[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8195662]
AP must be up there.[/QUOTE]
Forgive my ignorance…AP?
Nevermind, I guess you are referencing American Pharoah. I couldn’t figure out a discipline with those initials…kept thinking All Purpose.
In my area, I would guess hunter/jumper. I know there are some expensive dressage horses around here, but I think there are far more reasonably priced ones showing, which brings the average down.
It seems harder to find that lower priced horse to be competitive in hunter/jumper…with enough being imported from Europe to bring that average up.
Barrel Racing might be up there too though…and the really good rodeo horses.
(Breed showing isn’t huge here, so I don’t think we have much for high priced breed show horses here)
American Pharoah. Grr, the misspelling! Reminds me, though, of Deputed Testamony, still I *think the last MD bred to win a Triple Crown race.
Folks need to talk about price of each horse, versus the cost of horse plus tack to compete. Mixing things together is not showing horse prices fairly.
I believe a recent survey showed Driving as the most expensive in total, even with a Single horse, with Pairs and Fours going up in cost geometrically! Not just double the cost in adding a second horse or the cost of 4 Single horses. Volumes of equipment needed and ways to haul it to compete. With a Single and Pair, you need at least 2 people, while the Four horses require 3 people to show. We competed our Four one year ‘locally’ in the Great Lakes region, had a BIG year with 4 competitions, couldn’t afford any more! Plus we were exhausted with the work of preparing and competing. Standards are very high in presenting ourselves well. There is nobody trying harder to cut costs than us. Raised the horses from foals or bred them ourselves, raised and trained them, only really new thing we had was harness because our horses don’t fit stock sizes.
But cost of CDE type horses is not that big if you are not doing International level showing. Certainly not many horses in the six figures or even 5 figures if they are not in a Four for someone like Chester Webber or Tucker Johnson when he competed. Many good CDE horses were quite cheap compared to other disciplines or pets trained into a second career from riding.
Depending your level of competition, carriages have a wide range of prices, usually quite a bit of used vehicles available for purchase if you can’t afford new or not wishing to break your budget. All our vehicles are used, from antique to “not very old” in the marathon styles.
But keep horse cost apart from the cost of competing with needed clothing, tack, trailers, trucks for that discipline.
[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8195662]
AP must be up there.[/QUOTE]
I met a woman at work (patient) who, with her husband, breed TBs in Saratoga. They sell them as yearlings, so they don’t train them or race them, although they have done so. Mostly she says they are being bought these days for sport horses. HOWEVER (and I do have a point) she told me that she and her husband were at the sale in Saratoga where AP was being sold as a yearling. Price went up to 300,000 and then the sale was stopped - behind the scenes, the owners, who we all know now, bought him back for the 300,000. And the rest is history. However, she did tell me that before he left the track after the triple, he was sold. Actually, I think what she said was before he physically got off the track, before he got back to the barn, he was sold. As much as they professed to love him, I was surprised they couldn’t resist the sale. So I don’t know who owns him now, but she said the deal was that he would be raced three more times this year then that was it, retired to stud. Don’t know what he was sold for last month, but it was 300,000 as a yearling, and bought by his owner.
Good question. I have always felt the hunters (and especially those super cute hunter ponies!) were $$.
I show Arabians casually and they are pretty value priced for what they are, IMO. Scottsdale is like the glitz and glamor and Miracle Mile shopping for the breed with most of the higher priced horses going overseas.
Top end reiners and cutters can also go for a lot, but there’s a pretty big empty/cheaper priced area for the horses no longer eligible for prize money.
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8195782]
I met a woman at work (patient) who, with her husband, breed TBs in Saratoga. They sell them as yearlings, so they don’t train them or race them, although they have done so. Mostly she says they are being bought these days for sport horses. HOWEVER (and I do have a point) she told me that she and her husband were at the sale in Saratoga where AP was being sold as a yearling. Price went up to 300,000 and then the sale was stopped - behind the scenes, the owners, who we all know now, bought him back for the 300,000. And the rest is history. However, she did tell me that before he left the track after the triple, he was sold. Actually, I think what she said was before he physically got off the track, before he got back to the barn, he was sold. As much as they professed to love him, I was surprised they couldn’t resist the sale. So I don’t know who owns him now, but she said the deal was that he would be raced three more times this year then that was it, retired to stud. Don’t know what he was sold for last month, but it was 300,000 as a yearling, and bought by his owner.[/QUOTE]
I thought he was sold after the Preakness with a proviso that he could race until the end of the year, although I’m sure the new “owner” (majority, not sole) will have a say in his starts for the rest of the year?
A winning WP quarter horse.
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;8195782]
I met a woman at work (patient) who, with her husband, breed TBs in Saratoga. They sell them as yearlings, so they don’t train them or race them, although they have done so. Mostly she says they are being bought these days for sport horses. HOWEVER (and I do have a point) she told me that she and her husband were at the sale in Saratoga where AP was being sold as a yearling. Price went up to 300,000 and then the sale was stopped - behind the scenes, the owners, who we all know now, bought him back for the 300,000. And the rest is history. However, she did tell me that before he left the track after the triple, he was sold. Actually, I think what she said was before he physically got off the track, before he got back to the barn, he was sold. As much as they professed to love him, I was surprised they couldn’t resist the sale. So I don’t know who owns him now, but she said the deal was that he would be raced three more times this year then that was it, retired to stud. Don’t know what he was sold for last month, but it was 300,000 as a yearling, and bought by his owner.[/QUOTE]
His breeding rights were sold, not the horse itself. The racing rights remain with the current owners ( the Zayats), who will race him a few more times before he goes to stud.
I thought he was sold with the proviso that he only raced three times until the end of the year. I guess we’ll see it written somewhere soon enough.
[QUOTE=AddieMarie;8195993]
A winning WP quarter horse.[/QUOTE]
Nowhere in the realm of some of the other horses mentioned. I had one for $2k. They’re easy to train, take little time to train, and easy to ride as well - and most don’t have much longevity.
Even all around multiple world champion in multiple discipline types tend to only be 5-figures. Yes, that’s a lot to me - but compared to the fact they’re the starting price for competitive A show hunters… no way are they the most expensive discipline.
TOP reiners and cutting horses are insanely expensive. Especially now that Europe is buying more reiners from us - I typically hear 7 figures or high 6 figures. Lower level reiners and cutting horses may or may not be as suited to do the job well, and can fit in most budgets.
How about the Hunter Derby winner? Top Eq horse who is going to be leased out for 6 figures? Dressage is far more expensive than breed showing was, but hunters way overshadow it.
Top endurance horses are also HUGELY expensive. I believe it’s the Saudis, especially, who are very into them. And I knew a colt who was sold for 6 figures to the Middle East shortly after birth for having the right look and bloodlines they wanted.
[QUOTE=foundationmare;8195685]
I absolutely would also say racing. And, yes, it is my hobby! All disciplines are businesses for goodness sake and there are gradations of investment depending on the level of competition or wealth of participants.[/QUOTE]
How is racing a “non-racing discipline”
:lol:
Maybe it varies regionally too.
I did searches on equine.com and dreamhorse.com for horses $50,000 and over, and the only things that came up in my search radius were dressage-trained warmbloods and western pleasure horses. Very interesting. There are definitely outliers in all disciplines. Saudi sheiks, daughters of rockstars, those with deep pockets probably buy 6 figure horses in all disciplines.
The thing that got me started thinking about this was a discussion I had with someone about trying to flip TBs for a profit. I think they are probably the hardest breed to resell, mostly because the supply exceeds the demand. I guessed that dressage and western pleasure horses might be easier to sell because in this area, these seem to be popular disciplines. Families who have expendable income in this area seem to either buy western horses or dressage horses for their kids to campaign, and women who are getting back into riding seem to be drawn to dressage. There are plenty of other disciplines represented in my area like barrel racing, mounted shooting, trail riding, cow sorting, etc. but those folks seem to be more frugal with their budgets. Hunters and jumpers once brought decent prices but they seem to be dwindling, at least locally. Of course everybody is always looking for a deal, but it seems like people are willing to pay a little more for a well broke western pleasure horse or a dressage horse with confirmed scores at a certain level.
Now, this has certainly not convinced me to open a western pleasure and/or dressage sales barn :lol: I know all too well the best way to make a little money in the horse industry is to start with a lot of money.
Dream horse is for peasants!
The people with the money create a supply where non was and make total use of the network around the back stretch!
I don’t think they get into the multi-millions, but barrel racers also go for a LOT! I’d forgotten that - the top ones who win sell for mega money. We get some roping, barrel and other rodeo-types around here with huge bucks.
Still, you don’t see top western pleasure horses EVER going for millions, and I can’t imagine even six figures actually happens much. Hunters, jumpers, eq, dressage and cutting all frequently have six figure horses.
More good points. As a mere peasant, I have no idea where the big spenders shop. I’m sure they have staff that shop for them.
Maybe a better/different way to look at it would be to ask, what does $30,000 buy you in each discipline.
What does a $30,000 eventer look like? Dressage horse? Western pleasure horse? Arabian?
OR
What competition horses are most expensive at a local, unrated level?
A good all around QH will get 6 figures. These would place at the world but not necessarily win it. I know a WC HUS who only did one event that was priced at 250K but didn’t sell for that . A Certain Vino could not be bought for any money but Vital Signs Are Good did sell (rumored 7 figures + embryos).
A 30k WP AQHA would be a nice weekend circuit horse, might go one to do other disciplines but won’t be a world beater in WP or WR as a senior horse.
30K would be moderately priced . Part of it depends on age ( is it a futurity horse? all around? been there done that older baby sitter?).
That article was funny. I don’t think that even an insurance company would pay $16 million for the Green Monkey today. Horses don’t appreciate unless their performance merits it, and I doubt that those two billionaires would get into a bidding war again for that horse. I wonder what his actual value would be today, on an open market?
His current stud fee is $5,000. According to Equineline, he has 38 foals of racing age, 4 Black-type winners, and an AEI of 1.15%.
[QUOTE=netg;8197173]
Still, you don’t see top western pleasure horses EVER going for millions, and I can’t imagine even six figures actually happens much. [/QUOTE]
That’s because they need to save all their money for those expensive shirts they wear. 
They just absolutely do not have posted prices for saddlebreds out there for easy comparative analysis, that is for sure. Used to be when the auctions were running people would post hip prices on the saddlebred forum trot.org but that’s dead, not even archived information, so there is no real public pricing out there.
The bulk of ASB change hands at auction or trainer to trainer sales, not on Dreamhorse IIRC.
