Faye, Get him checked by a vet. He might be hurting somewhere.
Keep in mind the owners may not want the horse doing 3’6" because they’d like to extend it’s useful years. I have a successful 3’6" junior hunter who we leased to do 3’ this year - definitely can still do the 3’6" but we were happy to take the lower fee for less pounding. I would have sold him as a 3’6" horse but for leasing, there was no reason to pound the animal or potentially give him a bad experience with a less experienced rider.
All that being said, price ranges for a former 3’6" horse that is stepping down but still capable at that heigh, with a hole like this, are gonna be around $25-40K in my area per year depending on how serious the hole for the 3’.
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Thank you to everyone for their help!
I am wondering from your replies: what would be considered to be a 3ft. “packer”? A horse that doesn’t get mad from a bunch of chips? A horse that navigates the death flyer by throwing in a little step to save himself and his rider?
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Yes and yes. Even better, the horse sees distances early and helps fit it in early rather than waiting for the chocolate chip (assuming the rider is not completely strangling it). AKA “seeing eye dog”.
Which is not to say that any horse should be should expected to tolerate the chocolate chip to a 3’ oxer indefinitely. Most 3’ packers are not Grand Prix horses, scope-wise. So you can buy a packer and make it into a not-packer if it’s really a mismatch.
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This is really helpful, thank you. I believe I need a horse more like you describe! Someone told my trainer yesterday that they have seen this horse stop when the out of the line comes up too long and the rider has flown right over. Not the horses’ fault, but I’d certainly do better with one that would throw in another one if I happened to blow it to this magnitude.
It really depends on the horse and rider combo, and it depends on how much you’re willing to tolerate in a fancy one. Rated show winner packers are going to be really expensive. This horse sounds like a rated show contender but not truly a packer. So if you want to win at rated shows, he’ll probably get you there for a more affordable price, except for the times he doesn’t. Trade offs!
I posted a little while ago asking about expectations for pricing the opposite. When I shop it will be for a 3’ packer but I have no show expectations. I mean, I will go to local shows for fun, but my budget is limited and so is my nerve and so is my eye for distances on a bad day. My priority is safe, not fancy. Trade offs!
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Thank you! i love this boy so much but i’m leaving the area, i told the owner he needs to be checked. Last week he tripped and face planted, knees, face to the ground and i flew off his head. He also face planted a few weeks ago with the other half leaser 
This is a tough one. A winning junior hunter on the west coast is a 200k horse easily, but stopping at 3’ seems odd. I’d worry about pain being an issue since it sounds like he’s not overfaced. If he didnt stop and was a winning childrens hunter I’d expect the lease price to be 50k range; 100k lease if still a winning junior hunter
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theres a difference between a horse stopping occasionally bc the rider has put it in an unsafe situation and a stopper. Almost any horse will stop if you give it a bad enough situation, even packers (my last horse was brave beyond but I tried an extreme slice on a shit distance and thank goodness he stopped; his only stop in 4 years ever).
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Whoa. This is not normal, not okay, and well beyond the point of needing to be checked out. He’s inadvertently dangerous and should not be ridden.
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As others have opined, there’s “Stopping” and then there’s an acceptable range of self-preservation that differs with each horse. I tend to be pretty generous in allowing them to maintain some autonomy in that regard, but a 3’6"-capable horse stopping at a 3’ out would be a red flag for me.
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It’s so sad, the previous owner of him messaged me and told me about his neck arthritis and he needed this special shoes. Not sure if the barn owner (who owns him now) is taking that to consideration. He’s only 8, and according to the previous owner is sound to go up to a meter. He certainly starts to have those stops if anything is not aligned once jumps gets a tiny bit bigger.
Confirming zone 2, aka the land where $100K is a tight budget!
Most a circuit 3 ft horses that have a decent lease price don’t stop like that (or stop much at all), there’s stopping to keep you safe & stopping to send you on your merry way. This suddenly sounds like the latter.
Every one may have a slightly different definition of ''packer", so here is mine (using mine as an example). Mine is younger for a “packer” ( he’s 7) but the pieces are there. He had shown with a pro at bigger heights. I literally just moved up to the .95 jumpers.
- horse will always go - he may overrule a decision if he doesn’t agree, but he tries like hell to get over
- horse sees the distance himself and regulates pace to jump
- if his dumb ass owner (me- I’m the dumb ass) sees a impossible spot, horse goes “umm- we’re adding” and makes it to the other side (if owner stays on is a different answer)
- if D.A owner does NOT see any spot- just holds on like a monkey and horse figures it out
- horse will also see the correct “big” distance
- horse will “close the gap” for himself- if allowed by DA owner
Now- even unicorns have a threshold for dumb. Mine I can take in cold to almost any ring and he’ll make it around. He’s brave, he’s adjustable but to me- the best quality in a packer is generally his ability to get us out of trouble at the lower heights. After almost 10 months since I bought him, trainer finally said he’d do some pro rides after we decided I was riding well enough to move up. Not that the horse “needed” the pro rides, but a few rides of pro distances at bigger heights was just what he needed to give him some confidence - just in case. 
(I have to say- I make it seem like I always miss my distance- I don’t. My trainer compliments my eye- which is part of the reason my guy bails us out (I think) because 98% of the time I don’t boof the jump.)
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Part of being a packer is that the horse lands quietly and soldiers on after a rider error, as opposed to bucking, scooting, stopping at the next jump, or exacting revenge in some other fashion. Hence the term “takes a joke, or an entire comedy series.
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How I miss my two thoroughbreds. One was a hunter, the other a jumper. With either you could lie or cheat the distance, flop around telling them absolutely nothing, beg the holy Mother for them to find the distance for you, gallop down to nothing and take your leg off, and voila, you were still safe, even at 3’6". Their ears would still be perked for the next jump. Neither was a great mover, thus why I could afford them. Lease/purchase prices not compatible because this was the early 90s and early 00s. The only naughty thing my hunter did was in the Gold Ring at Devon in the Locals. There was a huge blow up hot air balloon thing at the end of the ring, and he was having none of that.
I now have a green 11 year old appy/TB cross who has dressage background. I’m hoping to make him into at least a 2’6" packer.
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This. In the packer world, what happens on the landing side is just as important as what happens on the take off side.
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So true. My worst accident/injury happened on the backside of a minuscule jump. Sure would have been nice if the horse had tried to help me out instead of . . . definitely not trying to do that!
