Unlimited access >

What should I expect to pay for this type?

Agree — someone sent me a bunch of videos of 3-4 YOs last week and while they were generally impressive in quality, they were fresh-off-the-plane and $70K for the 3 YOs and $85 for the 4s.

I purchased a lovely Holsteiner/TB cross a year or so ago. Over 17.1. 4 years old. Only had 30 days on him, for just under 20K. He is an Amateur’s dream, a perfect hunter and gorgeous to boot. Maybe because he is 1/2 TB his price was lower? He was bred in the US by an eventing breeder and the lady that broke him said “this is not an eventer, this is a hunter”.
At the same time, looked at one in Canada that was more broke, 16.2 and pure WB. He was further along and lovely, only 22K. I picked the greenie.
They are out there, shop US and Canadian breeders.


Not sure about the push ride though.
1 Like

Just for fun I wanted to throw in - this is discipline and breed wide.

Someone mentioned AQHA horses and Ryan Painter. Ryan is fantastic - he’s primarily dealing with six figure horses. Most QHs that are going around are minimum mid-upper 5s. Just last week I inquired about a nicely built, nicely bred 2 y/o gelding who has about 30 days of riding on him - $65K.

Most of our sound, sane, reasonably broke horses aren’t going for less than $75K… and if they’re even slightly fancy or have a great brain for an amateur, they’re all six figures.

I’m searching for my next one as an unbroke yearling, and I’m desperately trying to find quality for $30-$50K. There just isn’t a ton of supply, and the demand at the top end is from folks with deep pockets.

2 Likes

Where are you located?! I admittedly haven’t paid super close attention to the QH market the last few years, but I’ve never seen any come anywhere near that.

Someone I know sold a 6yo QH gelding last year - sound, sweet, bay, and a CUTE jumper. The only downside was that he was only 15.2 or so. He was bopping around 2’, and could have gone higher had his bascule not been too much for his little rider to handle (ultimately was the reason they were selling him). Honestly, they had a really tough time getting anyone to even look at him because he was an off breed for H/J until they finally sold him for 15k in SoCal.

1 Like

DFW - just came off two weeks at the APHA World Show and gearing up for NSBA.

Here’s some listings with transparent pricing - obviously not all of these would cross over into the H/J market. Sure you can find those who aren’t as great movers, or don’t have the scope/stride for 3’, or won’t vet, etc for less, but the stock breeds in general definitely aren’t the cheaper off shoot they were at one time.:

I’ve been looking at APHA and AQHA and I’m frustrated because I hate everything being bred right now and even if I decided to breed one of my mares (which I don’t want to do) I couldn’t even find a stallion I like. Everything is downhill and straight behind. Everything. And the ads SUCK. How are there stallions who have stood at stud for a decade and nowhere on their website is their HEIGHT listed. I give up on quarter horses (again, I’ve tried to buy one several times and aways feel like I’m banging my head against a wall).

8 Likes

Across both of those sites only one was listed as mid-high 5 figures. I suppose one or two others didn’t have prices listed, but most were 25k, give or take, which is much more in line with what I’d expect.

2 Likes

Right. Those are the two sites I know of that list prices and just like every other discipline - most of the quality horses either never make it to a listing and are sold on word of mouth, or they’re listed as private treaty via farms and breeders, but looking at what is currently listed - the $25k prices are generally for young/unstarted horses.

You can believe me or not. I’m the one in the middle of shopping in exactly this market and the stock breeds that are any decent quality are not any cheaper than more typical H/J breeds. :joy: :woman_shrugging:

@vxf111 tell me about it. I’m frustrated that a lot of the small breeders are crossing what’s being promoted instead of what best compliments their mare. Add in the genetic issues (Wobblers, PSSM, etc) I swear it’s like pulling teeth to find even a handful of horses that are suitable. Add in the double registered hype and we’re shrinking the gene pool even faster than usual.

I talked to one of the leading APHA breeders at the World Show this weekend asking them to price a potential in utero foal for me (as I own the family line) … they refused but told me I could expect a price tag of $10-$20k when it was born if it turns out the mare is pregnant when they check her this fall. :sob:

There was a lovely 2 y/o mare who was a double and built with enough stride to go over fences but they had her priced at $85k which I just won’t do.

2 Likes

I am basically done looking at quarter horses again. At least I am done looking intentionally for them. Maybe a great one will float my way inside the regular h/j market. I can’t deal with the sh!tty ads (quarter horse people are the worst). They don’t know how tall the mare or the sire are and they have no videos of either one moving, or of the foal, and haven’t genetically tested anything. Just a photo of a foal lying down and you’re supposed to write a check because it’s pinto. No thanks. I seriously don’t have the patience for those folks. Say what you will about h/j people— some of their ads suck but when you ask for age/height/location and video at least they HAVE IT. How is something a breeding stallion and there are no conformation photos of it anywhere and no listed height?!

8 Likes

I just bought this lovely 3 year old gelding after a few months of looking and some misses. He’s got great bone, he’s a nice mover (I just can’t do paddling or winging so straight legs were important), and he has an absolutely lovely temperament. He had 90 days of training when I got him, can w/t/c without any fuss although I will basically restart him from ground up just so I know what he knows. His sire, Chapito BF (Chapultepec La Silla (by Laudanum) x Orienta (Calido x Lord)) is a six year old 16.2 Oldenburg (now gelding) who has shown successfully in hunters and at 1.0m - he jumped a fence as a 2 year old and bred a tb mare and my guy is the happy accident. Mom died before they looked into registering him, so he’s grade and not a big guy at 15.2. I’m sure he’ll come up a bit but he’s already pretty balanced so if he hit’s 16 hands I’ll be thrilled. His previous owners included hauling him to us from a couple states away in the price. I’ve had him for a couple weeks now and he’s lovely. Like you, I wanted sound, solid bone, and big barreled with a good mind. For me, size wasn’t super important since my budget was so small - I knew there would be several compromises… he checked enough of my boxes and I paid 8k for him very happily.

18 Likes

I guess I just wouldn’t have chosen to back up my claim that every QH that’s sound, sane and reasonably broke is priced over 75k with a website titled “Finished Show Horses” where nearly everything is listed at 25k. :joy:

I do hope you find what you’re looking for though!

3 Likes

Also (and this is petty) I don’t want to own a horse with “you’re” misspelled as “your” in its name. So that eliminates about 80% of stock horses now on the market :rofl:

17 Likes

Agreed. Intentional misspellings where you can tell it was intentional misspelling can be cute, misspellings that look like grammatical ignorance… no thanks.

1 Like

AQHA doesn’t allow punctuation in names, so you’re not going to see you’re in a name regardless.

2 Likes

I would be ok with “youre” but “your not kidding” and similar KILLS ME. My cat registry also doesn’t do punctuation and I have a “Halley’s Comet” who had to be registered as “Halleys Comet.”

4 Likes

Agreed. Intentional misspellings where you can tell it was intentional misspelling can be cute, misspellings that look like grammatical ignorance… no thanks.

The mare I wanted the in utero quote on - I own the mare’s 3/4 sibling, and I owned the mare’s dam prior to her being euthanized in 2021 - however, the dam had a few foals prior to me purchasing her - one of which was this 3/4 sibling who the prior owner named Pippi Longstalking.

Stalking.

It would’ve been such a cute name as the mare has one big front white leg that extends halfway up the forearm… but instead of a stocking, she’s a serial killer. :rofl:

23 Likes

That’s funny! LOL I wonder if Pippi Longstockings was already taken and they just wanted the name regardless of how it was spelled?

1 Like

There’s a breeder I see on FB all the time that only picks names for foals where I’m like “huh, I think you were thinking of a different word because THAT word has a really negative connotation.” And they’re not puns. They’re just… I dunno… they’re names where either the breeder needs to stick to words she ACTUALLY KNOWS THE DEFINITION OF or she needs to get a dictionary to double check herself before she commits on the name.

1 Like

@vxf111, that post seems like a tease. Any examples you can think of so we can all scratch our head too?

6 Likes