Back in the day a luxury car to me was a Cadillac sedan with a big engine, a big trunk, and big wheels and tires for a comfy ride. Or a Merc or a Lincoln Continental.
Or a Rolls Royce, of course. But I’ve never actually ridden in one of those.
And they have a hell of a tailgate there, don’t they???
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@Rackonteur, Penn State, but there are other great university programs out there too. University of Wisconsin River Falls, University of Findlay, Mississippi State University, and Truman State University all have Quarter horse breeding programs. Michigan State has an Arabian breeding program.
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Yep!!!
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More local to the OP, Virginia Tech has, or at least had, a warmblood breeding program.
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I know a quintessential luxury trail horse. He is a stunningly handsome AQHA, fun color, hair for days, and a magazine level face. Despite being owned by an absolute rank beginner and ridden maybe 3x/month, he’s a combination of a Cadillac and Tesla. Auto parks himself by any surface that could pick up a rider, would walk through fire on the buckle, and can lead/follow/serve as a stopping barrier. On a recent ride someone was doing trail clearing with a hack saw and branch trimmers from his back and he was just bopping along without a care in the world. I don’t have the $$$ for one like him but if I hit the lottery I’d pay real money for a horse that is not only that broke but has a mindset where he stays tuned up because he’s a good egg and happy to work.
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I’ve already got her
…and working on 2 others
I can take her anywhere and pretty much do anything with her but she’s still plenty spicy. I can do an endurance race on her and teach a walk trot lesson on her the next day. She’s sure footed and knows her job very well. We’ve done parades, been an outrider for 3 day events, ridden all up and down the east coast. I am “home” when I am in the saddle on her
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They seem to sell in these special auctions, and I think of https://cowgirlcadillacs.com/ as the quintessential example.
“Trail horse deluxe” almost always has the following attributes and sell from low 5s into 6 figure range despite not being elite performance horses:
*Flashy/pretty: think dramatic duns, paints, roans, palominos. Lots of chrome. Full, luscious mane and tail. It can’t be a luxury trail horse if it doesn’t draw attention.
*Extremely desensitized, as shown by many professionally produced videos wherein horse is accosted by trucks, tarps, dogs, kids, aliens, Harrier jets, etc
*Either papered QH or exotic hybrid to add color, think Gypsy vanner, Percheron, occasional Norwegian fjord
*Substantial. Your suburban utility trail horse must be beefy to handle any manner of riding and conditions without breaking down
So basically, these are the equine equivalent of platinum edition Escalades driven to Starbucks on the weekend.
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Thanks.
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There is the kind of horse that I used to call a sofa ride. 
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This is a link to the website I posted about above. Note no prices listed.
These horses do absolutely nothing my less than $5,000 invested 4 year old does not do.
As someone with a back ground in sales and marketing in the equine industry, you have to give them credit on an excellent marketing campaign!
My luxury trail horse would have an inflatable tent attachment with a pull-out sofa, hot and cold running water and a satellite dish.
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Amen amen amen
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