Can’t really tell whether or not he’ll get the step from the video; but he’s freakin’ adorable!
Papers are not at all a big deal in rated hunters or local hunters. (Unless you want to do the Thoroughbred Incentive classes? Not sure how that works, if you have to have the JC papers, or if a lip tattoo is considered sufficient. Another poster will surely know.)
They are a deal breaker if you want to do the breed show hunters.
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You can register for TIP classes with just a JC name/breeding. No papers or tattoo # required.
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Thanks, @worth_the_wait08!
I officially change my answer to “Papers are not at al a big deal in rated or local hunters.”
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My fat thumb was trying to delete an old draft, instead posted, and bumped up an old thread even though I deleted it. Sorry guys!
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We will mutate and develop pointy fingers. 
Well now I am curious
OP what did you end up deciding on? Any cute new pony pics?
I think there are a lot of variables here.
Is the OP capable of taking a ranch broke horse and quickly training it to be a hunter? A good brain will help, but in my experience, most people who are looking for a nice 2’6 horse on a budget want something with show mileage with a novice or kid, proven to be able to take a joke, and a confirmed and easy lead change. This is doubly true in the pony market. THOSE horses, even if average movers and jumpers, are EASY to sell. But I think the skilled/savvy riders who are capable of developing a horse from green broke (to h/j) to show horse are going out and buying their own projects (and likely going to OTTB if they don’t have WB budgets).
So a nice 15.3 or 14.1 QH with a great brain, big stride, and no spook will be marketable, IF it has a lead change and can jump around. But OP has to be honest with themselves if they have the skills to do this in a reasonable amount of time. And ‘reasonable’ for a flip horse is waaaay shorter than a project for oneself. Those months of eating, shoeing, showing all add up.
Let’s say OP IS capable of getting the right raw material and making it up quickly herself. That’s still not automatically leading to success. Most places on the east coast that have affordable “acres and acres” of turnout and low cost of living/care, also aren’t in prime h/j markets. So OP will have to trailer prospects to schooling shows and do well enough that she develops a reputation for producing nice horses. Otherwise it might be hard to entice shoppers to drive many hours to go look at a single horse. Having multiple prospects at a time would help here, as you could show potential buyers a few, but the farther you’re off the beaten path, the harder it is to entice shoppers. And since a lot of the H/J market is driven by name recognition, if you don’t already have that solid reputation of selling really nice, solid long stirrup/pre-childrens horses, you might need to align with a trainer to help market those horses, and that trainer will take a commission that will eat into your profits.
So I’m not saying this can’t work. I have lucked into several nice horses that were inexpensive for myriad reasons and that made up into fantastic hunters. But if the model were as easy as ‘buy ranch horse, teach ranch horse to do lead changes and jump flowers in 60 days, sell horse as pre-children’s horse’, then a lot more people would already be doing it. So OP, be honest with yourself when appraising both your own skills and the potential in the area you live in.
He’s adorable! My daughter has a 14.1, 4 yo reining bred mare with a nice extended stride too. I think the catch is that these horses look like they’re extending to make the strides, but the bigger horses look effortless. As a fun aside our now retired large pony hunter mare is just under an inch taller than our reining girl, yet she “walked the lines” in the pony hunters. No idea what her breeding is but she is worth her weight in gold.
Another fun fact for OP, depending on your market, there’s a little originally western broke QH here (CT) who cleans up the local circuit and will take a kid from wtc, cross rails to 2’6 (kinda gallops the lines at 2’6), has a mostly auto lead change and a super easy temperament. He has been leased from kid to kid in the same barn for the past 5 years or so. His owner told me one day she was offered $20k for a one year lease off property (but she doesn’t want him offsite). So if you can average these horses at 4-8k and every now and again find one of these gems, you’d have a tidy business going…good luck!
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