Am I being too picky for my budget?

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I.M.N.

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I'm horse shopping for the the first time in a while with a smaller budget than usual, I'll stretch to 4k but I'd prefer to be round 3.5k. My criteria is: must be around 15.3, this is because it will be for me and my mother to share and there's 5 inches between us so this is the height she it willing to go to as it's easier for me to ride a smaller horse than for her to ride a too large (for her) one. It has to be a gelding as all our horses live in a herd and though a mare might not mind them a mare would send our o.a.p.'s a bit mad. I'll admit that greys are also off the table as I've had 3 in a row and I'm sick of the cleaning! Under 8 years old. Preferably more sport horse build than cob.

All we want is a good old fashioned all rounder sort more leaning towards the jumping side, green, inexperienced, OTTB, recently backed is not a problem so long as it's got the right brain.

The problem I'm finding is anything with 4 legs has "amazing potential" and is well above my budget, anything within my budget resembles the sort of poor horses you see on charity ads!

Am I being too picky for my budget?

(After 3 in row with KS I am also getting back x-rays, which did show up on one I was going to buy, so I suspect finding one clear of KS will also raise issues)
 
In some ways I am surprised you can't find anything within budget, if I were you I would be looking for something green.

I am horse shopping at the moment, I'm not looking for the type you are looking for, but have seen ones that would fit your criteria.

Where are you in the UK? Would you buy from a dealer? Something Irish?
 
Could you raise your age limit. Anything under 8 could still be getting advertised as having 'potential' which always puts a premium on the price (even if there is no potential there!).
 
I wouldn't say you're being too picky at all, I'm surprised you're not having much luck to be honest. Whereabouts are you? He's a smidge too small possibly but this guy popped up on my newsfeed the other day and might be worth a look - http://www.marshponies.co.uk/for-sale-king/4593816187 I'm not linked with them at all but found Nikki super helpful when I was looking and they often get nice ISH types in that are around your budget as they're a bit green.
 
possibly going to see one at the weekend. 16hh non raced tb, jumping and winning be80/90 5 years old and just over half your budget but it is a chestnut mare. Having said that not sure we will even look as the person buying hates chestnuts. Cant say who owns it as I dont know just going as the childs instructor (retired) friend
 
Have you approached the TB rehoming charities e.g. TRC, Godolphin, Jim Boyle etc? They usually do a pretty good job of restarting retired racehorses and either selling or loaning them.
 
I think you are being hopeful but can find what you want - I wanted similar recently (lthough TBs were completely off my list), but it did involve me getting on the road within 48h of being alerted to something suitable, a 10h round trip, no trial facilities and taking a punt on no vetting.
 
PorkChop said:
In some ways I am surprised you can't find anything within budget, if I were you I would be looking for something green.

I am horse shopping at the moment, I'm not looking for the type you are looking for, but have seen ones that would fit your criteria.

Where are you in the UK? Would you buy from a dealer? Something Irish?
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Green suits me perfectly. I'm in Surrey. Yep dealer and Irish both fine.

eggs said:
Could you raise your age limit. Anything under 8 could still be getting advertised as having 'potential' which always puts a premium on the price (even if there is no potential there!).
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Not really, I'd prefer to go young and green than older an inexperienced.

FestiveFuzz said:
I wouldn't say you're being too picky at all, I'm surprised you're not having much luck to be honest. Whereabouts are you? He's a smidge too small possibly but this guy popped up on my newsfeed the other day and might be worth a look - http://www.marshponies.co.uk/for-sale-king/4593816187 I'm not linked with them at all but found Nikki super helpful when I was looking and they often get nice ISH types in that are around your budget as they're a bit green.
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Thanks, I'll have a look.

Flicker said:
Have you approached the TB rehoming charities e.g. TRC, Godolphin, Jim Boyle etc? They usually do a pretty good job of restarting retired racehorses and either selling or loaning them.
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I've tried a couple on facebook, but haven't heard anything back, may start phoning some.

ihatework said:
I think you are being hopeful but can find what you want - I wanted similar recently (lthough TBs were completely off my list), but it did involve me getting on the road within 48h of being alerted to something suitable, a 10h round trip, no trial facilities and taking a punt on no vetting.
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After 3 in a row with KS I can't bring myself to take a punt.

MasterBenedict said:
Where are you and how far would you be willing to travel? I know preloved gets a bad rep, but I've found some great stuff on there.

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/s...rse.html?link=/search?keyword=15.3+gelding%23

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/s...l?link=/search?keyword=15.3+gelding%23&page=4

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/s...l?link=/search?keyword=15.3+gelding%23&page=4
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Cheers, I'll have a look.
 
Just seen you're in Surrey, in that case you could also try Prestwood Farm. They might be a tad over your budget, but from what they said when I went to view a couple they're happy to negotiate within reason and had some lovely ones in when we were there (although this was well over a year ago now).

Can't remember the rules re: naming and shaming but if you want to PM me I can also tell you a couple to potentially avoid.
 
TheHairyOne said:
I would also bear in mind people dont know how to measure horses!! I bet a lot of 16/16.1's are smaller.
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Totally agree, I did go and see one listed as 16.1 in the hope, sadly they'd under estimated their horse!

FestiveFuzz said:
Just seen you're in Surrey, in that case you could also try Prestwood Farm. They might be a tad over your budget, but from what they said when I went to view a couple they're happy to negotiate within reason and had some lovely ones in when we were there (although this was well over a year ago now).

Can't remember the rules re: naming and shaming but if you want to PM me I can also tell you a couple to potentially avoid.
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Cheers, will do.

thegreenergrass said:
http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/s...arch?sectionId=2188&orderBy=priceDesc&page=22
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Ta.
 
Probably get more choice if you go for something unbacked.....or is that too green?
 
I am on a local Facebook group, and apart from hundreds of rugs being advertised there is a fairly constant supply of advertisements for quite nice sounding horses. Not so much the potential eventer and dressage horse, but the sort that may be your type, more all rounder riding club sort, and not all retired TBs or cobs either!
 
are you on facebook? a lot goes on there these days as free.
wanted ad?
also maybe take a punt on those that you think are over priced? A friend did this, homebred wish upon a star mare, owner overhorsed and nervous, 4yo mare not doing or done much but lots of potential, home important as homebred etc resulted in a significant reduction from advertised price. Friend was totally straight with woman on first contact along the lines of I like your mare, I would do xyz with her but my absolute top budget is abc.
 
DabDab said:
Probably get more choice if you go for something unbacked.....or is that too green?
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If it were older and unbacked, but I've backed my last couple and really just want something I can crack on with this time. Also it would be longer before my mum could ride.

ester said:
are you on facebook? a lot goes on there these days as free.
wanted ad?
also maybe take a punt on those that you think are over priced? A friend did this, homebred wish upon a star mare, owner overhorsed and nervous, 4yo mare not doing or done much but lots of potential, home important as homebred etc resulted in a significant reduction from advertised price. Friend was totally straight with woman on first contact along the lines of I like your mare, I would do xyz with her but my absolute top budget is abc.
Click to expand...

Yep on Facebook. I'll go check out wanted ad. Cheers I'll keep that in mind.
 
I too am horse shopping and I've seen a few perfect for me however you get there and what was advertised as a 16.1/2 are usually 15.2/3, I went to see a 17.1 and it can't have been over 16.2, my budget is similar to yours, I've always had tb's but this time fancy something a bit different :) good luck with the search :)
 
From a dealer perspective in Surrey, there's a few to try. Natalia Thorpe/ Nt Equine, Em Vine (both Ewhurst/Cranleigh way) prestwood and Marsh as already suggested and also Julia at Southgate farm (over towards Gatwick) if it's any help.
 
chaps89 said:
From a dealer perspective in Surrey, there's a few to try. Natalia Thorpe/ Nt Equine, Em Vine (both Ewhurst/Cranleigh way) prestwood and Marsh as already suggested and also Julia at Southgate farm (over towards Gatwick) if it's any help.
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Ta. I've tried a couple already but not heard of the others.
 
We were on a limited budget so I emailed a few breeders directly and ended up buying an unseen 4yo direct from Ireland from the breeder. Different search criteria than you, but I paid less than half your ideal budget including door to door delivery buying direct rather than thru a dealer. It was a risk but so far so good. I found ours on donedeal and made a cheeky offer!!
 
I thought I'd do an update:
Still looking
We've upped the budget to 5k
Seen 8 horses
One failed vetting with ring bone.
Two failed vettings with kissing spine (showed up on back X-rays) hardly surprising as both were ex-racers.
Two were lame.
Three were unsuitable, it takes a lot for us to consider a horse unsuitable.

We're both losing the will a bit now.
 
I.M.N. said:
I thought I'd do an update:
Still looking
We've upped the budget to 5k
Seen 8 horses
One failed vetting with ring bone.
Two failed vettings with kissing spine (showed up on back X-rays) hardly surprising as both were ex-racers.
Two were lame.
Three were unsuitable, it takes a lot for us to consider a horse unsuitable.

We're both losing the will a bit now.
Click to expand...

I do think you are missing out on a big chunk of horses limiting yourself to those aged 8 and under. You said you'd rather young and green than older and inexperienced but why do you assume an older horse would be inexperienced? For 5k you could get yourself a nice, not world-beater, RC type.
 
SpringArising said:
I do think you are missing out on a big chunk of horses limiting yourself to those aged 8 and under. You said you'd rather young and green than older and inexperienced but why do you assume an older horse would be inexperienced? For 5k you could get yourself a nice, not world-beater, RC type.
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We are looking at older ones a bit (one we went to see was 11 another was 9). I'm starting to feel like our no mares and no greys are the biggest problems, I can't believe how many grey horses there are.

Sorry I should have explained myself more. So far from what I've seen, for older horses to be in our budget they've been inexperienced. And I'm always suspicious of buying older horses, there are very few legitimate reasons for them to be for sale and with today's level of horsemanship there's usually years worth of poor riding to rectify.

The horses we've seen so far have ranged from 15.1-16.1hh, 3-11yrs, and most colours.
 
I.M.N. said:
I thought I'd do an update:
Still looking
We've upped the budget to 5k
Seen 8 horses
One failed vetting with ring bone.
Two failed vettings with kissing spine (showed up on back X-rays) hardly surprising as both were ex-racers.
Two were lame.
Three were unsuitable, it takes a lot for us to consider a horse unsuitable.

We're both losing the will a bit now.
Click to expand...

Yikes, I'm not surprised you are losing the will.

Have you done a wanted ad on facebook?

I would leave it a few weeks, take a break before looking again.

Have you looked at any horses over your budget that have been on a while that they might take an offer on?
 
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