From an economic perspective, what do you think is the optimal age to sell young stock?
Thanks for your time.
Amy
In utero!!!
I am sure that breeders will say “the earlier the better”. As a buyer, my best time to buy is late 2 year old, early 3 year old (right now that means foals of 2011). They are old enough to have free jumped by then and they are almost ready to start leaning “big boy” stuff soon.
SOMEONE has to raise them until they are ready to get started. I prefer the breeders to have that task. 
However, I realize that the cream of the crop get sold as weanlings, so waiting gives me less of a choice.
Before weaning or just backed.
Agree with the Molly: In-Utero or Before Weaning and/or lightly backed.
Agree with all of this from Lord Helpus. Waiting may mean that you miss out on an exciting one but you certainly have a better idea of what you are buying and “more bang for the buck” with a long two year old. But as a seller, it just gives them more time to injure themselves!
As a breeder/seller: as young as possible
Sadly, as with many questions the answer to this one is “it depends”. Are you talking from a financial standpoint? A safety standpoint? A resource standpoint?
From a financial standpoint I would argue that waiting until they are going under saddle to be the most potentially profitable. Selling them between 3-4 years old you have the greatest chance for a price increase. Now there a lot of variables to that with cost…cost of training, showing, etc. And assuming the horse turns out to nice U/S and live up to your highest expectations.
From a safety standpoint sell young. No variables there! The younger you get them sold the less chance they have time to hurt themselves while in your ownership.
Resources is a huge factor as well. if you have access to affordable young horse trainer, affordable shows and marketing then holding onto them can be a good option. If you live on small, expensive land, must feed hay all year long, live in the middle of nowhere, etc then the cost will go up. If you own Hilltop Farm the cost per foal from birth-3 yrs old will be cheaper.
I agree as soon as possible. But, I get most interest in mine when they are long in their two year old year…
I will suggest to not advertise young horses for sale unless you are committed to selling and providing the basic info that a buyer needs to make a decision whether to go forward. I now think that buying a horse is the biggest PITA, more than selling. As a buying looking at 2031-12 warmbloods I never saw so many flaky sellers, unwilling to answer questions about pricing, no videos- they cannot be bothered. The list goes on. Sorry for the rant, but it is frustrating as a buyer.
