A friend of mine has gotten some nice, tall, athletic quarter horses from Penn State. They have a breeding program, some kind of starting class and then a production sale each spring. Have any of you been to that and/or bought horses from them? I’d be grateful for hearing about your experience and estimation of those horses’ quality and soundness. Thanks!
I have a reining bred Penn State horse, who is 14 now. I bought him at the sale as a 2 year old, and would buy 100 more like him if I could.
They have an AQHA breeding program with both stallions and mares, and then a training class that the horses are started in spring of their 2 year old year. A marketing class helps promote the sale.
The training class is run by very competent horsemen, and the horses are well started, but not stressed. Students are well supervised and the instructors are very hands on. They are not finished, but have good basics with no fear put into them.
The horses are raised across the street from Beaver Stadium, Penn State’s football stadium, so they see everything from marching bands to drunks to fireworks. You cannot scare my horse if you try, and he has been this way since the day I bought him.
They will not sell a horse if they do not think they are sound. They will hold them back and sell them the next year if need be.
They have a website as well as a Facebook page.
3 Likes
I have a 31yo from the program and also spent five years working at their breeding facility. My QH is the soundest and easiest horse we have :lol:
They’re a good honest group of people and the horses are exactly as advertised. As the above stated, they will not sell an unsound or questionable horse, and the horses are started well. They are VERY green (30-60 days under saddle) but have a good safe foundation that sets them up for success, does not overwhelm them or create fear/anxiety in the horse.
They have a variety of WP, HUS, reining, halter, and all-around types. The students put a lot of work into the horses and the sale itself. I will say, they are not particularly tall as you mentioned in your post. They average around 15.0hh, with the “tall” ones coming in at about 16.0hh.
I cannot really speak to their quality for the show ring as they cater heavily to the breed circuit types and that is not what I do with my horses, so I don’t know how they stack up against other QH breeders/competitors at AQHA shows.
If you’re looking for a western type youngster, it’s a nice sale to check out.
1 Like
Thank you both! Would you buy one of these with no PPE or no x-rays? It looks like this sale is not set up fo allow for that.
I would be comfortable buying with no PPE/no xrays. They disclose any issues with the horse (past injuries and such) during inspection. The herd manager is also a vet and I would trust him 100% with health information about the horses.
I bought with no PPE or xrays. It is not something that is offered on the sale horses.
Again, just like skipollo said, I trust the university 100% with the information they provide.
1 Like
The way things are going, they may not have a sale.
Horse sales around here have been cancelled, like the NM Clovis spring catalog horse sale and competitions held to showcase the horses.
That one is a big regional sale, that draws buyers and sellers from the West to the East.
That sale’s catalogs have already been mailed, was to be this weekend.
May want to keep your eye on closings.
I didn’t know about this sale, sounds like a place to keep an eye out for a cute youngster
2 Likes
Many big horse trainers that buy cheap and sell high buy their prospects there.
Well trained horses bring high prices, most others, especially young ones, are underpriced, as there are more private buyers wanting well trained pretty horses than trainers looking for prospects.
It is a decades old sale, their catalog sale with some guarantees, the open sale next day, “as is”.
They also have ropings, barrel races, working ranch horse competitions the day before the sale, horses in the sale many of those you can watch perform the day before, including in a futurity for young horses bought previously at the sale.
That Penn State sale has been running for decades and last time I was up on such things, they had some good Reiners ( they had a stud of some renown) and solid working horses coming out of the program. Good quality, good looking, honest representation,
Auctions do not have provisions for PPEs, some have vet records available and some simply have developed a reputation for presenting only healthy, sound horses over decades as this one has done. Not every horse is going to work out perfectly as with any other source, but it won’t be because of misrepresentation, hidden unsoundness or training shortcuts. And they are homebreds too, no guessing who it is and where it’s been.
I’d buy one. Whenever they do hold the sale.
1 Like
Do any of you all know their bloodlines, particularly any of the Dynamic Krymsun babies?
I have met some of these and they seemed nice, even by English standards, if not ready to beat a WB in the hunter ring.
Yes, his babies tend to be very quiet and pleasant to work with. I didn’t handle one that I didn’t like. The more English type babies, while they are perfectly nice horses, will generally not be competitive in the hunter ring against a WB. They are much more geared to HUS at breed shows. They have a Youtube channel: PSU QH. They have under saddle videos of each horse. They don’t have videos for this year’s horses yet, but you can see past sale horses move.
1 Like
The Penn State HUS horses are very competitive in the AQHA ring, but I would not classify them as a true “hunter”.
Between the bloodlines and the way these horses are handled, they tend to be quiet and easy to handle. They have tons of different college students handling them from the moment they are born.
Another interesting thing they do with them is haul them to the ag arena to be worked. This means they have all been loaded and unloaded on a stock trailer regularly. I did have to work with my horse on backing out of the slant load as he was used to turning around and coming out front ways. I will say my horse has never hesitated to load, even after years of not being hauled anywhere.
One thing I love about my horse is you can clip his entire head with no halter. He thinks it is just a routine part of life. The sale horse are used in a livestock competition called “Little I”, a show in which the handler is judged on their showing abilities using different species of livestock. The horses get groomed like they are going to a regular show, so bathing and clipping is not an issue.
These are all such helpful comments. Thank you!
I guess I should tell you more about what I’m trying to make this horse into.
My goal is to buy one with a lovely, ammy-friendly mind and then find a job that that horse likes to do for me or, eventually, for someone else. It will happen in English world or, if it stays in Western world as a horse I’d ride, it has to have three pure gaits and a somewhat long stride and free shoulder in order to have a canter I’d like.
So this baby horse would be a project that would become either a local 3’ hunter, a field hunter (in mostly drag hunts) or my first western bridle horse. But my English and hunter princess background means that I want what I think is a good-moving horse (even if the western guys would choose something different for their bitty, catty/sneaky cow horses). I don’t want/need a HUS type that’s 16.3, though I would take a taller horse who was slab-sided. I’m short.
I am here for the project, the nice mind and a useful horse in the end even if it never has to become a competitive specialist in any of the English show ring disciplines.
Does this change your opinion of the suitability of these horses for me? I suppose I should say up front that a downhill horse won’t work for me. Same goes for one that has been bred to be “slow-legged” in the Western Pleasure way and really can’t move forward the way you’d need for a jumping horse.
My advice would be to look very carefully at the videos they will eventually post. Many of the modern day western pleasure horses are supposed to be bred to move the way they move. (Whether I agree with that is neither here nor there, but you can guess how I feel.)
Up until the last five years when I moved down south, I always took a day or two and went and watched the training class to see which horses appealed to me and my needs. I did bid on one via phone bid last year, but in very few bids he became a five figure horse, and I was unwilling to go that high. I would have bought him sight unseen though, with no doubts had the price been reasonable.
Another thing to do is call the number listed on the website. Brian Egan is the instructor in charge of the program, and that is who you want to speak with. Tell him exactly what you are looking for in detail. He will tell you if there is something that might work for you. Brian is an honest man who knows the horses in the program very well.
2 Likes
Bolded by me. While the sale will have maybe 1-2 token “big horses” (read: 16hh), they generally are very small (around 15.0hh or so.) They have the sizes of their sale horses listed on their catalog right now, so you could check that out. Plenty of them will make good all-arounders, jacks of all trades, but finding a larger horse that which will pop around a 3’ hunter course, while those fences are not very big, will be harder to find. Impossible? No, there have been a few, but not many.
They used to have a few TB mares, but I don’t know if they have any currently. They have a 75% TB mare, but I don’t see a baby out of her for the sale this year. One of her babies would be the ticket, although they are a little more sensitive-minded so if you don’t want something like that it may not be a good fit.
1 Like
cutter99 and skipollo, thank you both so much for your detailed advice. I have recently met some WP-bred horses who get their “flat kneed” movement by winging out from the elbow. Or at least, that how it looks to me. I really can’t buy that movement. And sometimes I can’t see it if the horse is on the rail; I would like to see the horse coming toward me.
I will give them a call close to the sale and see what the options are for coming up to watch the horses go.
1 Like
I’m very interested in keeping an eye on this, what is the general price range, I might be interested in the next year or so, they seem like really nice horses and could be very ammy friendly with good minds, something I definitely like.
The minimum bid starts at (I believe) $1500 or $1800. Average prices vary year to year. They usually have 1-2 big sellers, sometimes going into the low 5-figure range. Overall I would say $3-$4K would be average.
Sometimes they will offer yearlings or a 3yo (the sale is primarily 2yos). The yearling reserve is (I think) $1000? The 3yos generally go for a little more than the average 2yos because they have another year of experience and maturity under their belts.
1 Like
I paid $2100 for my horse in 2008. You can see the sale prices from last year on the website. As the quality of the horses has gone up, so have the prices. There are still some that are very good deals though.
https://sites.psu.edu/quarterhorsesa…-sale-results/
There is one 3 year old offered, and no yearlings. The rest are all 2 year olds.
