I inquired about a horse that just came into a local rescue. It’s cute, no papers, and very green broke. They want $7500 for it!
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Some of the Mustang Makeover competition horses sell right there and they bring very nice prices.
They are wonderful horses with excellent training, worth every penny and doing amazing tasks, worth to watch and learn what all can we do with horses.
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Our riding center once received a handful of wild Tarpan horses, that is what we were told they were.
We were to just gentle them, so they could be haltered, feet picked if they needed attention, vet could work with them and they could be longed, no saddling or riding.
They didn’t say we could not love and make friends of them, some of those became real pets.
I always wondered how they may have reacted to being ridden?
That was before operant conditioning was general knowledge to train wild animals.
Of course anyone training animals did some of it, is a natural way to train, but it was not studied and taught yet.
That would have made working with them very interesting.
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I agree, but this was a very green (barely WTC) rescue. Just came in so not much feed etc cost.
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I wouldn’t be so sure on the ranch bred horses. These are the numbers from the recent Ocala sale, where a lot of these types are run through.
𝖠𝗏𝖾𝗋𝖺𝗀𝖾𝗌:
𝖳𝗈𝗉 𝟧- $𝟤𝟣,𝟢𝟦𝟢
𝖳𝗈𝗉 𝟣𝟢- $𝟣𝟩,𝟤𝟣𝟩
𝖳𝗈𝗉 𝟤𝟢- $𝟣𝟦,𝟢𝟧𝟩
𝖳𝗈𝗉 𝟧𝟢- $𝟫,𝟪𝟣𝟦
this is why you have no interest, probably more than the mustang angle. People want to know what they’re getting, and for that to happen for a riding horse, someone needs to be riding it.
Note there is a difference between “broke” and “at least has an idea of how to be ridden” and I think buyers generally are looking for the latter.
That may be true in some places (?) but I have bought two horses in Germany (one 21 years ago, one last month) and know several other people who have bought there, and in all of those cases the buyer did the PPE. The one I just bought had a handful of x-rays available from when he was a yearling, and that’s it (he’s 3 now). Pretty sure everyone on here would advise getting your own PPE rather than relying on the seller’s anyway.
Agreed. I have bought many horses in Europe and it was only when I was shopping with known exporters was I offered a “predone” vetting. I still did my own because I also agree that the x ray quality is generally awful.
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People care about whether the horse is already riding when it is a mustang much more so than when it isn’t. Mustangs come with preconception of being unruly/wild/unstable. Weanlings/yearlings/1-4yr olds in the competitive-type-horse breeds will sell quickly. Heck, even being a stable hack-around trail mount any ole grade young horse will be more likely to find a buyer. For a mustang, you’ve got to be able to prove the horse will do the job.
Generally speaking, TIP trainers don’t turnover much of a profit. One or two colorful ones maybe, but the majority of gentled mustangs are selling for the going BLM basic 125.
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Agreed! Unstarted horses that have the bloodlines/type to indicate that will be successful in one of the FEI disciplines or the hunters are in demand (although much less so than started ones). If people are paying for young/unstarted, they want to dream of all the great things the horse will do. It’s much, much harder to sell the ones that will become lower level show horses, jack of all trades, pleasures horses, etc. until they can actually do the job.
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