Event horse market - your opinions

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tigers_eye

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Do you think there is a market for horses established at PN level, with the ability to do well at Novice, but possibley not the speed for Intermediate? So good movers, and good scopey jumpers but without jumping their rider off. Well schooled, easy horses to do. Probably anywhere between 5 and 10 years old. And around the £10k to £15k mark? Am very interested to hear people's thoughts - especially those who have/want this kind of horse.
 
Exactly the sort of horse I would want to go out and buy.
There seem to be a few advertised in the £10-15 K bracket, but I would personally be looking to spend £8 K tops, unfortunately those ones aren't so readily available !
 
Definatly, If i could afford to have another horse thats pretty much what id be looking for as intermediate is just that bit too big for my liking! I was browsing the websites the other day and it seems that (this week- prob partly to do with time of year) that only 'potential' eventers are really for sale (or you get the established intermediates and aboveb ones that seem to come up rarely for sale).

Anyway, sorry if i havnt made much sense there- i know what i mean! Some people are quite happy to work at the 'lower levels' and just have fun!
 
Not particularly because everyone likes to think that they have a horse that will go far. Very few people are actually honest enough with themselves to believe that they will only ever do Novice ( even if they can't ride)So even if it will never happen, they like to think that it will. I think that adverts saying that a horse only has enough talent to get to Novice level are seriously off putting. Just my opinion!
But then again I think that you do get the odd over 40 type of person who may be interested in that kind of horse.
 
I think Rosiefans G-daughters horse BBs proves this. I think he was comfortable at Novice but was never going to have the speed at Intermediate. Maybe you should PM and find out what the levels of interest were like.

I was chatting to someone out hunting who did not want to bring on a horse but who wanted more experienced one at PN to give Novice a good bash. They said they had seen some real crap which was very expensive.
 
I would love that kind of horse, I only compete my horse at intro level and he doesn't have the ability to go any further, so if I want to move up I'll have to get a new horse.
A horse that is good PN or N is good as it would give me experience at higher levels.
 
Very very interesting. The thing about BBs, and I think the reason he sold so quickly, is that he was bona fide PROVEN at JRN, with a junior rider on board. THAT is what is so hard to come by. Sadly I am now a few years out of Juniors so cannot do that kind of proving myself!

I think if a horse is scopey enough to do Novice with a rider that doesn't get it right every time it is almost certainly also capable of Intermediate - it is only 5cms bigger. I can always say "potential to go Intermediate", it just may not be with the same rider!
 
You say 5cms bigger but mentally that is a huge 5cms! Also SJ its 10cm bigger which is where they often lack the scope. I think at Intermediate you cannot really get it wrong where as at novice and so I have proved you can bodge it badly and get away with it.
As you know its my belief that an amateur should never buy a pros horse as a pros horse will not forgive you for getting it wrong.
 
The people who bought BB were apparently interested in PC stuff rather than JRN - or so they said. He sold very quickly so can't really say how much interest there would have been and lec is spot on - he might have got round at intermediate but it wasn't really fair to push him to that extent. He was a lot more money than you are talking about too and not a particularly easy ride - your horse (even without the results with a junior rider) sounds just right to me. I know of people who would happily pay that much for a safe reliable PC/JRN and now is definitely the right time of year to sell.
Go for it and good luck
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ETS: Should have said it wouldn't have occurred to them to ask that much except that the 'better-off' PC Mummies kept suggesting after each win/place that he must be now be worth £20k/£25k etc
 
At novice u can get things really wrong and a scoopey/clever horse will sort u out, but at intermediate u really need to get it right most of the time!!!!
There sre loads of people who spend the money on a good horse at PN level as they are happy at this but don't won't to go any further.
 
I think for that money you would need something with a decent record at Novice. Agree with not wanting a pros horse.

It would also need exceptional dressage. Always be scoring in the 20s.

The jump from Novice to Intermediate is quite big as it is so more technical.
 
Another one that thinks £8k is enough to pay for the kind of horse you are talking about - there is no money in eventing after all and you will prob be stuck in OPN or ON, against better horses and f all chance of placing if you are the *average rider* There is deffo a market for these horses as they would also do well in Open RC and PC teams. I think they need the scope to do pure dressage at lower levels and jump an Amateur 1.10m track.

I think most people would ask way more than £8k for it though and this is what is killing the horse trade IMHO.
 
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Very very interesting. The thing about BBs, and I think the reason he sold so quickly, is that he was bona fide PROVEN at JRN, with a junior rider on board. THAT is what is so hard to come by. Sadly I am now a few years out of Juniors so cannot do that kind of proving myself!

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Well if you're looking for a junior....
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Another one that thinks £8k is enough to pay for the kind of horse you are talking about - there is no money in eventing after all and you will prob be stuck in OPN or ON, against better horses and f all chance of placing if you are the *average rider* There is deffo a market for these horses as they would also do well in Open RC and PC teams. I think they need the scope to do pure dressage at lower levels and jump an Amateur 1.10m track.

I think most people would ask way more than £8k for it though and this is what is killing the horse trade IMHO.

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Indeed, BUT the sort of horse described in the orginial post is very hard to come by. Horses that are great novice horses for decent riders who want to learn the robes and gain experience are very hard to come by. Horse like that rarely come on the market, because most good novice horses go onto greater things, so on the rare opportunity that one comes up the market, the price reflects this. £15,000 would be typical in my opinion.

Also, how is the horse trade dying?!)
 
With respect lifes_lemons the OP stated that the horse would be established only at PN, not at Novice - as with everything in life, NOTHING is guarenteed and so we are talking about a PN horse with POTENTIAL.

Horse market dying - too much money being asked for too many mediocre horses (and *potential* horses) which is pushing prices up and slowing the market down. Horses priced correctly are selling as always, but there are a LOT stuck on the market because people are not being realistic. Just my humble opinion of course!
 
Absolutely... the market is saturated with far too many "potential" horses, (my mistake that I mis-read the original post,) but competition can always be good. In my extremely limited experience it can encourage those who produce horses to do a better job and to take more time, ensuring theirs stand out from the mediocre crowds. This can only be a good thing.
 
Absolutely agree and I probably worded myself badly too! What I mean is that prices are being pushed up to a ridiculous level - what should be a £5k horse is now an £8k horse, a £6500 is now £10k etc, etc.... Also the economy is rather dubious ATM, so things WILL take a downturn I would think.
 
From the BE website:
The JRN Programme is open to all eligible juniors who have their 14th to 18th birthday in the current year and have registered with their Regional Co-ordinator. Riders must be capable of competing at BE novice level. The Programme culminates in the JRN Championships at Weston Park in October which is run as a CCI* and counts as part of the horse and riders further qualification.

Link to the page http://www.britisheventing.com/page.asp?...e+Championships
 
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Absolutely agree and I probably worded myself badly too! What I mean is that prices are being pushed up to a ridiculous level - what should be a £5k horse is now an £8k horse, a £6500 is now £10k etc, etc.... Also the economy is rather dubious ATM, so things WILL take a downturn I would think.

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Deffo. Makes me laugh when the same horse appears in H+H week after week, with the price gradually decreasing each time. The phrase "re-advertised due to time wasters" seems to be becoming more common
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a bit off topic but when searching the market this year Yogi said to me, if the horse has been on the open market for over 2 weeks, then there is something wrong with it or it is overpriced for what it actually is. I think with 95% of cases he was actually right aftert driving up and downthe country to sit on horses that looked great in adverts (that had been around for a good few weeks i admit) but were nothing like it in real life. My two both came from word of mouth and were unadvertised. But don't get me wrong I'm not saying this is the case for all horses unsold after a few weeks on the open market!

Seemed to sit on alot of "potential JOIT" horses that really wern't, they were glorified novice horses with exceptional novice records but getting eliminated at int, these horses were on the market at around 20-23K. I think that if a genuine novice horse (that were to stay at novice and not advertised as anymore) it would gain alot of interest and would sell much faster and easier at around £12K than there "potential JOIT" horses whose prices ultimately drop to this in my opinion... Sorry, can't really get my point across, I'm awful with words!!!
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Agreed - a lot is over-priced. I got my horse for 2.5K less than they wanted for him.

I have to agree with 2008 though, I think a lot of people want to know the horse can do more even if they won't admit all they are ever likely to get to is novice on a good day!
 
I hadn't thought of that, but you are very right. My horse's scope has got me out of trouble on more than one occasion.

I don't think I'd even bother looking at a horse that had been produced by a true pro, it just would not be forgiving enough for me.
 
QR: You are all making fabulous points. Also do you think a gelding of the above description would be significantly easier to sell than a mare of the same description? The levels in Belgium are slightly different - you go from L level, which also incorporates young horse classes for 5 & 6 year olds and equates to a tough PN, to M level which uses the 1* test and is like a tough, international level 1*. If I competed something at that level it should do Novice standing on it's head. Not literally of course....
 
No, tried some horses from pro's (fredericks, Harry meade, etc.) and have to be honest hated them all. ended up with two horses bought from middle aged amateur women and theyre much quicker thinking!
 
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