Are people over there buying horses like crazy right now?

DressageCob said:
It was a 7 year old dark bay posted 4 days ago. Seller was called Plank.

A similar horse would get about £1,500 to £2,000 tops round here. Maybe £3,000 with more training.
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Ok I found her.

That's a Canadian horse so 10k in Canada is only 8k+ in the US. And given that it's shown for 2 + years and did the Makeover competition that's a fair bit of experience. The Horse is big and bay and that's appealing here. He also appears to be VERY ammy friendly. That's a selling point too.

Thoroughbreds are popular here which is good since there a lot of them.

This is that same horse when he was prepping for the makeover in June of 2018. This was his first 1 stride ever and I know lots of folks that would have paid his current price then for his potential. Hopefully we directed some interest back to him.



@ihatework

Don't lose sight of the idea behind this.... it's to help my friends who are selling or buying be able to find one another. The sellers especially as they need money during the lock down more than ever. There are horses listed on my feed that I promise you ARE not listed anywhere else. But that's because my friends too see the benefit of access to 5000 other horse people and who knows how many friends of theirs might get shared a horse as well. Bottom line it's a lot of people potentially.

For those questioning the values, remember that Cudo cost me less than 10k GBP. In fact his owner was told he wasn't worth 10k pounds by a dealer.

Right now in the USA (from where we left off before the accident with me and the loose horse) he's now worth in the 6 figures in USD. And he's insured for a hell of a lot, but not quite as much as he's worth.

Different markets and different people.

Also our shows cost a ton. Figure $1k USD for a 5 day nicely rated show like I went to in Kentucky. (That was NOT including gas to get there and back, 9 hours from home, and hotel and food)

Em

Em
 
I think I'm going to sell all my PRE's to the USA, I could probably finally buy myself a house ?! Thanks for sharing though BunnyDog it has been really interesting!

I think it surprises me more because I used to live in the US (florida) I didn't take my horses with me, but cost of food, rent etc was so much cheaper then the UK that it really surprises me that the horses are so much more expensive.
 
shortstuff99 said:
I think I'm going to sell all my PRE's to the USA, I could probably finally buy myself a house ?! Thanks for sharing though BunnyDog it has been really interesting!

I think it surprises me more because I used to live in the US (florida) I didn't take my horses with me, but cost of food, rent etc was so much cheaper then the UK that it really surprises me that the horses are so much more expensive.
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What part of Florida and what year? Costs are constantly shifting. There's a ton of horse types I can get for next to nothing, but invariably the ones that I want, jumper with scope over 1.20, I couldn't begin to afford so I went looking elsewhere.

It's all about what you can find that you can afford.

Em
 
BunnyDog said:
What part of Florida and what year? Costs are constantly shifting. There's a ton of horse types I can get for next to nothing, but invariably the ones that I want, jumper with scope over 1.20, I couldn't begin to afford so I went looking elsewhere.

It's all about what you can find that you can afford.

Em
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I was in Gainsville in 2011, I was doing research with the UoF :).
 
shortstuff99 said:
I was in Gainsville in 2011, I was doing research with the UoF :).
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Oh fun, what kind of research? I work at Univ of Pennsylvania, and I know we do a TON of research too. Nice area and definitely cheaper than say Wellington & Palm Beach. LOL, as I am sure you know. But yea the house and rent costs in Ocala and even the non "premier" areas have gone up a bit. Though you're still better off near a coast for gas prices than us.

So basic question, if the goal of selling a horse is to connect with buyers, why would having a post on Facebook be bad? (Understanding that they're cracking down and it's harder and all that) But why was the assumption that only 'cheap' horse buyers would be looking or selling on Facebook? I'm just curious.

Over here the biggest sales sites are:

www.equine.com
www.dreamhorse.com
www.equinenow.com
www.horseclicks.com
www.bigeq.com
www.exchangehunterjumper.com

All of those charge for ads.

Facebook doesn't.

Em
 
BunnyDog said:
Oh fun, what kind of research? I work at Univ of Pennsylvania, and I know we do a TON of research too. Nice area and definitely cheaper than say Wellington & Palm Beach. LOL, as I am sure you know. But yea the house and rent costs in Ocala and even the non "premier" areas have gone up a bit. Though you're still better off near a coast for gas prices than us.

So basic question, if the goal of selling a horse is to connect with buyers, why would having a post on Facebook be bad? (Understanding that they're cracking down and it's harder and all that) But why was the assumption that only 'cheap' horse buyers would be looking or selling on Facebook? I'm just curious.

Over here the biggest sales sites are:

www.equine.com
www.dreamhorse.com
www.equinenow.com
www.horseclicks.com
www.bigeq.com
www.exchangehunterjumper.com

All of those charge for ads.

Facebook doesn't.

Em
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I used to work with cactus bugs! It was part of a genetics by environment study and I had such a good time! Luckily I never had to pay for fuel as the uni card got us all bus travel for free and half price entry to Disney world. I have now been to Disney a billion times.

I think in the UK most of the top/expensive horses don't even get advertised!
 
shortstuff99 said:
Do you have dealers in the same way that the UK does? Pretty much all of my horses have come from dealers or direct from the stud so I'm not really up with the current advertising routes.
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So not sure if you knew but there are actually three states that have horse buying laws that require disclosure of all commissions. We had MANY cases where people had 3-5 commissions. SO the owner thought they were getting $50k. BUT the buyer had paid $250k and the extra 200k went to 4 dealers.

So yes.... we have many dealers. And some of them have ethics. Many don't.

That's why I don't use dealers.

Em
 
The comparison is so interesting. have to confess I haven’t really thought about cost of living but are these horse prices considered high compared to peoples income? i know were talking huge ranges in both income and purchase price but are horses and equine costs just really expensive ?
 
BunnyDog said:
So not sure if you knew but there are actually three states that have horse buying laws that require disclosure of all commissions. We had MANY cases where people had 3-5 commissions. SO the owner thought they were getting $50k. BUT the buyer had paid $250k and the extra 200k went to 4 dealers.

So yes.... we have many dealers. And some of them have ethics. Many don't.

That's why I don't use dealers.

Em
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Wow that's crazy!
 
But that’s the thing though. It’s not a US monopoly ? That kind of thing goes on all over the world and is common in Europe too.

True story - direct from owners mouth - owner had event horse at mid level with a big name. Big name was offered serious money for horse from overseas. Big name told owner that horse had reached its limit and he would do them a favour and ‘get as much as they could for it’. Owner gets a mid 5 figure price and thinking the horse isn’t top class is happy. Horse gets to the top and owner through chatting to a direct contact learns that big name rider actually sold horse for decent 6 figures and pocketed the rest ...

There will be many examples of that across all disciplines. The equestrian world is really quite corrupt a lot of the time.
 
ihatework said:
But that’s the thing though. It’s not a US monopoly ? That kind of thing goes on all over the world and is common in Europe too.

True story - direct from owners mouth - owner had event horse at mid level with a big name. Big name was offered serious money for horse from overseas. Big name told owner that horse had reached its limit and he would do them a favour and ‘get as much as they could for it’. Owner gets a mid 5 figure price and thinking the horse isn’t top class is happy. Horse gets to the top and owner through chatting to a direct contact learns that big name rider actually sold horse for decent 6 figures and pocketed the rest ...

There will be many examples of that across all disciplines. The equestrian world is really quite corrupt a lot of the time.
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Yep! And since we're still have 47 states without laws to enforce a seller's disclosure of all commissions it's still very much going on.

On our topic I just saw this posted by a friend:

"If you had told me that while the world was on pause we would have had such a successful month finding retired race horses new loving homes I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s been incredible! 9 horses left in April, 2 left today and 1 more is waiting pick up. That’s 12 horses! The team at NCH really stepped up... THANK YOU! 60 horses across the New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program found homes in April. I’m proud and thankful to be part of such an incredible program."

That's a ton of new homes in 1 month for a specific program. 2 horse per day average for them.

Em
 
I too am astounded at these prices - and we see some pretty expensive warmbloods here in South Africa I think!

But things like ex racers would never ever fetch the type of prices being asked there. I can see why OP bought a horse in the UK :O
 
ihatework said:
But that’s the thing though. It’s not a US monopoly ? That kind of thing goes on all over the world and is common in Europe too.

True story - direct from owners mouth - owner had event horse at mid level with a big name. Big name was offered serious money for horse from overseas. Big name told owner that horse had reached its limit and he would do them a favour and ‘get as much as they could for it’. Owner gets a mid 5 figure price and thinking the horse isn’t top class is happy. Horse gets to the top and owner through chatting to a direct contact learns that big name rider actually sold horse for decent 6 figures and pocketed the rest ...

There will be many examples of that across all disciplines. The equestrian world is really quite corrupt a lot of the time.
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Why does this ring a bell with me. Was this a press case?
 
dominobrown said:
Can I send my Irish sport horse other there to sell? I was looking at a low 4 figure sum for him, get him on a plane asap ?
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Yes you can. There's a few people I could recommend to help fetch some American money for him if you would like.


Gingerwitch said:
BD totally off subject but do the dry lot horses ever get pasture turnout ? Or is that state dependent as well. ?
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Generally no since they don't have the type of pastures that you and I are used to in areas that have these types of stables. That said, when my horse lived in California I did send him about 2 hours east for a while to have some turnout time and to be able to graze again.


Gingerwitch said:
Why does this ring a bell with me. Was this a press case?
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There have been press cases similar but this was not one. This happens literally ALL the time.

Em
 
I do follow a few american hunter jumper producers on instagram and a few follow me back, so hopefully I might be on some peoples radars.
Details would be great bunnydog. Obviously no rush at all as doubt anything is happening this year! I do get a few nice exracers, a lot of irish types and warmbloods, not world beater types but happy to pop quietly round 3"3 courses which americans/ canadians seem to want. I think we do have a market over here but a lot smaller.
 
dominobrown said:
I do follow a few american hunter jumper producers on instagram and a few follow me back, so hopefully I might be on some peoples radars.
Details would be great bunnydog. Obviously no rush at all as doubt anything is happening this year! I do get a few nice exracers, a lot of irish types and warmbloods, not world beater types but happy to pop quietly round 3"3 courses which americans/ canadians seem to want. I think we do have a market over here but a lot smaller.
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Ok so depending on what discipline you think it'd suit I would aim to the following

1) Shannon at Infinity Sport Horses https://www.infinitysporthorse.com/ (She's a lovely girl and based in the right part of the country in Aiken. More for the winter but folks still travel to see her horses and she can fairly assess any horse and has brought along imports as well as Thoroughbreds. She is primarily and eventer but she's a solid rider.

2) Courtney Cooper has a booming business for import sales and is 25 mins away from me. She's quite good at her job. https://www.csquarefarm.com/
She's a 5* eventer

3) Hunter or Jumper types I would suggest Paige Cade out of Middleburg, VA. http://www.countryfoxfarm.com/ I've known her for a while and she is a fabulous trainer and rider who is training and riding in the jumpers and hunters.

Those are my first choices to get the most bang for your buck.

Em
 
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