Hello
I have a horse I have evented through Prelim that does not appear to want to do the upper level stuff. I am trying to decide if I should try and cross him over and market him as a foxhunter or show hunter. I am looking into hunts to take him to, but wondering how much hunt horses sell for?? Basic info is big TB (17.1), nice looking, tons of scope, pretty quiet and brave, location NOVA. So assuming he takes to hunting well and behaves like he should how long/ many hunts does it take to be able to market him as a hunter with some mileage and what kind of price does that bring? I am very clueless regarding most things on foxhunting and only did one (very slow/boring) hunt a few years ago. Are people open to TBs for fox hunting or are other breeds preferred? Thank you for any info!
I wouldn’t have thought that a hunt horse would generally fetch more than a training level packer.
If you want to hunt him, then hunt him and have fun, but I don’t see putting a season of hunting into him adding value unless for some reason he’s not marketable to an eventer without ambition.
Yes, hunt people generally like TBs. There are many of them in my hunt.
I agree, though, that if you want to sell him now, marketing him as a Training level or Prelim packer would be quicker and easier, unless you want to hunt him yourself. Generally it takes 6-8 hunts before you know whether your horse is going to “take” to hunting and before you can really call your horse a hunt horse he’d need to go out for a season or more.
Although hunting is over xc fences the atmosphere is completely different – there’s nothing like galloping in a group over fences so it’s hard to anticipate what a horse will do.
My own OTTB hunt horse was actually pretty mellow at first. Once he started to understand the sport, he got very, very keen. When the hounds are cast he is RIGHT there ready to go and he is always looking for the hounds. Although he is a great hunt horse in many ways, he actually more amped and a bit harder to ride once he understood his new job better.
In terms of pricing – I don’t know what hunt horses sell for in your area but around here people are paying $12K to $25K for horses with hunt experience.
And even if you do hunt him…and he goes well…prospective hunter buyers are still going to be skeptical until he has hunted 10 or so seasons!!! There will be a much more satisfactory market as a show or event horse. You KNOW and can prove he will do that. Fox hunters are a hard sell IMO!! Everyone shopping wants a great one, but most won’t pay the going rate of his value.
Depending on where you are, it could take up to a whole season to see if your horse really can make it as a hunter. Also, will the horse be a field hunter or a staff horse? Could he be 1st field or 3rd field? All of these things go into the price. We’ve had horses go anywhere between $1,500 - $75,000. It really just depends, unfortunately!
You can see some price points at this sale page for my old barn:
http://redrockhounds.com/sales3.html
Thanks all for the info!
