[QUOTE=HorseLuvr;8962834]
Investment Horses is an oxymoron.[/QUOTE]
HAHAHAHA I logged in to type this EXACT response!!!
A quick example to make clear why you have to change your way of thinking if you’re wanting this to be an investment.
I bought a four year old 6 years ago. Nice enough mare, was supposed to be an investment/project horse. Then life happened…I was out of commission with an injury for a year, had a falling out with my business partner and got out of the horse business, the mare ended up being way difficult and has taken a long time to unravel, I moved, got married…you know, life.
Now let’s say I could sell her for $40k tomorrow (I’m just pulling a number out here for the sake of an example).
You’d say I doubled my money, right? Made money?
No. I may have $40k to spend on my next horse…
But I have the last 6 years worth of board, farriery, showing, insurance, vet costs that I invested into the mare. I’m going to estimate that at somewhere around $30k in board (which is low, because most of the time I just paid her costs when I was a pro and now that she’s at home with me), $5,200 in farriery, $6,600 in insurance, and I’m sure several thousand more in equipment, vet, etc. (thank God she’s never been really hurt). Note these are all quick estimates and don’t include showing.
All the sudden, that $20,000 profit it looks like I made doesn’t look so good, does it?
Just because you spend amounts slowly over the course of the year doesn’t mean that they aren’t part of your investment or cost of owning the horse. They count.
Now true, I theoretically would have $40k to spend on the next horse instead of the $20k I bought her for.
But let’s say I saved that $20k I spent on her, and saved all that money I spent on her over the last 6 years. I’d have over $60k to spend on something now. All those costs are part of the equation.
[QUOTE=jumperanonymous;8962756]
Hi All,
Thanks for your input! To provide some context, I work in finance and have studied project analysis, so in order for me to continue said analysis I was hoping for the buy/sell numbers. The money used for this investment is of course not needed for living off of, and this is not intended to become a full time import business. My initial thought was 30K for the purchase of the horse, plus expenses. Again, I am not factoring in board and training as these are fixed costs for me whether I import for a flip sale or buy something finished. The program my horse is currently in is applicable based on how it is structured.
Mac123 - I like the idea of ponies, there always seems to be a need for them as well and I can certainly show ponies myself or have my trainer do so. We do not go to week long shows every month, so I don’t think the showing would amount to 24K a year. I am lucky being in NJ, we have top notch shows that we can go to a day at a time. It is helpful!
The idea here is to always be able to enjoy whatever I purchase. For instance, I’m not going to import a GP horse and just pay someone to ride it all the time. That to me seems crazy, and only for those who like to say they own GP horses.
I also do not have a “sell by” date if you will.
So I guess what I’m asking is can you take a 30K horse and sell him for 60k? Is that a possibility or is the margin more like 30 to 45? I will always own a horse and show, so those costs do not matter in valuing this project.
And really at the end of the day if I like the horse and decide to keep it, that’s the cherry on top.[/QUOTE]
IMO you are way too focused on the numbers. Is it possible to take a 30k horse and make a 60k horse? Of course it is. Can you do it? Only you know that. You might make a 30k horse a 15k horse or a giveaway.
How do you think you are going to add value to the horse? It won’t increase in value just by flying to the US and living here for a few years.
[QUOTE=jumperanonymous;8962756]
Hi All,
Thanks for your input! To provide some context, I work in finance and have studied project analysis, so in order for me to continue said analysis I was hoping for the buy/sell numbers. The money used for this investment is of course not needed for living off of, and this is not intended to become a full time import business. My initial thought was 30K for the purchase of the horse, plus expenses. Again, I am not factoring in board and training as these are fixed costs for me whether I import for a flip sale or buy something finished. The program my horse is currently in is applicable based on how it is structured.
Mac123 - I like the idea of ponies, there always seems to be a need for them as well and I can certainly show ponies myself or have my trainer do so. We do not go to week long shows every month, so I don’t think the showing would amount to 24K a year. I am lucky being in NJ, we have top notch shows that we can go to a day at a time. It is helpful!
The idea here is to always be able to enjoy whatever I purchase. For instance, I’m not going to import a GP horse and just pay someone to ride it all the time. That to me seems crazy, and only for those who like to say they own GP horses.
I also do not have a “sell by” date if you will.
So I guess what I’m asking is can you take a 30K horse and sell him for 60k? Is that a possibility or is the margin more like 30 to 45? I will always own a horse and show, so those costs do not matter in valuing this project.
And really at the end of the day if I like the horse and decide to keep it, that’s the cherry on top.[/QUOTE]
Are you currently schooling and showing at a level that has allowed you to improve horses, win consistent ribbons, and sell on for more than you paid? If so, you might have a chance. If not, then you are probably not going to make back your money on any quality youngster, let alone an import with added fees, unless you have a very good trainer who does all the work.
If you are coming at this from a number-crunching position, you need to take into account that horses are unique, luxury purchases that damage very quickly, and are purchased for a host of emotional reasons. When people buy an expensive horse, they are buying a dream. They either want “clean slate” youngsters, or a proven show horse that they or their teen daughter can be winning ribbons on tomorrow. If there is any question about this, either the looks of the horse, the performance record, any soundness issues, and the price falls dramatically.
From what I’ve read on COTH and seen IRL, the reputation of the training or breeding barn has a huge impact on what buyers will pay. There was a thread on COTH a while back about an OTTB that came off the track basically free, got some basic training, changed hands a few times, ended up in a top stable, and went for something in the $30,000 range, in a matter of a few months. In that case, having the horse sponsored by a very top trainer made the horse worth a lot more than when it was before.
So if you want to really increase a horse’s value, you need to think what intangible added value you and your trainer can realistically add.
I’m not sure why importing a horse makes any sense at all in this scenario. Imported horses have the “dream factor” or novelty factor while they are still in Europe. After they are in North AMerica for a few years, and are clearly just like every other horse, they don’t have the dream factor anymore, and people are likely to say “why did they bother importing that?” rather than “wow, that’s an imported horse, that’s why he’s so amazing.”
If you factor in the import costs, you can probably get as nice a young horse in the US or Canada, for less money, if you know how to shop. And then everything is up to you and your trainer to make this horse into a star that will double your investment.
In other words, you are importing raw material, and it is your ability to ride, train, and show that will determine whether you (a) create a horse that is worth a lot and (b) are able to market the horse for that much money.
There is also the unknown of how much real talent your horse has. I am sure it is possible to buy a horse for $30,000 and sell it for $60,000. I doubt too many ammies manage this, but it’s possible. It’s also possible to get a horse for much less than this, and sell it for much more. But each horse is unique, each horse is its own brand so to speak, each horse is handmade. You can’t look at what BNT down the road accomplishes, which is often because BNT can sell to captive students, and think that is some kind of “going rate” for price increases in horses.
A lot of it depends on who you are and who you know.
Last year my rider turned a 20k horse into a 200k horse all by himself. ETA his brother is a well known Olympian and my rider has lots and lots of contacts with top riders.
He then turned a 40k horse into a 250k horse with the help of another rider. In three days.
And in a year he turned a 30k horse into a 20k horse. And he almost didn’t get that.
We also imported a horse from Brazil to Europe who literally ended up being a give away. With my rider standing in a parking lot in Spain saying “I’ve ruined my life!”
Even at the top there is so much risk. Horses get injured, they die, they just don’t pan out.
If you don’t have the reputation to sell these largely on your own merit, it’s pretty hard to see a profit.
I believe what OP is trying to say, is should she import a horse for $30k, is there a market, or WHAT IS the market for an A/O hunter or jumper (two very different markets, so clarification is needed!) for this horse with show mileage.
OP wants to import a horse for her personal benefit, but also put a price tag on said horse to potentially re-coup the cost of it.
In short, OP, yes, you could import a horse for $30k, and sell it in two days for $60k. Or you could put a few years of show miles on it and sell it for $60k. Or you could be stuck with a lemon that you can’t even give away. That’s the business of importing a horse. You hope for a trustworthy agent, and a fairly represented beast.
Ponies are going to be tough unless you trainer is a big pony person. Many more variables involved than say a 3ft hunter.
I agree with most of the comments here.
I also work in finance, and I was thinking about things is a similar way to you OP, except I would never ever use the word investment. They would take my CFA away if I did. :yes: There is simply too much variability. I’ve imported three horses and all three are different than my trials in Europe. Some for the better and others…
I recently sold a horse and it was literally BEST CASE SCENARIO everything. The horse was 5 years old when I bought him, the seller not totally aware of its suitability as a hunter. I bought it for something like $35K.
I put it in full-time training. After two years, we were showing in the low AOs, champion or reserve almost every time at A shows in California. Horse won 8 hacks in a row and like someone else said, that makes a horse much more liquid to use a finance term. If you can count on 10 or 6 or even 4 points without having to find a single jump, that goes a long way.
I sold him to a lovely younger AO for $150K. And they felt they got a deal bc he for sure has the scope for the regular AOs and the Second Years.
When I owned him, saw the vet SOLELY for his vaccinations, he never got injections, never got legend or adequan, he didn’t need any special shoeing, he even won back a little money at shows, especially in the first years. He developed into a really outstanding hunter despite a very difficult beginning. So literally, EVERYTHING went right.
And of course, being a financial analyst, I calculated my profit and loss and of course I didn’t make money when I factored everything in. The showing in particular is what made him so valuable, but it’s very expensive to do. So where you are, if you can get a nice record on a horse for not much money, that’s a benefit.
All I"m saying is, I never expected him to turn out as well as he did. I couldn’t afford a made horse and I found a trainer who is exceptional with young horses. He really turned into something great but with a lesser trainer, his personality could have led him down a less bright path. He could have injured himself. He could have done any number of things that would have wiped all the benefits out.
When I sold him a couple people said I should have held out for more and taken him east but that was just crazy talk to me. I recognize how lucky I was to almost pay for my hobby for two years of showing and learning.
And I am doubtful I will be able to reproduce that with my two new green beans. But I’m totally ok with that. Bc I make my money as a financial analyst… I don’t feel I have a right to expect to be able to make money in my hobby when actual professionals find it hard to do so!
Just my two cents, with actual numbers for context.
An important aspect of your plan (and one that I found out the hard way) is that BNTs only buy and sell from other BNTs. There is no such thing as a BNT looking for a horse at small barns or at local shows — they don’t have to; their customers have the $$ and the customers think that a horse is only as good as his purchase price; these buyers do not want to find a diamond in the rough — they was to spend a big six figures to get a “nice horse”. This whole mindset has created a clique that an ammie or a SNT cannot breach.
So, to sell a young horse for $50k or more, you MUST be associated with a BNT and that means $$$$ showing the horse and 15% (or more if 2 or more BNT’s are involved) in commissions.
It is a wicked world out there for the likes of us who try to run with the big guys. Example: I had a wonderful young horse that I could not get anyone with $$ to look at. So I sent him to Fla, with a med. sized trainer. I was asking $90,000 so I could end up with $75,000.
The horse was winning everything in the pregreens and I was hopeful for a sale. ---- Until, standing at ringside, I heard 2 people talking: “It’s a nice horse, but I don’t think it’s worth $140,000 since it has only been showing for a month.”
Yes, that is what happened to my lovely $75,000 horse (who did not sell.)
Bottom line, it is virtually impossible for small guys to make money this way.
My story is not only 100% true, it is also a very common story among those of us who are not members of the BNT club.
I laughed out loud when I read your question. sorry.
(you know the joke: how do you make a million dollars in horses? you start with two million)
I think there is so much chance for heartbreak and bad luck and injury and unsuitability, that there really is no such thing as smartly investing in horses.
One thing to take into account… importing horses is a huge gamble. There are lots of imports doing well in the big leagues. There are also a lot that are retired due to injury, unsuitable, mis-represented, unsound, etc.
I rode a lot of horses in Germany. Trust me, most of them are not nearly as well broke as they look in their videos. Even if they are well broke and have honest mileage, a lot of them just don’t adapt well to the American hunter style of riding. So just because you find a pretty horse, off a nice video, and good bloodlines, (even if you fly over and ride 20 prospects, but then you need to factor that cost into your equation) it’s not necessarily going to be an easy flip/sale over here (even if it is sound and stays injury free)
I found a fancy, well bred 3yo in Germany. I’ve had him 8 years now. I love him, but he’s never really turned into the horse I hoped/wanted/expected him to be. I didn’t buy to sell, but if I had, it would have been financially a disaster.
If you want to “invest” in horses (and I agree that it’s often an oxymoron) then why not look at domestic horses? There are some nice young stock in the US, and at least if it’s misrepresented, you have some legal recourse, which is very problematic when buying/selling overseas (ask me how I know).
It sounds like you’re being smart about the whole thing, and going in with your head, not your heart. I think most people who romanticize the idea are the ones who get in trouble. So, if anyone can make it work, I hope it’s you. Good luck.
[QUOTE=HorseLuvr;8962834]
Investment Horses is an oxymoron.[/QUOTE]
Took the words right out my mouth. I was going to say investment when combined with horse is an oxymoron.
Haven’t had a chance to read all of the comments but will. I throw in my 2 cents.
Granted Sport horses, H/J etc are not my area of expertise in the business of horse. But it was my mothers and stepfathers, my brother in-law a well know H/J trainer and numerous friends who work at the highest level.
Me I have been in the TB racing side of the business. Arguably a much “safer” side of the horse business. FAR more upswing and a much deeper buyer base. But even then if one is not extremely knowledgeable and is well connected in the end the “house always wins”.
In the TB world of the horse business even those who have been involved, “investing” and are quite knowledgeable always use Bloodstock agents, adviser. At least the ones that usually come out on the winning end year in and year out.
We are generally paid a 5% commission the industry standard. Smart clients that are playing at a high level will pay a retainer to get first “look see” when something interesting with a high level of ROI is on offer. If the client has deep pockets I prefer a retainer and take my compensation on the back end. Paid on performance.
Regardless of discipline generally “investment grade” horses never “hit the street”. “If you read about in the Wall Street Journal you’ve missed the boat”. They are snapped up quickly by people who’s only business is the business of horse trading. 100% focus and attention, 24-7. Years of learning the trade and cultivating relationships and they KNOW horses. Their “Rolodex” is invaluable.
Regardless of discipline we all hear about horse that was found in someone’s back yard for $5,000 and sold X amount time later for $75-$150,000. This can and does happen. What we don’t hear about is the other 1000 horses that lost money. Be it a $5,000 or $50,000 horse.
I don’t know how Sport horse trading works these days compared to my parents day, 60s-70s-80s but I doubt it is much different. My parents had an excellent eye for unproven talent. Put a bit of mileage and training into them and re-sell to the “names” of the day. These “names” names that most people around here would still readily recognize would drop everything to take their call and waste no time coming to look at the horse.
9 out of 10 times the left with the horse. In turn put even less mileage and training into them and sell for 3-4-10 times what they paid. They could do this because they had the “name” and the upper level buyers in their back pocket.
My parents rarely got annoyed when hearing of the sale price a few months later. They knew how the game worked. If the horse sold extremely well almost always the buyer would send them a nice check to keep their name at the top of their call list.
What a horse is bought for and what it sells for be it the next day or the next year is irrelevant. Anybody in the business of horse trading knows this. “There is no crying in baseball”.
The business of horse trading is a numbers game. Buying just one horse from time to time and expecting, hoping to make a realistic ROI is like catching lightening in a bottle. It is a high risk, high profit, high loss business.
The ROI has to been high because there are so many things that can go wrong. Buy 5, hope to sell 2 for around break even ±, lose on 2 and hopefully hit a home run on 1.
Not much different than handicapping, betting on a horse race. We look at the horse, pedigree etc and figure out the odds of it “winning”. Is it a 2-1, even money, or an attractive 10-1. But it takes a lot of nerve to bet say $30,000 on a 2-1 or even money favorite. But at least betting on a horse in a race the race is over in a matter of seconds, minutes. If you lost no more bills, expenses, day in day out. Hoping things may turn around digging the hole deeper each day.
When clients have called me and said “I want to invest in some racehorses” I back them up really quick and take the word “investment” out of the conversation. I certainly don’t want to discourage them but I want them to fully understand the drill and nature of the business. I don’t sugar coat it. A lot of my fellow agents do and I don’t begrudge them. Just not my way of going about things. I don’t make a lot of money but I sleep well at night and have been doing this for a long time.
Horse trading can be a lot of fun and very rewarding in more ways than one. But it is far more fun and far less stressful if the funds being used are “disposable”. It is not for people who really HATE to loss money.
if you think that paying 35K euro minimum to find anything of note; people need to get their head out of the clouds. Get out of dutch land and go to Ireland or Czech. Plenty of VERY NICE, VERY well bred horses over there for under 10k. If you’re willing to buy something unstarted but have a good eye; plenty available in the 5k-8k range. Eliminate the middle man (the finders) and go direct to the breeders if you are so-able. If you have the knowledge to know what you are looking for and have a price point which includes vetting and import costs; go there and find it. When you hire a middle man to find such a unicorn; you automatically tack on 10-20k onto the purchase price right off the bat.
Otherwise; find something here in the states to invest in and eliminate having to play with import costs right off the bat. If you don’t have the money to play with to begin with (investing in horses really is just play money) then I suggest not investing in imports to begin with.
Yes, with regards to the diamonds in the rough, i can tell you that it took from June to the end of September of last year for my rider to purchase one horse. And this is in Europe. Where literally all he does is come ride his string in the morning (1-4 horses) and then the remainder of his day, nearly every day, is driving around trying horses.
We are talking about a very well connected professional, who looks at videos all day every day and then looks at horses in person nearly every day, an average of four a day, for nearly four months, to find one horse he thought was a top prospect.
In many ways, sifting the chaff from the wheat can be even more difficult in Europe, because on paper nearly everything looks like a sure thing.
[QUOTE=ladyj79;8963139]
In many ways, sifting the chaff from the wheat can be even more difficult in Europe, because on paper nearly everything looks like a sure thing.[/QUOTE]
Cannot thumbs up this post enough, very well said!
I’ll also add that those backyard farmers in Holland aren’t stupid. Ugh dutch people.
Yes, there are still cheap well bred horses to be found, but more and more you can find some very well bred donkeys in farmers fields they want 50k for because of the breeding.
Hell, my Olympian exclusively breeds donkeys. Very expensive well-bred donkeys who look amazing on paper. She cannot sell them to Europeans. The only people who are interested are Americans.
Or come to the UK, pay £200 for a cob or as you guys call them a “gypsy” import it and sell it for a huge profit. You literally cant move in the UK for hairy cobs at the minute and they sell for pennies. The ones that seem to sell for big bucks in the US are the really hairy ones regardless of conformation/temperament. Chuck me £500 and I will find you the hairiest beast in existence, and because I’m nice I’ll also find you one with reasonable conformation and a good temperament 
[QUOTE=frankiec;8963195]
Or come to the UK, pay £200 for a cob or as you guys call them a “gypsy” import it and sell it for a huge profit. You literally cant move in the UK for hairy cobs at the minute and they sell for pennies. The ones that seem to sell for big bucks in the US are the really hairy ones regardless of conformation/temperament. Chuck me £500 and I will find you the hairiest beast in existence, and because I’m nice I’ll also find you one with reasonable conformation and a good temperament :)[/QUOTE]
But as my Irish boyfriend once told me about that investment model, don’t do it ladyj! Those horses will mug your horses!
If people were rolling in the doe… More people would be doing it… Just saying.
Yes, you can make a business plan. Yes, you can make a successful business plan. Yes, you can make money. No that money will not be consistent. No, people will not crawl out of the woodwork to buy your horses. Yes, you will have to be good and efficient at marketing and sales…which is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
But I think that the real key to it all is being absolutely ruthlessly precise in the horses you select. And that’s where a lot of people struggle. As ladyj talked about above, sorting the wheat from the chaff is an incredibly difficult and non-precise science. And the really nice horses and the real “superstars,” well they’re as crazy expensive there as they are here. The big difference, and the reason I import, is the middle-of-the-road horses for whom they don’t have a market for over there. Those horses and people constitute the majority of our market. So the pretty jumpers who aren’t terribly scopey, or the ones with million dollar brains who just don’t have the talent for the big ring.
Also, as others have stated, you may have wild variations from your plan on a case-by-case basis.
My (MAJOR AVERAGES) for my business:
Horse purchase: 15-25k Euros (this can leave a several thousand dollar range in purchase price based on the health of the dollar) - this is for a 3-5 year old green broke horse.
Vet Exam/X-rays - $500 (can’t recall offhand how much my last couple ran, but throwing in an assumptive number)
Training prior to import - 2k Euros
Import - $9500
So on a $20k horse (random average of that 15-20k euros), I’m in about $32k when they set foot on my property. And if it’s a mare then it starts at $35k because of the additional quarantine time.
As others mentioned, I do all of the riding and training myself and have my own facility so don’t have to pay board.
From there I plan to spend $5-$10k showing the horse and typically plan for 4-6 horseshows before really starting to market the horse. So add in another $2k (ish) for vet/farrier work (assuming no “incidents”). Oh and I insure my sales horses for the purchase price, so that’s typically another $500 (actually I can’t remember what I paid last time, so that’s a guess, but easy enough to price out).
The business plan I put together puts my “all in” cost for 6 months of ownership right around $42k ($50k+ in costs if I paid a bit more for the horse or if it’s a mare, and I’m not sure it would ever be lower than the $42k unless I sold it crazy fast). I plan to ask a minimum of $60-65k for the horses I select (and I select horses that I expect can minimally bring that in - I try not to take “risks”) and the breeders I buy from breed quite possibly the nicest brained horses I’ve ever been around, and also help me select for the best of those, so I feel pretty good about the brains I’m bringing over (more important than the bodies). Also, I won’t take one that doesn’t have clean, clean x-rays. Too much variability on the sales side if you have to get into abnormalities on that side of things.
My goal is to do this with an average of 6 horses each year. And my business plan takes into account one of the horses going “kaput.” As others have pointed out, the odds are not really in your favor, and (OF COURSE) multiple horses could go “kaput” in a row. I’ve also seen lots of imported horses come over and be exceedingly difficult to ride which puts them in a difficult place to sell into the amateur market.
So I want a horse that “anybody can ride.” Simple, simple, simple. If it’s not that, my breeders don’t bring it to me. And THAT is not the norm for the contacts that a lot of people work with over there. I feel exceedingly lucky to have the contacts I have, and I think that’s a big part of my business.
With all of that said, up to this point I’ve been employed full time outside of the horse world and doing all of this on one sales horse a year. I’ve done quite well for the last several years, but I don’t know how my attempt to scale up will work. Could go great. Could go terrible. So don’t take my plan as “the way to do it.” 
Oh, and final point - I have to agree with snaffle. There are lots of horses to be had for a lot cheaper than you’ll pay in Germany or Holland or France or England (and so on). I stick to Germany because I trust my contacts implicitly. My guys KNOW what their horses will be like under saddle before they break them because of how thorough and meticulous they are with their breeding program. Not saying there aren’t some surprises, but the horses I’ve gotten have been EXACTLY what they said they would be. So I don’t mind paying a bit more for a sure thing. But you do see a lot of ~$10k horses over there being advertised that sure look nice on paper. I can’t speak to that from experience. IOW, I very rigidly adhere to the business plan that I built to try to minimize the surprises as much as possible.
And yes, you MUST have contacts. And you MUST be willing to market, market, market, and talk to EVERYONE you come across at a horseshow. But again, that’s a whole other side of the business that maybe you’re already aware of. I don’t believe that you have to be a BNT to sell horses (though I do think you have to be a BNT to get the top, top dollars for one that isn’t “the best” horse), but you absolutely have to know them and work with them. And maybe, more importantly, you need to have your sales horse out showing at the real shows against real people. Not many people are willing to spend dollars on a horse that has only done low level shows.
If you’re really just talking about doing one horse at a time and selling it in a year, or two year, or with a “however long it takes” mentality, then absolutely go for it! That’s what I did for years. I didn’t mind spending my money on my horses and I didn’t sweat whether I sold my horses or not. It was fun and paid for a lot of my showing (and things like a new trailer, improvements around the farm, etc.). I called my sales horses my “investment horses,” but really they were a side project supported by my real job, and when they sold it was an excellent pop of money. Who knows…I may be back to following that model sooner rather than later! :lol:
[QUOTE=PNWjumper;8963217]
Yes, you can make a business plan. Yes, you can make a successful business plan. Yes, you can make money. No that money will not be consistent. No, people will not crawl out of the woodwork to buy your horses. Yes, you will have to be good and efficient at marketing and sales…which is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
But I think that the real key to it all is being absolutely ruthlessly precise in the horses you select. And that’s where a lot of people struggle. As ladyj talked about above, sorting the wheat from the chaff is an incredibly difficult and non-precise science. And the really nice horses and the real “superstars,” well they’re as crazy expensive there as they are here. The big difference, and the reason I import, is the middle-of-the-road horses for whom they don’t have a market for over there. Those horses and people constitute the majority of our market. So the pretty jumpers who aren’t terribly scopey, or the ones with million dollar brains who just don’t have the talent for the big ring.
Also, as others have stated, you may have wild variations from your plan on a case-by-case basis.
My (MAJOR AVERAGES) for my business:
Horse purchase: 15-25k Euros (this can leave a several thousand dollar range in purchase price based on the health of the dollar) - this is for a 3-5 year old green broke horse.
Vet Exam/X-rays - $500 (can’t recall offhand how much my last couple ran, but throwing in an assumptive number)
Training prior to import - 2k Euros
Import - $9500
So on a $20k horse (random average of that 15-20k euros), I’m in about $32k when they set foot on my property. And if it’s a mare then it starts at $35k because of the additional quarantine time.
As others mentioned, I do all of the riding and training myself and have my own facility so don’t have to pay board.
From there I plan to spend $5-$10k showing the horse and typically plan for 4-6 horseshows before really starting to market the horse. So add in another $2k (ish) for vet/farrier work (assuming no “incidents”). Oh and I insure my sales horses for the purchase price, so that’s typically another $500 (actually I can’t remember what I paid last time, so that’s a guess, but easy enough to price out).
The business plan I put together puts my “all in” cost for 6 months of ownership right around $42k ($50k+ in costs if I paid a bit more for the horse or if it’s a mare, and I’m not sure it would ever be lower than the $42k unless I sold it crazy fast). I plan to ask a minimum of $60-65k for the horses I select (and I select horses that I expect can minimally bring that in - I try not to take “risks”) and the breeders I buy from breed quite possibly the nicest brained horses I’ve ever been around, and also help me select for the best of those, so I feel pretty good about the brains I’m bringing over (more important than the bodies). Also, I won’t take one that doesn’t have clean, clean x-rays. Too much variability on the sales side if you have to get into abnormalities on that side of things.
My goal is to do this with an average of 6 horses each year. And my business plan takes into account one of the horses going “kaput.” As others have pointed out, the odds are not really in your favor, and (OF COURSE) multiple horses could go “kaput” in a row. I’ve also seen lots of imported horses come over and be exceedingly difficult to ride which puts them in a difficult place to sell into the amateur market.
So I want a horse that “anybody can ride.” Simple, simple, simple. If it’s not that, my breeders don’t bring it to me. And THAT is not the norm for the contacts that a lot of people work with over there. I feel exceedingly lucky to have the contacts I have, and I think that’s a big part of my business.
With all of that said, up to this point I’ve been employed full time outside of the horse world and doing all of this on one sales horse a year. I’ve done quite well for the last several years, but I don’t know how my attempt to scale up will work. Could go great. Could go terrible. So don’t take my plan as “the way to do it.”
Oh, and final point - I have to agree with snaffle. There are lots of horses to be had for a lot cheaper than you’ll pay in Germany or Holland or France or England (and so on). I stick to Germany because I trust my contacts implicitly. My guys KNOW what their horses will be like under saddle before they break them because of how thorough and meticulous they are with their breeding program. Not saying there aren’t some surprises, but the horses I’ve gotten have been EXACTLY what they said they would be. So I don’t mind paying a bit more for a sure thing. But you do see a lot of ~$10k horses over there being advertised that sure look nice on paper. I can’t speak to that from experience. IOW, I very rigidly adhere to the business plan that I built to try to minimize the surprises as much as possible.
And yes, you MUST have contacts. And you MUST be willing to market, market, market, and talk to EVERYONE you come across at a horseshow. But again, that’s a whole other side of the business that maybe you’re already aware of. I don’t believe that you have to be a BNT to sell horses (though I do think you have to be a BNT to get the top, top dollars for one that isn’t “the best” horse), but you absolutely have to know them and work with them. And maybe, more importantly, you need to have your sales horse out showing at the real shows against real people. Not many people are willing to spend dollars on a horse that has only done low level shows.
If you’re really just talking about doing one horse at a time and selling it in a year, or two year, or with a “however long it takes” mentality, then absolutely go for it! That’s what I did for years. I didn’t mind spending my money on my horses and I didn’t sweat whether I sold my horses or not. It was fun and paid for a lot of my showing (and things like a new trailer, improvements around the farm, etc.). I called my sales horses my “investment horses,” but really they were a side project supported by my real job, and when they sold it was an excellent pop of money. Who knows…I may be back to following that model sooner rather than later! :lol:[/QUOTE]
Wow, AND you have a full-time job!! Nicely done, PNW!
