This is my point exactly. Inventory is low. Even “back country” WB are listing for $15-25K… it’s weird that a nice, good size, good breeding, good type WB that is jumping around courses in a sale video has to be sent to auction to sell for $20K. A horse of that type with no holes would be snatched up for that price through a private sale without the need for the auction. Either this horse is not high quality (but OP things she is from the video) or something else is going on. I suspect if you inquired on some of those “back country” WBs you’d find that they did sell. The market is hot right now and nobody with a solid baby green WB is needing to list it in a weird auction to get it moved. Unless there’s some extenuating circumstance or hole in the horse.
I agree with you here. I’m even seeing nice, talented unstarted WB babies going for 20k+. I had someone tell me they wanted 25K for their (very well bred and flashy) WEANLING the other day. The market is insane.
what?
No. Nada. Nope.
No one should buy their first horse; they tend to ride and enjoy; without riding it themselves or having a trusted trainer/coach; ride it first. Just not a smart idea. Sorry.
Too many things can go wrong.
Keep looking. The right horse will come along. Best wishes.
It looks to me like almost all the horses on that web site come from one farm in Fort St John, BC. That’s quite remote from both Vancouver and Calgary. It appears they are standing a Holsteiner stud imported from Germany. I can’t find a farm website just FB and Instagram so I haven’t found the long chunk of verbiage you usually get on breeders websites where they boast about their horses performance, etc. But it does seem legit, they are selling mostly young stock, not very expensive.
I would call Ft St John pretty much a 3 day drive from Vancouver through mountains. It’s a drive you are unlikely to make from October through April. Or in the summer, like right now when the lower half of the province is on fire. You might do the trip if you really really liked what you saw on video but not on a whim.
So they really do need a good online presence, or no one will even know about them. I agree the auction aspect of the website is unusual. But it might be functional if they really want to move horses out.
The two adult mares on the auction site that are based in the Vancouver area are both unregistered warmbloods, 5 years old and greenbroke from the videos. I’m guessing they also came down from the back country but there is no information on their provenance. I think lack of papers plus very green makes them project horses and trainers are going to want to buy for less.
I don’t know anything about this breeder. But if a breeder gets a reputation for nice horses then trainers at least are often willing to buy unseen.
Anyhow, I can see the logic behind having a strong internet sales presence for really remote breeders, especially since sales platforms have crumbled and there’s no obvious one location anymore. There are genuine online breed auctions around, but whether this young horse person can build up her website into any credibility I don’t know.
I agree the OP probably shouldn’t buy this mare.
If you’re willing to be a bit creative and are open to something with only a few months under saddle… I do think with digging you can find something suitable that you can at least go see in person. OP, have you taken a peek at Warmblood-Sales? I plugged in hunters over age 5, under $25k and there’s probably 4 or 5 worth following up on - including a few in CA.
yep, Scribbler found the mare I was looking at. I liked her look and the way she moves, and as later noted she’s not that out of whack re: local prices, and if I were closer I would definitely go look at her. Now that I know a bit more about the area, it makes more sense too - I had no idea Western Canada was so remote and that people were even breeding horses that far out. I have nothing against backyard breeders, so long as the horse is nice, so I am still tempted lol. If there weren’t QUITE so many things off I would probably just go for it, but what with the clear problems with her training, the purchase abroad, the auction site, the fact that she hasn’t sold even in this market, I’m pretty spooked. As someone pointed out above, I can’t afford to just light a match to my horsie purchase fund. If I want to take a risk, I’m better off with a questionably sound OTTB for $5k (more like $8-10k in CA… sigh). Then I can at least afford to take a loss and replace the horse, worst case scenario.
I guess I’ve only been looking for 3 months or so, so I really shouldn’t complain - I’ve had friends who looked for a year before finding their horse, and obviously the market this summer is especially crazy. I always dreamed of the day where I could afford to spend $20k on a horse but I’m realizing these days especially it’s not going as far as I hoped. I have seen a couple of really nice horses just outside my budget, but they’ve each been sold by the time I contact the seller, and several OTTBs that I loved and who were advertised as sound but who my crew of advisors pronounced as not 100%. I guess this is an exercise in patience, and I shall cross my fingers, keep my mind open, and wait!
I’m seeing a lot of greenbroke former broodmares… I’ve sort of assumed that this would be an even more difficult route than a younger green horse just because of the age, but perhaps I’m being a bit too narrow minded?
I think the younger broodmares are an interesting option (there’s the 2016 Oldenburg mare) and they’re decently priced so that you could vet thoroughly and put another 30/60 days on them if you wanted. There’s also the Rivel/Chester horse in CA and a handful of interesting options on Dreamhorse and EquineNow in CA in your price range. I think you can find something if you keep digging!
