Buying horses to bring on and sell?

Oh yes it is definitely worth doing financially - IF you know what you are doing.

I make, by far, the majority of my money from producing horses. The revenue from this practice is higher than all of my other farm ventures put together.

You have to find a niche and make sure you have buyers - where I live, very well bred Quarter Horses fetch good money, so these are what I buy and sell. My turnaround is generally 2 years and my profits are huge, even including what it costs me to keep them for this time. BUT I do a good job, my youngsters start off being good because of their bloodlines, I do spend quite a lot of money buying them in the first place, but all of this pays off in the end.

When I lived in England, I traded in ponies and made decent returns on them. In England I would work on turning them around within 6 months.

If you don't have your own land, then I am not sure how lucrative this venture could be.....certainly you couldn't keep them for the length of time I do and make any significant profits.
 
14.2hh's are the best and easiest to sell - they are also the most expensive to buy initially though.

I'm 5'8"
smile.gif
.
 
I have had my best success with a coloured cob gelding, bought totally unhandled as a yearling and sold on at three, walking out in hand and wearing saddle and bridle but unbacked. I guess he made about £1700 but was mainly a companion and required minimal effort to accustom to things. I have bought one 16.2 TB type and sold him on (to someone who came to view same day he went into H&H) again after a year or so but he was a nervy type who had a lot of issues to sort (he was terrified of anything going over his head or touching his ears, was very spooky, nervy and frightened of his ow shadow) but still made a good £2k on him, and have had maybe 4 ponies (mostly from the NF sales) and have always sold them on before backing and tend to make between £500-£700 on them. Mares always go for more at the sales, but have never had problems selling geldings. Am lucky in that I pay a flat rate for stabling/grazing and can have as many horses as I like. Id say it's definitely worth doing. By far the most interest I had was in the coloured gelding, I could have sold several!
smile.gif
 
You need to do the business calculations to see if it is worthwhile. You need to consider the following;
1. How much it will cost to buy the horse initially, vetting, transport home.
2. Other capital outlay - bridle, saddle, boots, rugs etc.
3. Cost of vet, dentist, farrier, etc whilst you own the horse.
4. Cost of horse's keep - livery/forage/hard feed/your petrol costs if travelling to a yard.
5. Cost of advertising and selling the horse at the end of the period.
6. How many hours of work per day you will be putting into caring for/schooling/showing to clients.
7. The end price that you will get for the horse, assuming that it doesn't expire/go lame/turn into a hellfiend whilst in your care.
It might be worth doing an initial spreadsheet to work out your costs so you don't get 'stung'.
Hope this helps
S
grin.gif
 
Ive done the odd one but alongside an office job, which proves quite difficult at this time of year trying to get it going along with getting 2 others fit for the BE season and I dont even get home from work weekdays until 6.30!

I dont have a huge amount of land so I buy ponies. Ive had 2 14.2hh's and 2 13.2hh "projects". The easiest to sell IMO are 14.2hh's because they attract both adults and kids. Its best to get something nativey as there seems to be more of a market for them as they're generally more chilled out temperament wise (than a light weight TB x type). Ive always bought mine through wanted adverts Ive posted because I have a certain £ limit I never cross, which is very cheap! There are people out there who think nobody wants their scruff who's out on a hillside somewhere but if they spot a wanted ad for one...
wink.gif
The other thing Ive found is that pretty ones do tend to sell better, especially where kids are involved! The ones Ive bought have always been very scruffy types (last one came off a very windswep field on the Western Isles!) who have barely been touched more than to have a headcollar on. 3 of the ones Id bought hadnt even been tied up before. But you just have to look past the scruff and see what they COULD be with a few months work and some serious tidying up.

I have old tack sitting about which seem to fit most ponies so I never have to buy new tack or anything. Sometimes I buy a new rug for it but thats about it. And its fed whatever it needs, thats not something Im prepared to cut costs with because if a horse needs building up then it needs it! I never have them shod as I find most dont need it since I sell them before they do any serious serious work. I do vaccinate them of course. I never pay to advertise, I always put them in free places!

I do it mainly because I enjoy it, I love the satisfaction of taking on a wild looking youngster and turning it into a fun kids pony. I do make some nice pocket money (min £2k on each one) out of it too which helps pay entry fees!
 
geldings ...16.2 or less, 6 yr old or less..and not too expensive, preferably with lots of potential.

Market is a bit flat at the moment, so worth doing the sums of cost/keep etc.

Ali
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top