You’re right, I agree it is a bit more than “a little luck” like I said, but working closely with an experienced professional is likely to get you exactly the horse you’re after. And honestly the market overseas is still in that range for a good, sound dressage horse, easy to turn into a hunter. I concur to only buy from English speaking sellers, but broaden the search from the UK, so many Europeans are fluently bilingual. Vet fully and have your vet in the US review everything, a sound horse over there is a lot different than how we consider it. I know it’s not for everyone, but if I had a client searching for this type with that budget, its definitely the route I would advise as a professional!
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I mean, this is an amateur rider that seems to do this fairly casually, but is finally settling into less chaotic time of life and wants to enjoy horse ownership and occasionally show low level hunter classes (2’6"? 2’9"?). My guess is they would love if that didn’t come with a heap of pro training bills and a monstrous buck/wicked spook/undisclosed screw loose.
An eager kid with 3’6"/1.15m goals, beer budget, and commitment to a training program? Sure, after a very long discussion with the parents. But I would certainly not assume that Europe’s 15k horse is going to automatically be better than a $30k horse sourced here, especially for this particular job. The prices are pretty close to 1:1 these days and the horror stories are not few.
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Europe understands the US hunter market EXTREMELY well and the horses are priced accordingly. I mean they think we’re nuts and they’re not wrong. I also looked at the Appendix market but it’s pretty high as well. The sub 50k sane 2’6"/3’ hunter market is crazy and the decent horses sell extremely quickly, or never make it to market in the first place.
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If I were shopping for a horse, I would be looking for what the OP is looking for. I can deal with a project, but not a jerk of a horse. Could I ride it? Probably, but I don’t have any desire to.
There was a family at my old barn who imported a nice gelding for their teenage daughter. I believe all said and done they paid 36K for the horse, including import fees from Poland. However, the horse had a botched wolf tooth extraction and was dealing with a lot of mouth pain. They got the tooth issue fixed, but he just wasn’t the same after that. The daughter was riding once or twice a week, but was afraid of the horse and he very quickly got her number and was just an absolute jerk. I started riding the horse to help the family out and he was a lot. He enjoyed ripping the lunge line out of my hands and tearing around the arena and he stood horribly at the mounting block. They ended up selling the horse to a more appropriate home for only what they originally invested into the horse pretty easily. All that to say, I think you can import for less than what some people think and you can fairly easily resell if the horse doesn’t work for you. However, I would never dream of doing this myself without the assistance from a very knowledgeable trainer.
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In Ontario, there are at least a couple of sport Morgan breeders that have horses under saddle and suitable for “dabbling” in jumping, eventing, dressage in the $15-20K range. While a bit more complicated, you could greatly expand the number of sellers looking at sport Morgans across New England. In the OPs position, I’d be going in that direction.
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Ashley Minion is from ON and taken a couple to the Makeover, may be worth seeing what she has?
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100%. You can hardly get a quality foal for 10-15k anymore in Europe much less something sane and well started without some kind of major problem for the hunter job, even a low level one.
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My OTTB was very happy not to be asked to gallop ever again, and had been a terrible race horse. He had a huge overstep and a wonderful canter from day one.
No let down required.
Also, he neck reined. 
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I would also think the odds of finding something cheap that has the temperament to get on a plane/quarantine successfully etc are low. A good brained horse that has been worked with so it handles the stress of being exported must be hard to find nowadays.
Was looking for something similar last year but add extra good brain - the horse was for my husband. We were gonna vet another perfectly nice OTTB but had to cancel because the horse we ultimately bought popped up through a recommendation in our circles (wasn’t advertised) and stole our hearts. We were done with the search in less than a month and overall we found that last year at least there was plenty in the high fours, low fives range.
We ended up getting a very green (90 days under saddle a couple years back) 5 y.o., not perfect, yes, but a really nice little horse for mid fours. She’s a WBx from a pretty well known stallion in the area. She’s a bit too small to be a hunter (15’2) and is a serious, ugly cribber. Vetting came out clean aside a very very mild signs of arthritis in one of her hocks - something to monitor. She’s developed very nicely and while I don’t think she has the scope to make it to the really high jumps, she has the brain and athleticism to cart my husband around low level courses as he pleases down the line. She is nice to the extent that I’d even consider breeding her down the line.
ETA: we are in Ontario
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Can you share websites? I love Morgans and they’re not always easy to find.
Sure! In Ontario, I’d suggest Blitzen Morgans (active website and FB presence) and Derawnda Morgans (bare bones website and not much of a FB presence).
Not Canada-specific, but Morgan Sport Resource is a good one to follow, as well as Morgan Showcase (an active, well curated sales site that allows you to search by state/province).
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That’s absolutely crazy in an amazing way to think about! One thing I really hope for as a total layman biomechanics junkie is that the research on humans trickles down onto horses in a meaningful way. The discovery of the role of fascia gives me hope.
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@clanter has some serious Morgan connections too, including (I think) a good rescue organization.
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true
We are not a high dollar big spender in the breed but our horses have competed nationally for decades. Even with today’s cost, the most we have ever spent for one was $4,000 (the last two were bought as weanlings but since that specific breeding has now produced two world champions, the cost of Those has tripled or more)
(Not All by a long shot of our horses are or were “Show” quality but those that are/were have been very successful, often admired.)
We have found the Morgan SafeNet Foundation to to very trustworthy. It is based south of Dallas and also has a location in Penn,
They are more of a repurposer of Morgans that need a new home because of their owners conditions ranging from health to financial issues rather then a outright rescue of horses in trouble.
“Repurpose is one way MSN helps Morgans at risk prior to getting them before there is a need to rescue.”
Also, never discount contacting the American Morgan Horse Association directly, the organization is Very Helpful. Under the “Registry” there is a listing of Morgan rescues by the state. Most all of the staff has been there for decades and are very dedicated. Several we have have known since the very early 1990s.
https://www.morganhorse.com/registry/rescue-adoption/
We have found Morgans to be mostly easy keepers which is helpful during these trying economic times. (The breed’s heritage was a working horse for post Revolutionary War farmers who really watched every cent, which also lead to the breed’s versatility as one horse did everything. We have had more than one become national champions in multiple disciplines at the same time, change the tack they change the way they present themselves, same horse just different tack )
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Love, love, love Morgans. They are vertically challenged, and tend to be bargains because of it.
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In college I worked on a sport horse Morgan breeding farm. For some reason they have a bad reputation in H/J land but I worked with all ages and stallions and found them to be athletic, reasonable with good brains and extremely versatile. The Park Morgan is only one of their possibilities–plenty make good jumpers and their general good nature makes them lovely all rounders for amateurs I think. They generally have a nice uphill build and good balance. They are fun horses.
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But even the smaller ones look much bigger than they are which is a great benefit to us older folks We have had several of what would have been ponies in other breeds that we did show in open competitions that were often challenged as being a Horse shown in Pony class. Those always measured as a pony which left the challenger mumbling “That Can Not Be True”
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Agree. And unless you are jumping Grand Prix fences, size is a matter of style not necessity.
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Just had a saddle fitter out to measure my 15 hand Morgan for a new dressage saddle. He loved the attention! As were discussing things later, I mentioned that I would like a shorter flap since I’m not tall and neither is he. She looked at me and said “He’s got to be 16 hands. That’s not small!”
I pointed out that he only thinks he is 16 hands. 
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