Do PC ponies really cost that much?

mystiandsunny

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Have just spotted a pony in its late teens, being advertised for over £10k. Based on pics jumps about 80cm, apparently does PC teams. It is the same age as two of mine - one was retired this year (arthritis), and the other is now on joint supplements. Both uninsurable for illness due to age. I just keep seeing the ad (not on here) and thinking - but it could go lame tomorrow, or in a year, and the buyer will have spent all that money!
 

zoelouisem

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Good ponies fetch very high prices. In bs showjumping a rope pony late in its teens could fetch triple that!! I think £10k may be a little steep for a 80cm pc pony on the older side of 15 but you'd be surprised what the do go for!!
 

showpony

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We recently bought a workers pony for approx price you mentioned. Good ponies will always go for good money.
We sold our 123 cms pony for quite a high price as had such a solid temp but a very competitive pony across a range of diciplines
 

PorkChop

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Yes they do, a good, proven straightforward pony will command a decent price tag even though they are older. I think it is only right that these type of ponies do, lucky children :)
 

FfionWinnie

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Really depends on the pony. We have one given to us who sold for around that at 14 and double that at 11. He was worth every penny I think but at 18 his owners decided he was too quirky and precious to them to sell so we got him.

On the other hand I just picked up an ex BS pony for less than meat money. He had ended up in a series of unsuitable homes and he's a competition pony not a kids wobbling around on him pony so I think he probably scared each home and was sold at a loss. I took a chance on him knowing nothing at all. Had him out and decided he was just misunderstood then traced the owner who had affiliated him and confirmed my thoughts that we had got a little cracker. Just goes to show how things can go wrong even for good ponies!
 

Shay

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Good ponies with a proven record go for that - and more. Parents will pay significant sums for something known to be safe and with a good competition record. Plus a pony in its teens probably still has another 10 years or so of competition life left if it has been treated well. They tend to go on longer than horses. We had a perfect PC Mare who we sold on (for a reasonable sum) over 10 years ago. She still carried PC Novice eventers very happily and is over 30!

But FionWinnie is right - affiliated ponies are nothing like steady PC Ponies (and can go for higher sums!) but bought by an ambitious parent for a child not yet ready for that kind of power they can be easily misunderstood and sold with a bad reputation.
 

pansymouse

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I had a very pretty and talented competition pony from the Blue Cross because he had got to his mid teens via a couple of well financed but unsuitable homes and developed quirks that made him too dangerous to be a child's ride. Oh! he loved children and could easily have eaten a whole one after he dumped them on the ground at pace. My petite adult friend rode him and they were a great partnership, she is a gentle but assertive rider, just what he needed.
 

Dubsie

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If there's a buyer with that sort of money, yes. But not all pony club parents wish to spend money on a schoolmaster, some will buy something a lot cheaper and expect their child to learn from it, and ultimately turn the pony into one that can make a profit, thus making it cheaper when moving up to a bigger one.
 

Shadowdancing

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As others have said, it's worth what people will pay for it. A good safe pony that's a solid packer around jumps and well behaved in all ways a parent is worried about holds its value well.

And to be fair, while age may slightly increase the risk, the 'spent all that money and it could go lame tomorrow' still applies to anybody any time they buy a horse!
 

mga4ever

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If he gets into mounted games £10k would be about right for a fairly average pony, the good ones you can double that and more. Have heard of one that was leased for a season for that sum!
 

alice1234

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They can go for a lot, but 10k for an 80cm pony sounds ridiculous to me, and even if it was higher than 80 I think that's still too much
 

texenstar

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Wow! Reading this I feel like we sold my old PC pony for far too cheap! D: In my opinion, a good PC pony (i.e safe, can jump up to aprox. 80cm without too much fuss and will be sensible at a Gymkhana) shouldn't be more than £4000. Anything more and I would be thinking it was more of a FEI pony rather than a fun PC pony. But like others have said, it all depends on what the buyer wants it for and what they are willing to pay :)
 

helenchat

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I'm not surprised!
I sold my PC pony in 2011 when he was 14 for £5k (including tack).
He maxed out at 90cm competitively, but at 80/90 he was unbeatable! He did a really smart dressage test and qualified for Dengie and PC champs, hunted like a dream and went to every pony club camp going.
Not to mention had manners to burn and was unbelievably easy to look after, he was very pretty too- a successful pony in cold blood classes at the highest level in his youth.
In case you can't tell, I still miss him!! I'm in touch with his new owners and would have him back in a heart beat, even if just to be a lawnmower..
We bought him at 10 but even then we used to joke that he had the personality of someone's kind grandad!! He taught me how to ride and was the perfect introduction to competing - my mum could send me off from the start box and know he'd bring me home safe and sound with a smile on my face, invaluable to a parent I would imagine !
 

glamourpuss

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Wow! Reading this I feel like we sold my old PC pony for far too cheap! D: In my opinion, a good PC pony (i.e safe, can jump up to aprox. 80cm without too much fuss and will be sensible at a Gymkhana) shouldn't be more than £4000. Anything more and I would be thinking it was more of a FEI pony rather than a fun PC pony. But like others have said, it all depends on what the buyer wants it for and what they are willing to pay :)

A proper FEI pony you are looking at a minimum of £50k IMO.
I know of one who changed hands for £150,000
 

TGM

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Wow! Reading this I feel like we sold my old PC pony for far too cheap! D: In my opinion, a good PC pony (i.e safe, can jump up to aprox. 80cm without too much fuss and will be sensible at a Gymkhana) shouldn't be more than £4000. Anything more and I would be thinking it was more of a FEI pony rather than a fun PC pony. But like others have said, it all depends on what the buyer wants it for and what they are willing to pay :)

There are Pony Club ponies and Pony Club ponies! If the pony has a record of going to the PC Championships and even better getting placed there, then it is likely to command quite a bit more than £4k, especially if it is safe for novices, 100% in traffic, hacks out safely alone and in company, hunts nicely, is easy to do even if parents aren't particularly horsey etc.
 

oldie48

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Our lovely connie/tb full up 148 pony was sold for quite a lot more than £10K. He'd taken my daughter to senior HT champs when she was 13 and did two years of FEI, although was never a team pony. He was very safe and adapted to the rider, was a dream to handle/travel etc and a complete "allrounder". He was worth his weight in gold, although when we bought him as a 5 yr old he was quite challenging and I know some PC mum's thought we were mad as he spent most of his first camp on two legs. Once sold by us he never came on the open market again and was passed on by word of mouth but we always knew where he was.One in a million!
There are Pony Club ponies and Pony Club ponies! If the pony has a record of going to the PC Championships and even better getting placed there, then it is likely to command quite a bit more than £4k, especially if it is safe for novices, 100% in traffic, hacks out safely alone and in company, hunts nicely, is easy to do even if parents aren't particularly horsey etc.
 

SO1

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How big is the pony? A small pony that is competitive at 80cm and also a safe first ridden that can be easily handled by a small child and with a proven pony club record in all disciplines is probably worth a decent amount of money.

Also the photos may be deceptive as it could be the rider ability/confidence not the pony's jumping ability that is restricting the height of the jumps.
 

mystiandsunny

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Ah just thought...I currently ride my 13.3hh sports pony who I bought to back and sell on many years ago and ended up keeping. She jumps up to about 1m20 when fit (proper point and kick pony, does it all for you!), and I'm aiming to get to Medium dressage in the next couple of years. When my son gets big enough to ride her, am I going to lose my ride? We won't be able to afford a 'made' version of her...
 
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texenstar

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There are Pony Club ponies and Pony Club ponies! If the pony has a record of going to the PC Championships and even better getting placed there, then it is likely to command quite a bit more than £4k, especially if it is safe for novices, 100% in traffic, hacks out safely alone and in company, hunts nicely, is easy to do even if parents aren't particularly horsey etc.

Fair enough! In my head I picture a Gymkhana pony as a PC pony but I had totally forgotten about all the championships! :)
 

honetpot

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I sold a quite ordinary 13.2 for PC, it was very pretty, for 2.5k. 18months later it sold for nearly 3.5k.
I didn't have a lot of money so we made most of our own ponies, the only one I bought in I paid 2k from a friend, who was and if only pony. If only he jumped bigger or did a better dressage test he would have been three times as much, as he was you could put the most novice rider on him and he would do exactly as he was told and no more. Someone I know paid 12.5k for their daughter to do PC on, she got on the teams, it was safe to hack, good to handle and she had three years of pleasure out of it before she thought she could ride better than she did and got another.
 

EmmasMummy

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Our Sec Gelding is valued about 1.4k. He is 8, backed at 6 but hasn't done much. In the right hands and with a good rider and more schooling he would make a good PC pony in the right hands. He has quite the jump on him and if I had a fearless jockey, and the funds to finance pc or BS then he woul dbe worth more, but I would have to spend more than that increase. I stretched to getting one of the best people locallty to back him and thats it.

If someone has put the effort in then it is definitely reflected in the price.
 
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