Budget for 3/4 yo dressage horse?

[tobiano1984]

What do people budget for a dressage warmblood with decent breeding, 4 ish years old, backed and lightly produced, not competing yet but ready to go into YH classes?
Looking at the ads it seems you can get the above but unfashionable bloodlines and in a winter coat for a few £k in this country or something massive and blingy from the continent for anything from 20-100k!
What differentiates a 5k 4yo from a 25k one? Apart from white bandages and plaits obviously (!)
Breeding? Movement/athleticism at current point in time? Level of training? Trainability/brain? Breeding potential - mare/gelding/stallion?

 

[Luci07]

I have a friend selling one. I won't put all the details as don't want to get pulled but ballpark is that he is young (6), good breeding, flashy chesnut and remarkably straightforward. He went to the nationals and has won or been highly placed in all his (recent) novices. He is on for £20K. If he had started to learn some of the more advanced lateral movements, you could add a lot more on. It would seem that a combination of the current marks being earned plus the level of training is what counts - oh and something that really looks the part as well.

 

[zizz]

You can get some decent lightly backed 4yo from £3-5k, but a horse that's been produced for young horse classes will be closer to £20k and rightly so, a lot of time and effort goes into producing a youngster specifically for these classes!