Why are horses being advertised as six figures?
I could buy two cars with that money lol
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Because some horses are in a market that people will pay that.
Using your comparison, the type of car I buy I can buy more than two for that price.
Some very lovely horses are bought and sold in that price range.
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Why are Arcteryx shell jackets $400+? I could buy a set of tires for that price!
Well, things cost what people will pay for them, generally. And the difference between a Costco rain jacket that’ll soak through in a nasty storm and a shell that’ll survive climbing Mt Everest, is the same as a green broke QH that’ll max out at 2’6” and never get a swap vs a purpose bred WB that’ll win the hack at WEF. The cost to produce each “product” is vastly different from low end product to high end product, and people will pay for the Best.
This has been hashed out over and over on countless threads. If you can’t afford it or don’t need it, who cares if someone else can or does?
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Do you import your car yourself?
Someone is making money on the cars that you buy.
Same idea here, people import horses, dump a ton of money into training them and showing them to give them a record, and then expect a ROI.
At this stage of the game, if you want that, and for it to win in A show company, it can cost upwards of $50-60k just to put a decent record on it, board it, and keep it shod/vaccinated/etc. Add in a 30-40k purchase price from Europe plus import costs, you’re already at 6 figures. So that’s barely breaking even.
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Things cost what people will pay for them. Some people will pay six figures for a horse. Some people won’t. This is nothing new.
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I could buy like, ten cars! Woot! And I’m not even talking about Hot Wheels!
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So I guess the OP probably doesn’t even want to know about the recent top hunter sales where the prices were 7 figures not 6 
As everyone has said, prices run the gamut and there are people paying all levels of prices. The same horse could sell for totally different price ranges depending on whose barn it is standing in when the buyer sees it, too.
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I’ve noticed that any thread about the cost of horses and having them eventually boils down to the cost of real estate. I don’t know if you’re very young, but this is a good opportunity for you to learn about capitalism and the global flow of commodities and goods, and the winners and losers in such a system.
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Very frustrating right now trying to find a half decent horse that’s not 6 figures. There are plenty worth 6 figures but there are lots priced there that shouldn’t be.
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A little complaining about the price of horses is fine and legitimate by me. I just tried a baby (coming 5) with very little steering that had been to 1 horse show, where it managed to land its leads and get 1 lead change (boon). It was cute, but not flashy, and a good mover, could probably get a piece of the 3 ft. green hack at WEC, for instance. Looks pretty athletic, though hard to judge its form over 2’6’’. 150k, 130k to our barn. This is certainly better than the 800k/1.2m sales I’ve heard of in the division I typically ride in, but its all pretty depressing. The AA level/indoors set of the sport is no longer for rich people, or even the very rich, but the super wealthy on up. I’m not sure why that’s not worth lamenting, even if its how capitalism works.
I guess I will add that buying the horse is usually the cheaper part for most customers who have not been in the horse industry for a long time, who have no farm, without a lot of maintenance connections, who can’t swing a trade to get the price of horses down, etc. And then the horse might break, and they’ll need another to keep going on the circuit. And so on.
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As a trainer I could buy a new truck and hopefully not have to worry about repairs every month. 
. It’s the way it is now.
