Buying a horse....question 2

B

bedbug

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I have been looking at the for sale adds all over the internet to get an idea of horse prices.

Firstly wow they are expensive these days but that is inflation for you and so are house prices
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What I am finding really confusing is just how varyed in prices they are, the difference can be thousands. So at either end of the spectrum you have those that can't do much due to injury, or very young and at the other you have the competition horses.

Those ones in the middle of the price bracket still have widely varying prices. Why is this?

Are some people just trying thier luck to see how much they can get and what about those at the low end of the scale. Should you always be suspicious of more cheaply priced horses or is it they need to sell quickly (in which case lots more questions would be asked as to why), they genuinely want a good home and don't want to price those potentially good homes out, they are more realistic as there are a lot of horses out there for sale.

Thanks
jill
 
Alot of people think their horse is worth far more than it is.

Set yourself a budget and only go and see the horses you can afford. Don't dismiss cheaper horses, just be very wary (always get a vetting done). Be prepared to see horses that are a different colour, age and sex from advertised.. you will se alot of frogs before you meet your prince/ss
 
I bought Bear for £1200 as a 3 yr old nearly 2 years ago, I broke him in in 4 weeks with a weekly session from a friend whos a qualified instructor. He's worth about £2800 now! He's been so good the whole time and worth his weight in gold. My friend bought a 4 year old welsh D for £1800 2 years ago who was well schooled but had a fear of poles, but he's over that now! You need to go and see a variety of different horses and like _charlie_ said, set yourself a budget! Its so much fun looking at horses for sale!
 
I think if you were to walk into a yard and ask people about their own horses they would all come up with a couple of problems each, e.g. laminitis, sweet ich, lame, nappy, won't jump, won't hack, won't hack on its own, won't load, can't get caught, runs off, rears up, bucks, bites, kicks, a plod, etc the list is endless, but the conclusion is the same: no horse is perfect. However when you are looking to buy every horse, according to the owner, is suitable. Perhaps the lower priced horses are people who are more honest and will tell you (as long as you ask the right questions) what is wrong with the horse. Then again if you were selling the one horse that did not have all these problems, would you not ask for more money that anyone else? It is a problem though finding the one perfect horse amongst all the people who are taking the mickey (sorry to sound so pessimistic, but I have always bought competition horses and I have never sat on so many nappy, unsuitable nags as when we were looking for my OH's first horse. It took 16 viewings and countless phonecalls to find the one!)
 
Looking at horses at about 5k, I have seen horses (that I didn't buy) advertised for 6k, not sold, sold for 14k a few months later. Advertised at 5k - sold then sold on again by a dealer a few weeks later for 10. Advertised at 5k and still for sale (a year later) for 3.

And finally advertised at 1.5 and then sold for 2.5 - this one I did buy, at 2.5, you should have seen my face when I came across the earlier ad
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But we are happy together, so worth it.

What is the saying - a horse is worth what someone will pay for it? I think sometimes horses don't sell because we want to think the horse we are buying is worth that bit more, so perhaps more people will go to look at the horse with the higher price
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