Why does no one question horse prices?

[lenapesadie]

Ehh. Maybe I’m old and jaded. I don’t ever recall a time where it wasn’t all about the money. And imo imagining a world where money isn’t the driving force behind most things is fantasy at best. By default international horse shows are going to be wildly expensive.

Not sure what BNTs having the order of go altered has to do with horse prices? That’s a tale as old as time at any rate.

Are there plenty of opportunities for improvement in the horse industry? Absolutely! But not sure that’s going to result in price controls on horse sales like the OP seemed to want.

[McGurk]

Again, maybe I’m giving credit where none is due, but I feel like the OP, in her frustration, picked horse prices as the defining thing about being priced out of the sport (Not the cost of showing, not the cost of the ‘right’ tack and clothing, not the cost of horse keeping, period.) and came up with her own weird flex on how to address that.

I remember pretty clearly when I finally realized that no matter how hard I worked and how good I got, I would always be a huge financial disadvantage and the playing field would absolutely never be level. I think the sooner you figure that out, the happier you’ll be and the more you’ll enjoy your journey, but if you bought into the whole ethic of “with hard word you can achieve anything”, that realization initially makes you angry.

Then, when you find how much actual cheating and bad horsemanship is involved, you get angry all over again.

So I do empathize with the anger and frustration. I just hope the OP can channel it in a more productive direction.

[2DogsFarm]

@IronwoodFarm

do not contact me with silly offers.

Not even a vast amount of uneaten guac (both mild & spicy), popcorn, hummus & undrunk Cardboardeaux?
All to trade for a young Fjord, preferably broke to Ride & Drive.
I will even make out a BOS with detailed inventory of the bartered value of above goods

The Blue Saddle kitchen overestimated the life of this thread & we overproduced

Now it appears OP has taken her ball & gone home.
And the following posts are nohow Trainwreck worthy.
Thanks, No thanks for turning reasonable

[OfCourseItsAnAlter]

@lenapesadie

Ehh. Maybe I’m old and jaded. I don’t ever recall a time where it wasn’t all about the money. And imo imagining a world where money isn’t the driving force behind most things is fantasy at best. By default international horse shows are going to be wildly expensive.

Not sure what BNTs having the order of go altered has to do with horse prices? That’s a tale as old as time at any rate.

Absolutely. The upper levels have always been the almost exclusive domain of the wealthy. And that’s not just true of horse sports.

Young, naive, idealistic people without money have been bashing their heads into this cold reality forever. I consider myself lucky to have gotten my lesson at a young age, allowing me to adjust my horse goals and expectations to something achievable and reasonable.

[McGurk]

I am so sorry I interjected reason and logic into an otherwise very entertaining conversation.

My bad.

[lenapesadie]

You make a fair point about “learning the lesson” at a young age. It likely makes a difference if one has already accepted this reality before one is old enough to drive versus getting smacked in the face with it at 25.

[quietann]

I think AMB (who lives nearby and I know personally) was talking about how big name trainers in eventing are taking a page from the H/J world by doing things like demanding changes to the order of go - which has been, in general, an untouchable custom of eventing.

[KBC]

I don’t often visit the Hunter ring, but at Some shows all disciplines gather under one roof, Means that after dressage is done we get to watch other peoples events.

At an early schooling show I watched kids on round ponies, one incredibly hairy cob type, lots of nice looking point and shoots. Then a competitor came in, I was told that she was riding a $50 000 import, and she got carted. Money is only one part of the equation, talent, hard work and compatibility also play in.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@McGurk I think you are very right about the Internet shaping how young people coming up through the ranks perceive opportunity in the sport (as I type this on an online forum). While the advantages of money was certainly never a big secret to those with a toehold in the industry without it, I also think that the chasm between high and low is even more obvious now. In real, dollar figures the gap has grown. But also the ability to be aware of it.

The perception of the gap is intensified as horse people who are uber-wealthy often share their lifestyles (perhaps unwisely) online, as well as their riding accomplishments. If anything, the perception is more skewed, because only the highlights rather than the lowlights of the lifestyle make it on to their social media feeds. Plus, the cost of horses, tack, clothing, and showing is much easier to look up and compare, even for someone who isn’t anywhere near the upper echelons of the horse show world.

I guess the good thing is, it’s getting harder (I think) to hide some of the shady stuff in the past, given how much talk there is online, though, too.

[lenapesadie]

You make an excellent point about SM. I have a horsey friend that takes her daughter and pony to some local shows. The pair usually get a few ribbons. All good right?!?!

Daughter gets older and more active on SM. Daughter discovers Welly World via SM. Now my friend is “mean” for not sending daughter and pony south for the winter

[BrendaJane]

Dearest Daughter is learning about the economy of horse showing.

I have always wondered how people can pack up their lives for 4-6 months for horse shows. I mean, there is the cost of living which doubles, jobs, school.
Just mind blowing, even not considering the $$$$$$$$ aspect.

[clanter]

@lenapesadie

Now my friend is “mean” for not sending daughter and pony south for the winter

just told ours it would be a one way trip

We had our kids deeply involved in the showing, made them set budgets, arrange their their classes.

At the start of each show year we sort of had a meeting to set goals for the year, then mapped out the year

I tell myself we spent less showing the horses than some of friends spent on attorneys keeping their kids out of jails

[lenapesadie]

One way trip lol

[jonem004]

Not unexplainable.

Remember 2008 when the housing/horse/everything market crashed? That put a lot of breeders out of business, or at least made them downsize their operations. So if a breeder stops producing horses in 2009, and no one new steps in to replace their production until, let’s say 2015, that’s a lot of 7-14 yo horses that just don’t exist. So we all get to pay more for the ones that did get made.

As for the horses getting shipped to slaughter, the over breeding of backyard paint/Arab crosses is not going to have any impact on the prices of show horses. Maybe you can occasionally sneak one into childrens or large pony hunter division, or into the jumpers, but they mostly aren’t going to be able to compete with purpose bred animals.

Finally, the last few years have been quite financially rewarding for folks in a lot of white collar industries. Making more money and figuring out you can work remotely is a lovely recipe for buying that horse you’ve been dreaming about and using your previous commute time to ride.

I’m sure I’m leaving huge chunks of the big picture out of this assessment, but I’m not surprised that horse prices are up. There’s a lot of reasons they would be.

[clanter]

@jonem004

So if a breeder stops producing horses in 2009, and no one new steps in to replace their production until, let’s say 2015,

For some breeds there is a very limited number of breeding stock available. If/when breeding stock is disbursed then “the recovery” is not a reality which then adds to the value of those who had remained.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

From, er, social media (and talking to a few people I know who play at a very different income level from myself), I know that many of the top junior riders go to online high school, and working adults who are still, well, working for a living, sometimes can telecommute while showing.

I think another issue which pops up is that people who live the luxury horse life do “work harder” than rich people who, say, just go to the spa and do fitness classes for fun. But they often confuse their “work hard” with the “working hard” of, say, a trainer managing a barn (especially a barn where the trainer is wearing a bajillion hats, like a mid-level show barn) or a working ammie schooling their one green horse in a freezing indoor after work.

[findeight]

On another thread, OP says shes “more than 3 times older” then the 8 year old subject of that somewhat odd thread also by a new poster. Hope she takes a deep breath here, maybe talks to somebody about redirecting her perceptions to get a more positive outlook. Shes still young and 20s are tough.

[BrendaJane]

the online school thing is newish. I mean, I know schooling can happen in many ways, even prior to remote access learning.
It still blows my mind how one can do that, but I guess those are the folks who have more than one house to begin with, not necessarily the weekend ‘cottage’ in the Hamptons.

I am not judging how hard somebody works to achieve their goals.
Horses are a great equalizer. If you don’t put in the effort, you won’t get anywhere.

[clanter]

@BrendaJane

the online school thing is newish.

maybe in its current version but our kids were all over the North America doing horse stuff (none being H/J) back in the 1990s yet were able to keep up with their studies… three graduated very high in their school’s classes (one was sixth, another was 15th, the third was in the top 10% …all of their gradating class were of at least 700 students)

[BrendaJane]

Like I said firther down my post, remote learning has been done before.
Some schools are better with giving assignments for prolonged absence than others (as we are seeing these days) and of course homeschooling has been a thing for a long time (for various reasons)

On the other hand, I can’t wrap my hand around boarding schools either, even having spend my youth reading serial chapter books about such, making you want to go to one. The Old World way of giving kids the best training in their chosen interest.