I am an adult amateur jumper looking to purchase a horse I have been riding for the last year. I think we make a great team and are very compatible when riding and jumping, we even do low level dressage and he performs well with everything. He is a 7 year old imported Oldenburg and has been competing a decent amount with my trainer this past year around 1.20m or below. He is listed as 120k and I am wondering if this is a fair price. He vetted well except for a small spot on his back that is not kissing spine but a spot with some bone remodeling that does not seem to cause him any trouble. Is he worth this price? Seller will not drop at all.
Interesting to have two first time posters making horse cost questions their first post in one day.
I’ll let those more HJ focused comment.
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I think this sounds like a fair price. He’s still young but has good miles. Sound and in work. And you know him well which is a bonus. The only question I have is whether he’s maxed out at 1.20m or is there scope for more? Not sure it would change my opinion if his job was to be 1.20m and under. But if there is scope for more, that makes me think he is very well priced.
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And the posters have a mirror user name style of two letters followed by a year. Just saying before people invest their time assuming a genuine post….
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Agree. If he’s got scope for more, he’s VERY well priced.
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If he is nice to be around, safe, competitive at 1.20 (pretty fast and pretty careful) and has good vetting that is absolutely a fair price. Sign me up.
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Haha we are friends but have different trainers and obviously different horses but she recommended I post to see what everyone thinks! Not a fake account.
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I actually do think he’s competed higher when he was abroad but I’m not positive.
Short answer, yes.
We have a lovely horse in my barn that has done the 1.20s and a couple 1.30s. He’s $150k but I have no idea what his vetting is like.
The vetting is the only thing that concerns me. Although no performance horse with a record will be 100% (just like humans!). I also wasn’t there/don’t know the vet and exact prognosis. Otherwise seems like a fair price.
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I think it’s very fair to ask for his competition record both domestically and abroad.
Have you shown him? I’m not so much concerned about at which height, just that some/many horses are a bit different to ride at the show than at home.
That and why would someone need a six-figure 1.2m+ jumper after riding for one year? Who are these people with all of the money and none of the sense?!? 
Edit: Okay I did misread the OP, she has been riding the horse in question for a year. Presumably on a lease, so that’s another parallel to the thread in the dressage forum…
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I haven’t been riding for a year, I’ve been riding THIS horse for a year. I’ve been riding for 15 years haha
No not on a lease just sporadically across the year so it hasn’t been as consistent as I would like but enough to know the horse fairly well.
I’m waaaaaay out of the market, haven’t bought a horse in over 20yrs 
But from skimming H/J threads here, price seems fair.
IIWM, I’d ask seller if PPE could be done at a vet college where they have all the latest diagnostic tools & procedures done by students under the eye of the attending vet professor.
My experience is these clinics are priced very reasonably.
Should be very easy to look up his competition record, both here and abroad. If his name was changed after he was imported, you can get the original name from his passport.
I’m not terribly familiar with prices for AO and Junior Jumpers, but a horse that’s safe and reliable for an Ammy to ride in the 1.2s, let alone be competitive, without major issues on the PPE is not an easy find. There are more riders that want a horse of this description that there are horses available.
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Fair price.
If anything, get a second opinion on the back mark on xray if it’s bugging you at all to make sure another vet doesn’t have a different perspective.
Ask about what the short and long term effects could be if it ends up being a problem.
Otherwise, if you know the horse, it hasn’t raised a bad hoof (pun intended) and you connect well, go for it. At this point, you’d pay 50k+ to lease something of that quality, so you might as well buy it since it’s young and have the opportunity to lease it down the line to make some money back.
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Horses are so expensive in the states compared to here in Ireland!
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True Story, but you have to factor in the amount of import fees into their price points.
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For sure! I’ve considered going to IRL and picking something out of a field. I’ve imagined you have fields of Olympic quality/bred horses at a fraction, even with import fees. PS I absolutely love ISH. We had a Crusing at my old barn, and I adored him so much even though he almost killed me everyday. My trainer got me a bracelet that says I Love Seamus 
We got my mare for a steal ($35k USD) in England. She is baloubet x Cumano. Even with import and quarantine, it’s a fraction of what you’d pay for the same horse in the US. She was already an experienced eventer.
Imports are not all roses, as many people probably know. We have watched some horses abroad (the same ones) for a period of two years, tried them twice and they still haven’t worked out. Even with sellers you know relatively well, it is hard to know what you’re getting in terms of temperament and quirks, especially for hunter prospects. We’ve had a couple arrive that we’ve bought off videos of riders we know that have shown up a whole hand shorter than advertised, “16h” horses that are essentially today’s big large ponies. Those horse cliques are good for something, here at least I know who is full of S and I’ve seen the horses go at their farms and multiple horse shows.
Edited to say: more often than not, going into areas where you don’t operate, with unknown horse people, you are going to end up screwed rather than with a deal.
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