What an interesting, well written article! Thank you so much for sharing. I agree with whoever mentioned submitting it to a magazine; something like Practical Horseman might very well be interested.
Thank again, and congrats on finding Teddy!
Sigh.
I found the article really interesting but I am with Yankee on this one. I am off to Germany in a year to train and of course, the thought of buying something for breeding to bring back with me popped into my mind. But then when I seriously thought about it, I realized that even amongst the breeders who post regularely on that little Hanoverian section of ewarmbloods.net I could find probably ten foals that fit my needs…as good as any I would find in europe for that price. I don’t even have to search around to know this…I just peruse peoples websites when they post and that about does it!
so if someone would organize a buyers tour more would do it. If I were looking to buy and went to Devon how would I possibly connect with as many people as possible. It really needs to be a local that does the organizing.
You have to factor in the DQ factor. Many people just like the cache of having a horse from Europe.
[QUOTE=Gayla;3320111]
so if someone would organize a buyers tour more would do it. If I were looking to buy and went to Devon how would I possibly connect with as many people as possible. It really needs to be a local that does the organizing.
You have to factor in the DQ factor. Many people just like the cache of having a horse from Europe.[/QUOTE]
I am completely happy to put buyers in contact with any one of my many contacts here, and help them map out a shopping trip. But truly, I think buyers need to take initiative and do some legwork as well. I actually do have a FT job that is not insubstantial and never ask for any compensation for helping people find their dream horse. I like to help people. But I do think buyers shouldn’t expect everything to be done for them.
Re Devon – one approach is to identify, in advance, a number of farms that are going to be exhibiting and to contact them and let them know you will be attending and would like to look at their horses. There are some big farms that attend every year. Right here on COTH, there are always pre-DAD threads where those planning to attend say so, and that includes a number of the smaller breeders. I would compile a list of potential horses, and then add to it as I see fit once there. Look at the show schedule. If you are interested in Dutch WBs, for example, be sure to watch those classes, and you can approach the horse’s connections if you see one that you really like.
Haven’t read the article, will try to get to it this weekend, but I just had to comment… I just love it when Americans who have already imported stock from Europe then tell us how expensive it is and how we should “buy American”. It’s OK for you but not for us!!!
:rolleyes:
I bought a horse last year - off the internet. She’s imported too- from Canada. 
The internet has made shopping MUCH easier, but I think it could be even simpler-
However, I wouldn’t have minded buying American, and I think a couple of things would make the process much easier-
A couple of big sales/auctions - 1 at Devon, 1 in Wellington, and it would be nice to have 1 in the midwest and 1 in California, perhaps. It makes sense to me to do this at a time immediately before or after a big event where a lot of people would want to bring their horses there anyway.
A big central database for each breed, kept up-to-date with horses for sale and an option to group selections by location and a way to coordinate contacting those breeders/sellers and a visit all on the same day- “Hey, on the first Saturday of each month we might have a visitor”. The sellers could be notified ahead of time, but if everyone in the area knows it’s “sale saturday” and is willing to follow that, then it’s a day trip for the buyer.
Not perfect solutions, but I think it would help. But it would have to be widely publicized and probably limited to one such site per breed, if not one such site for several. It doesn’t do much good to have 3 completely different types of horses for sale in a tristate area because there are some on this site, and some are on another site, and some are on yet another site…
People want one stop shopping, and consolidating probably means sellers are probably going to have to be more flexible and put in more work to accomplish that.
BTW- I did enjoy the article. I doubt I could ever afford to do that, but it was fun to read about.
[QUOTE=Dune;3320289]
Haven’t read the article, will try to get to it this weekend, but I just had to comment… I just love it when Americans who have already imported stock from Europe then tell us how expensive it is and how we should “buy American”. It’s OK for you but not for us!!!:rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
I have imported, and have always said I buy the best horses I can get my hands on, wherever that may be. I meant WHEREVER. That includes the US. I have bought more horses stateside, in fact, over the years, including Grand Prix horses.
Regarding the ones I have bought abroad, I did so because I was seeking particular, hard-to-obtain bloodlines that I wanted to bring to the US for my program. One mare, for example, is by Hohenstein. Hohenstein does not freeze; there are very few mares in the US by him. The filly was purchased at the Elite Auction in Verden and prior to importation qualified for the Foal Bundeschampionnats, where she made the Brilliant Ring. She also has a very distinguished damline. My other mare is a 3/4 sibling to Sir Donnerhall and is SPS/Elite. The mares are currently in foal to Stedinger and Rousseau, respectively. So, no, you don’t need to go to Germany to find Stedinger x Hohenstein, or to find Rousseau x Sandro Hit x Donnerhall.
I am not telling people not to import. Just don’t expect me to keep quiet when people say they are doing so because they cannot identify horses here, or when they say it makes any kind of economic sense to import at this time in most cases (note that the exchange rate is NOT what it was even 3 years ago, and import costs are also much higher). And don’t expect me to keep my mouth shut when I hear people making comparisons that are not apples to apples. They do not give good horses away in Germany, and the prices of exceptional ones will blow your mind. One thing I have noticed is that for some reason people don’t want to pay market for a top horse here, but will part with double the amount of money for a very comparable horse being sold abroad. Then they claim they just couldn’t possibly find a horse here. That makes sense. :rolleyes:
Many of them will pay double for a LESS comparable horse.
[QUOTE=Tiki;3320907]
Many of them will pay double for a LESS comparable horse.[/QUOTE]
That too.
I just thought I would throw in that there will be a 2-day Oldenburg show in September at High Point Hanoverians in Maryland, featuring young horses from foals all the way up to riding horses through age 6 (both dressage horses and jumping horses). There will no doubt be some very nice horses there, many of which will probably be for sale. There is info on the Oldenburg website at http://www.oldenburghorse.com/Oldbrg-ClinicsEvents.htm . Might be a very good event to attend for anyone looking for a nice young prospect. 
[QUOTE=DownYonder;3320950]
I just thought I would throw in that there will be a 2-day Oldenburg show in September at High Point Hanoverians in Maryland, featuring young horses from foals all the way up to riding horses through age 6 (both dressage horses and jumping horses). There will no doubt be some very nice horses there, many of which will probably be for sale. There is info on the Oldenburg website at http://www.oldenburghorse.com/Oldbrg-ClinicsEvents.htm . Might be a very good event to attend for anyone looking for a nice young prospect. ;)[/QUOTE]
That sounds like a great event.
I have volunteered to write the article about buying/selling US bred horses. If anyone has any questions, concerns or comments they’d like to make, please pm me!
swgarasu: I think that’s an excellent idea - further, there could be “sales” barns at such shows, or if sellers had both sales horses and not-for-sale horses they wanted to stall together, they could post sales signs on the stalls (I am not on the east coast so it is possible that sellers do have such signs on the stalls already, but if it’s not done already, it would seem like a logical thing to do. If this became a widespread, regular practice, then buyers would know to check the barns for horses they’ve seen go in classes, or for horses that have been pre-advertised on the internet. At some of the big h/j shows I’ve been to, I’ve seen signs posted near stabling charts or near restrooms or food stands - anywhere people congregate - not very sophisticated, but functional.
DownYonder: That sounds like a super sales showcase.
Tiki: I agree!
[QUOTE=YankeeLawyer;3319545]
Sigh.[/QUOTE]
there’s really no need to despair - it was, to my mind, a well written article, and an interesting read, and i think a large part of the equestrian community would enjoy reading it. do i now want to buy only from Europe and import? nope! just expressing my thoughts on a well written piece, that was a good read.
[QUOTE=kashmere;3321164]
there’s really no need to despair - it was, to my mind, a well written article, and an interesting read, and i think a large part of the equestrian community would enjoy reading it. do i now want to buy only from Europe and import? nope! just expressing my thoughts on a well written piece, that was a good read.[/QUOTE]
My frustration is in the repeated suggestions to get the piece published in Practical Horseman, or the like. The US breeders have been working really hard to change people’s perceptions. It is INCREDIBLY frustrating to see myths perpetuated.
Also, you have to understand that breeders put their heart and soul into producing these horses. Many, many hours of research, planning, and coordinating occurs even before the mare is bred, and the financial investment is not insignificant. Just getting a healthy foal on the ground can be a challenge. So when you manage to produce a dream horse, and have put all your blood, sweat, and tears into it, to hear people indicate that basically they could not possibly be bothered to do the most basic research when shopping for horses is exasperating. Honestly, it makes me never want to sell any of mine – which is really sad, in my opinion, because part of my goal has always been to produce top horses and get them into the hands of people who can take them all the way, or who, at the very least, will adore that horse and view him as their own dream horse.
Sometimes people have nice flyers posted on their sale horse’s stalls at shows and inspections, with extras that those interested can take. I personally am opposed to a sales barn at shows because I want my horses stabled together when I am showing. I also think that having multiple open houses (e.g., first Saturday of every month) is impractical because the more freqently you have these, ime, the less motivated people are to come (because they think they can just come any time, so they put it off). Plus, running a farm is a lot of work and I can’t imagine blocking one Saturday a month to sit around hoping someone might show up. Not to mention that when we show horses to visitors, they are groomed as if they are going to a show. Doing that for all sale horses, one Saturday a month, would be overly burdensome.
My policy is visits are by appointment, and we try to accomodate client’s schedules.
German verband and AHS working together
Thought you guys might be interested to know that the German Hanoverian verband has sent a charming young man, Joerg Wegener, to the USA to drive around the country and talk with trainers and breeders about how to better prepare the American bred Hanoverians for sale. He said that he thinks we’ve gotten the breeding thing down, but not the next step which would be training and presenting young horses for sale.
I think he’s been surprised at just how large the USA really is and I got the impression that he may have thought we were too big to get a concerted effort going. He never said that outright and he was definitely in an ‘information gathering’ mode but he didn’t seem optimistic that our culture could support such an effort.
At any rate, at least someone is thinking about how to help the US bred horses get to the US buyers…did anyone else talk to Joerg? Perhaps he changed his mind as he got further along in his journey!
[QUOTE=hsheffield;3321532]
Thought you guys might be interested to know that the German Hanoverian verband has sent a charming young man, Joerg Wegener, to the USA to drive around the country and talk with trainers and breeders about how to better prepare the American bred Hanoverians for sale. He said that he thinks we’ve gotten the breeding thing down, but not the next step which would be training and presenting young horses for sale.
I think he’s been surprised at just how large the USA really is and I got the impression that he may have thought we were too big to get a concerted effort going. He never said that outright and he was definitely in an ‘information gathering’ mode but he didn’t seem optimistic that our culture could support such an effort.
At any rate, at least someone is thinking about how to help the US bred horses get to the US buyers…did anyone else talk to Joerg? Perhaps he changed his mind as he got further along in his journey![/QUOTE]
I believe that those visits are part of the AHS’ initiatives to identify and approve training facilities for young horses, so that people will have places they can trust to send their horses for initial training.
[QUOTE=YankeeLawyer;3321398]
My frustration is in the repeated suggestions to get the piece published in Practical Horseman, or the like. The US breeders have been working really hard to change people’s perceptions. It is INCREDIBLY frustrating to see myths perpetuated.
Also, you have to understand that breeders put their heart and soul into producing these horses. Many, many hours of research, planning, and coordinating occurs even before the mare is bred, and the financial investment is not insignificant. Just getting a healthy foal on the ground can be a challenge. So when you manage to produce a dream horse, and have put all your blood, sweat, and tears into it, to hear people indicate that basically they could not possibly be bothered to do the most basic research when shopping for horses is exasperating. Honestly, it makes me never want to sell any of mine – which is really sad, in my opinion, because part of my goal has always been to produce top horses and get them into the hands of people who can take them all the way, or who, at the very least, will adore that horse and view him as their own dream horse.[/QUOTE]
fair enough, and understood. A close friend of mine up here in the great white north runs a very small-scale breeding operation, so i’ve experienced that commitment firsthand, and it’s admirable.
I don’t think it’s a myth, period. The OP was sharing her experience, that’s super, how’s that a myth? I have a similar story. Your post here sums it up in a nutshell for me as far as what I have found shopping in the US. Breeders tend to be more toward the emotional. Rarely did I find a breeder here that could tell me what they honestly had. It’s not so much that I thought they were lying, it’s just that they were either too inexperienced or too infatuated by their own stock. Having someone develop that young horse was also a rarity, I mean geez, I want to have a little sit on your 4 year old and when it’s still sitting out in pasture that does me NO good…especially when you still want top dollar for it. When I went shopping in Germany, folks seemed to know what they had: This one is good for competition, this one is good for hobby horse, etc…and believe me, there were some lovely “hobby horses” there, here we call them something else entirely.:lol: Also, they were all started correctly, on the bit from the beginning and jumping around a bit and it was NO big deal, just expected. There is a good reason that these supposed “myths” are perpetuated, it’s because as a whole they are actually true. Now, having said all of that…their are some select breeders here in the US that know what they are doing. We are starting to breed some lovely horses, although I still have to smile a bit because even with these “homebreds”, guess where they (most) originate?? Imported stock.:winkgrin: BTW, OP I went back and read your article. VERY well done!:yes:
