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What would you pay for this horse?

Looking for a horse after losing my last OTTB. Kind of wanting to go in a different direction as I have only owned TBs for 30+ years now. Found cute pinto draft cross who is 5. Only thing he knows is trails but he is awesome trail horse. Stands around 16.2-16.3. Cute mover, cute form in free jump but never jumped under saddle, doesn’t know what contact is. I want to do BN or N level max. Have no idea about soundness at this point but will do a PPE if I can come to agreement on price. Would like to make an offer but want to make sure it is reasonable.

Probably in the $3-5k range would be my limit for something that green, but the market for this type of horse locally is super hot right now, and I’ve seen people buy draft crosses at auction for cheap, clean them up and jump them literally twice under saddle and successfully sell them for $20k.

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Yes, that is what I am seeing too. It is crazy.

Have you asked Seller what they’d want?
Your offer can go from there.
Price is very dependent on where you are.
In my area - Midwest, heavily QH WP with a smattering of Dressage, lots of trailriders & uber-low level H/J - & depending on the Draft breed (Percheron? Belgian? Or?) I’d expect to pay $1-3K or less.

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Is he a solid trail horse? I think a realistic price if more like 8-12k for solid, color, tall and cute.

A good trail horse is no longer cheap unless it is homely.

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Yes she is asking 15k for him. As much as I like him, I just don’t think it is realistic for what he knows at this point. Not really sure about his breeding; he doesn’t seem very drafty at all. He is actually a cute mover.

Unless that is mid-range for your area, I’d say In Her Dreams :astonished:
Maybe if horse was a bit further along in his training…

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About as solid as a 5 year old could be…only gave a couple of jumps at stuff. I wouldn’t call him husband horse material yet because he really moves out and got pretty fidgety a few times but solid for a decent rider.

Where are you located? I’d say that his size and gender make him worth a bit more than a smaller mare, but 15k is a lot for a horse with not a lot of miles or training.

My draft x mare was 10K, and I had been riding for for several months and knew she’d foxhunt, which is what I wanted to do. It was the most I’ve ever spent on a horse!

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Have you ridden the horse, or just seen him go? If you are used to TBs and like their attitude, work ethic, etc, you may not enjoy a paint/ draft cross. I personally get very frustrated with something that always needs to be pushed, and I find many draft crosses to be behind the leg. I just don’t like to work that hard to have them go!

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In my area, people are selling fresh of the track OTTBs that haven’t even been restarted yet (just let down) for $20K if they move even half decently. So she may not be wildly out of line if you are in an area like mine (southern CA). However, I personally wouldn’t want to pay more than $8K assuming he passes a PPE, has a personality and rideability you like, and he has potential for the things you want to do (which is why I’m very thankful I am not currently horse shopping!).

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Yes I did ride him. It’s funny but he is really a forward moving horse. He marches right along; one of the biggest issues I see is that he only has a big flat out canter. He would have to learn to collect and balance before I could do any jumping.
I sold a TB last year who was the most behind the leg horse I ever owned. I actually learned to appreciate him; he got me in better habits and I got in great shape from riding him, lol! But yes, I agree with you, I’ve looked at a couple horses who didn’t want to move at all and that would totally frustrate me. I want a nice balance in there!

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This horse was in Ohio. I have never spent a lot of money on a horse either and it makes me nervous just thinking about writing out that check! I think it would make it easier if I could spend some time riding a horse before I bought him. It is hard when they are out of my area and I have to make that call after a ride or two! Hopefully I will know when I find the right horse.

I’ve seen that too! It’s crazy! They run in a $5k claiming race one month and are up for sale on the web for $10K or more the next. $8k was about what I was thinking too. I was actually going to make an offer for that, but she said there wasn’t much wiggle room in the price so I didn’t bother. But there are just too many unknowns for me to think about paying what she is asking now.

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I guess you’d need to look at what other horses are selling for in your area. $15 k seems high to me but everyone keeps saying how nuts the horse market is right now, and it might be the case that, unless you’re willing to wait a year or two until the market drops, this price isn’t unreasonable.

You could offer $12 k (a 20% reduction), but you’d have to be prepared to come up a bit in price. I think if you offered $8 k (unless the horse has already been on the market for a while with no takers), she’d be unlikely to even consider it.

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I think I will just hold off…he hasn’t been on market very long yet. I can’t get too excited about him at 12k even. If she gets him going in the ring and can show me more, I can always look again. No one seems to be jumping at him at this price point right now.

The advice seems to be to buy a nice canter. A naturally adjustable horse will adapt to jumping much more smoothly. I think you can evaluate adjustability even before you can reliably ask for it. My mare when green would give me a different kind of canter every day and it would change over the course of a ride too. Not that we’ve ever used it for anything much but it’s definitely there.

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I was extremely lucky and had the chance to ride my current horse for some time before I bought her. In fact, I was tasked with starting her in the hunt field and then selling her for her owner. I would never have bought her based on the first few rides. It took time for us to develop an understanding. Buying a horse after riding it once or twice is very nerve wracking .

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Prices for draft crosses are crazy right now!

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some one in our barn got one a similar sounding draft cross though a little older for 6500 recently and with the current market we thought it was a steal. Safe and nice, but green. They were thrilled to get her.

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