 digits for cross rail ponies, if there was a chance one of them would fall for her.
But thank you! You guys who actually answered my question gave some good advice.

I know where you’re coming from. My mom tried to do it w/ my mare. Wrote a fantastic ad, listed her for $15K as an ammy-owner horse. She got a few bites until I shut her down. My mare had a lot more miles under her than yours does, but had some issues.

You might get some interest if the pictures are good enough, but then someone one is going to come try the horse & reality will set in. Do you really want to get some kid hurt on your horse, on the off chance some fool thinks she’s work 15? Can you live with that on your conscience?