Lovely horses;
https://www.oakhillranch.com/sales/
To the people continuing to give the OP advice on where to look… did you see the date on this thread?
Yes! I found a horse a year ago for $30k + import and he is fabulous! Tons of scope and amateur friendly! I did however end up buying sight unseen and did not go to Europe .
With the realization that this is an old thread…
Yeah that the OP found a great horse!
I got lucky and got a US-bred 6 y.o. for a bit more than the OP’s purchase price+import. If the OP had gone to Europe, it may have ended up being about the same money spent as I did.
But the moral, and perhaps hope for US breeders, is that there are horses here in the states, and even in California. Mine was the first horse I looked at. My trainer was looking for something else for someone else and, for whatever reason, they brought out Grady. She liked him and remembered him when I was ready to look. He was the first horse I looked at. We looked at one more and then brought him in for a trial and PPE (one advantage of shopping local…).
He’d done one show as a yearling(?) in the hunter breeding, without great distinction, and then a few shows as a 5- and 6-y.o. in the meter jumpers, including at Thermal sans shoes. Two months after purchase he did a B show in the pre-greens and placed in the national hunter derby and a month after that I started showing him in the AA hunters, so the hunterification didn’t take long. He does continue to evolve as a hunter. The goal is to continue with the hunters and add some medals in the new year.
Video from the second round of our first show (no coat bc it was >100°F)
https://youtu.be/8JzXV29xM7A
@Ako, there are a lot of good breeders in the USA, particular ones who know that market and target it in their breeding decisions. What is it that makes you feel you can’t find something here?
