Why Is Your Horse Worth the Price that It Is?

[mediocreadultammy]

Hi all, I am an amateur rider looking to purchase my next horse, which will be my first horse bought as an adult with my own adult money. Go me! Because this is a big investment for me, I want to research thoroughly so that I know what to expect.

In today’s crazy market, what can I expect from a horse priced at 25k? What can I expect from a 50k horse? What about a 75k horse? I would love to hear specifics. What qualities does a horse need to have in order to sport a certain price tag? If you are a seller, how do you go about pricing your horses? Any other opinions? Please share.

[2DogsFarm]

Too many variables w/o more info.
What discipline are you interested in?
Will you do Breed shows?
What are prices in your area?*

*This is the biggest factor.
Different breeds & uses determine price in different places

ETA an example:
I live in an QH/WP-centric area.
Horses specific to that can sell for low 5’s & up. Way up
But a friend selling her Morgan/STB cross Driving horse was told (granted, by a QH Idjit) she couldn’t get $5K.
Horse could also be ridden, early teens, IIRC.
SO WRONG
A knowledgeable Driver would pay $10K & consider the horse a Steal.

[dmveventer]

We need at least a discipline to work with, and ideally what types of shows you’re looking to do within that. Your location would help too. Do you have a set budget in mind? You listed off a pretty huge range - are you in a position to spend $75k on a horse and trying to decide if it’s worth it, or just wondering in general? There are too many variables to give general guidelines across ALL budgets, but if you have an idea of what you’d like to spend and what you need people can tell you what types of horses you can expect to find.

[findeight]

It’s like asking what kind of car you should buy. It depends on your specific wants, needs and budget. Without those it’s like looking at everything from a 10 year old Accord to a 2024 Defender.

Narrow it down please and we will be happy to help.

[Temecula_Jumper]

I have three horses I can use as examples for what I paid versus what I would offer for sale now. I am in Southern California.

1. 2011 QH mare, 15.3h. I bought her as an 8 year old from her breeder, who was also a trainer, so she was still green having always been on the back burner. I paid $10k. The mare was to be a hunter for my 9 year daughter moving off a pony. Fast forward six years - the mare much preferred the jumpers and is an absolute packer. She will always get you to the other side, loves to jump, and loves to win. She has multiple champions at AA shows in the .80s-.90s. She could be competitive in the 1.0s but hasn’t shown that height yet. This mare will never be for sale, but if I had to price her now, she would probably be in the $25k range due to her size and the fact she is a QH.

2. 2012 KWPN gelding, 16.1. Imported in 2020 for $45k. Had done the 1.20 in Holland. Super cute bay with four whites, adorable knees to nose jump, and hack winner. Bought to be my 1.10 jumper, but much prefers the hunters. Started the 3’ greens last year with multiple wins. Has done several national derbies. Was recently 2’9” child hunter champion at Thermal in very large company. I would price him in the $125k range.

3. 2020 Oldenburg gelding, 17h (still growing, but is huge). Homebred by Toronto x Just The Best. Unbroken and still hanging out in the field as he won’t stop growing. Turned out waaaay bigger than expected (dam was 15.2). Very cute, sweet guy. Bred for jumpers. Not for sale, but as he is now, I’d price him at $20-25k.

[mediocreadultammy]

Coming on to add more- I live in New York. I am in Ocala for winter circuit. Currently I own a 3ft hunter and an older jumper who I showed as a junior, so both hunters & jumpers are included in this search. I’m happy showing in the 3’-3’3 range. If I did purchase a jumper it’d have to do the 1.10m max.

My budget does not matter for what I am asking. Essentially I am looking for a cheatsheet on HOW and WHY horses are priced the way they are right now. I am just trying to better understand pricing in the h/j world in general. Thank you

[mediocreadultammy]

This is the kind of response I was hoping for, thank you. May I ask what makes you say $20-25k on the last guy (homebred)?

[dags]

$25K Options:

• 2 year old
• Older &/or extremely average & probably running down the lines at 2’6".
• Aged & looking for it’s last home before retirement. Used to be the Real Deal and may actually still have some jump, but clock is ticking.
• Nice horse with a massive hole in it & probably needs a pro ride.
• Talented project that you have the eye to see and the ability to work with.

$50K Options:

• Nice 4 year old prospect
• Decent 2’6" hunter that can show the rateds with class, win in smaller company, and maybe start you off in the 2’9"/3’ at home or small shows with soft heights and easy lines
• Average all-arounder of a reasonable age that doesn’t really excel at anything (especially hunters) but can probably get you to 3’ hunter/eq and maybe higher in the jumpers
• Very nice TB that has been properly restarted and has shown some success in the rateds
• Teenaged jumper that’s stepping down but can still easily do 1.10m type stuff
• Fairly competitive Ch/AA Jumper of a reasonable age
• Decent horse with a rated record and some sort of vetting issue, behavioral quirk, missing lead change &/or small step (I’d say this is maybe more in the 40Ks)

$75k Options:

• Nice 5 year old with a very promising future or extremely nice 4 year old
• 6-8 year old with quality and a show record but not a world beater. Not likely to do the 3’6" hunters.
• Solid Ch/AA Hunter that can go show anywhere & win in many places but will be begging for a ribbon of any color at WEF
• Nice horse with a rated record and some sort of vetting issue
• Average 3’3"/3’6" hunter, may be ugly as sin but a Very Good Boy
• Jumper that can get you started in the Low Jr/AO divisions

Obviously these are very generic guidelines and I’m sure there are people here with horses that defy them, but at least it gives you some idea of what’s out there and how your goals line up with it.

[Renn_aissance]

Well, he can roll side to side 5 times if he’s motivated, so he’s a $50k horse. That’s how it works, right? (Who else grew up with that old wives’ tale?)

In seriousness, OP, as I haven’t shopped for horses in 20 years, I do appreciate this thread as I expect it will be informative.

[findeight]

IIRC dags has some recent experience marketing horses in various ranges so might start with those examples.

[jvanrens]

@Renn_aissance

Well, he can roll side to side 5 times if he’s motivated, so he’s a $50k horse. That’s how it works, right? (Who else grew up with that old wives’ tale?)

Even though it makes me feel old (it was $100 per roll when I was a kid) I guess with COL increases, that could be right.

[dags]

As I said, I knew there would be folks with horses that defied these general guidelines but I disagree that these are “retail” prices, as in marked up above actual value. You can’t breed and raise a warmblood until age 2 and expect any type of profit from a 15k sale. That doesn’t mean there aren’t 15k 2 year olds out there, there certainly are, and there are plenty of 25k 3 year olds, too. But that’s either a matter of quality, or the seller not having connections, not the buyer. There’s no reason to sell below market value to a buyer without an agent, if you can get market value by selling to a buyer with an agent.

And the jumper would fall into that “talented project that you have the eye to see and ability to work with” 25k category.

[BostonHJ]

I agree with all of this with the caveat if the 5 year old has done more than a handful of AA shows and is getting primary color ribbons (and has the potential to be a 3’6 horse or is doing the age division jumpers), it probably gets into the 6 figures. Depending on the quality of the horse it can get more into that range than you might expect.

I tagged along horse shopping/selling for a few weeks in Ocala in 2022 and was shocked at what horses were going for, even knowing the market had changed a lot.

[dags]

Totally, that’s why I opened with “nice” instead of “very nice” on the 5 year old

That said, winter circuits are definitely guilty of “retail pricing” and not good gauges of the market as a whole. Also, the 2022 market was absolute bananas and things have leveled out a bit.

[clanter]

@BostonHJ

I tagged along horse shopping/selling for a few weeks in Ocala in 2022 and was shocked at what horses were going for, even knowing the market had changed a lot.

having seen a horse placing second in western pleasure championship at last year’s Morgan Nationals be bought by the first place winner for $140,000 because she like that horse better than her horse nothing would surprise me again

[Ponyplusaninch]

Yeah location and time of year for sure influence those market prices.

Kind of like with houses, there seem to be times of year when folks are eager to move horses along and don’t mind dropping the price. Other times of the year (FL circuit in particular), it’s like there’s a premium that gets applied to every horse that steps on the grounds.

I really liked Dags breakdown–that description is what I’ve been seeing coming out of the pandemic.

[BostonHJ]

Absolutely, I’m a real estate agent and the horsing/housing market trends are really similar. What Dags came back to say about the market cooling since 2022 is certainly true in housing - still historically high prices and wild compared to 2019, but every house we list is no longer essentially just an auction where the listing price is the starting number.

[hillary_again]

This is very informative. I’m not in the market, but if I was, this information would help me make some decisions about what I should be thinking about paying for different capabilities, and weighing taking a chance on greener vs paying more for a horse that’s going now.

[HJdaydream]

@dags is spot on in my experience. I shopped two years ago, and several people in my barn have shopped much more recently.

As a tall rider, I’d like to add that you are less likely to find a deal on the 16.2-17.1ish range. Those are typically most in demand IME.

[onlyTBmares]

I am no expert, but having some project management experience, I think about it like the iron triangle. With horses, I think it’s talent, rideability, and soundness/longevity. So things like big eq horses and U25 horses are well into the six figures. They have all the talent and scope for the huge jumps, are adjustable and forgiving and, presumably, quite sound. So then you can say, shorten a leg of the triangle. Get something that is limited in scope, price goes way down. Or something that is complicated and only goes for a perfect ride, or has a nasty spin or something else that makes it less fun to ride. That limits the buyer pool, and makes the price go way down. Or you can find something that goes great, but has a known soundness issue or is say 19 years old, that will also drop the price significantly.

I had a budget of $30k. I wanted to jump as big as possible, but I’m an adult ammy and rideablity was extremely important to. So I bought something older at 15 (less longevity although he is sound as can be), and who only wants to do the 1.15m at this point (slightly less “talented”). He also wouldn’t do for a very timid adult ammy so he’s maybe not 100% on the rideability scale that I’ve made up in my head.

If I had wanted to do the 1.30m with my budget, I could find something that was very low on rideability, for example a baby, or a complete psycho with some underlying soundness issues. Or if I needed something that was 8 or 9 (better longevity), I would have had to sacrifice scope and talent and found a 2’6” horse.