I’m probably the exception but I have twice bought a schoolmaster in their 20s and don’t regret it for a second. But I agree that the buyer pool is small and very specific, and the price for a horse that age is very, very low.
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I suspect that’s because he’s a 3rd level schoolmaster - there are a lot of much younger 3rd level horses out there. A GP schoolmaster would be a very different story as they are much more rare.
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Actually he’s PSG dropping down to show 3rd. Very few older guys could maintain those levels accurately at that age, especially for showing. Doesn’t mean you can’t still school all the buttons. My health dilemma passed and thankfully he’s still here.
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Ah, that makes more sense! I did not read it that way the first time. But yes not a lot of 20 year olds are still schooling GP. But I have seen a lot of trainers take on older (late teens through early 20s, even) FEI horses either to get their medals (since you only need 60% to qualify) or use with students. But certainly the maintenance cost and shorter years of service left are prohibitive for many.
I bring my own along, but with the help of a trainer.
Honestly, it is invaluable to occasionally take a lesson on her FEI horse to get a feel for what I am trying to produce in my young horse. Even something like the counter canter loops at First 3 clicked in immediately once I sat on a trained horse and felt what I was aiming for.
It is all well and good to train your own horse, and so love the process—but to be correct you need to understand what correct is. Knowledge from schoolmasters is invaluable!
OP, I am seeing 50k for what you want here. Less if late teens/early 20s or lots of unusual maintenance. Typical maintenance doesn’t seem to affect price (hocks/joint supp/shoes) without an odd finding on films.
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More than that. I’m looking for one now, and they’re averaging $120k
Yep. I’m looking, too, and that’s the average I’m seeing as well.
For sure something still competitive at large tour levels, 6 figures isn’t unheard of, especially if the horse is a few years shy of 20.
But most of these older schoolmasters are ready to step down several levels competitively by the time they are offered for sale, and end up doing Young Riders, FEI Jr, or a few years of mid-level showing with an ammy. Some require some maintenance that isn’t show legal, which lowers their price. And price drops further for each added year in age.
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As others mentioned, even a youngster barely touching 3rd level will cost you ~60k+ on the west coast. I hardly see schoolmaster type ads so idk about them but… 15k…in today’s market…where’s that???
I absolutely love how you put it in words here 
but you don’t necessarily need a schoolmaster to reach understanding in this particular case IMO. My (jumping background) most buoyancy, floaty, heaven-like extended trot was on a 1.35m max-with 0 dressage training-jumper under the watchful eye of an accomplished dressage trainer. I felt it, understood it, managed it & am seeking it in every horse eversince, thanks solely to this true natural dressage talent of a horse.
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yeah, that’s pretty consistent with what we ultimately saw. Though part of the issue was that the kind of horse I thought I was looking for (13-16, could still do PSG but probably not more than that, reasonable maintenance) ended up being pretty scarce on the market – so what pushed the price up was that more of what was available was a little bit younger and still on its way up (potentially), rather than maxed out and about to be on its way down. A few in the 18+ category were less, but, with the obvious tradeoff that that’s a lifetime commitment, so the net wealth cost of owning that horse is not really any less, even if the initial check is smaller.
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The only schoolmasters I rode were in their late teens/ early 20s and definitely didn’t give anything away. It was a privilege to learn from them.
I actually find the 3rd level + work a little easier on my young ones I’ve brought up myself now (for some movements it’s still harder - a horse that’s been doing tempis for a decade will just about always be easier to get a balanced flying change compared to a young horse that only learned collected canter/ changes very recently). I think the difference is my young horses are less stiff and still have youthful joints/ riding them since training level, we know each other well.
I’ve seen a fair amount of lease/ affordable (15-20 ish) purchase opportunities for these types of older schoolmasters, even recently. From experience, you can learn a lot and get medals, but have to factor in losing them to bouts of soundness issues (vet bills, lost show entry fees, weeks or months without riding, etc.)
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And sometimes you can find your unicorn if you take the risk. I purchased a 19 yo gelding Sept 2020 who had been treated for EPM twice. Had shown to GP with good training, great care and very few owners/riders through the year, but obviously on the downside of his career. I had not ridden FEI for 12+ yrs (PSG/I1) and my goal was just to ride at that level again. no visions of grandeur or even showing. Offered half what they were asking with commitment that I would be his last home. I would not sell him nor lease him. we settled just a bit above half.
He turned out to be that true unicorn. Wiling, patient, kind. I worked very very hard and he taught me every day. We went for it and jumped into the show ring April 2021…at GP. Earned our Gold and had a fabulous year culminating with Dressage Finals in Lexington. Working on a GP Freestyle for 2022, God wiling. As long as my unicorn is happy, sound and healthy, we will continue to dance. What a gift!!
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I was amazed, throughout our search, at how scarce the mid-teens horse we thought we were looking for really was. A decent amount of younger-but-really-really-really-expensive (as you would expect for a horse that was more “on schedule” in terms of the age-and-training mix, but it was really hard to find something that was a little older, more confirmed, more amateur-friendly than an up-and-coming 8 year old for whom the asking price was well into the 6s. FWIW, we ended up with a late-teens schoolmaster who vetted pretty clean and needed minimal maintenance, somewhere in the mid 5s. We know we’ll be his forever home (and don’t mind being so), but that was part of the trade off in getting someone’s dependable, confirmed older partner.
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are you talking about warmbloods?
I would love to find a late teen horse capable of fourth level or PSG that is a reasonable price for what it is.
I keep running into these ads where when you really look at it the horse hasn’t been shown in a long time and because they have not been in correct work it would take a year or longer to get the strength to do second level let alone higher.
There is a horse for sale right now that is advertised as Prix St George but no show record at that level, mostly at 3rd 3 years ago. And also it has been sold five times in the last 5 years which is always a red flag.
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A horse that would be 13 today was born in early 2008. The market was already falling out of horses by that point and there were not a lot of foals born in 2008-2010. Thus, there is a definite lack of horses between 10-14 years old right now.
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Yup. Lauren Sprieser did a snippet last weekend for her blog about that issue, and I think that’s a totally plausible explanation. Horses in that mid-teens but competitive and amateur friendly range are always going to be rare and expensive, but they do seem to be even more so than usual rn.
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A horse born in 2008 would be 14…
Would be coming 14. It’s only January.
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Years ago (like 50+) my mom and a friend found a mare for maybe $300 that was trained to PSG-ish. Short legs. Long back. Ugly head. Maybe a Morgan cross There was some cue we never figured out that was apparently the Spanish Walk button. And we never found the undo button for that.
But she taught all of us to ride lateral work.
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