Help, advice ideas; horse search.

[Limbo1]

I am slightly at the end of my wits.
Been looking for a horse for daughter all summer. Found one recently but failed vetting. All very disheartening.
I don't really know what to do, we only have £10k budget. This is actually a lot of money in the real world!
She wants to event but only UA 90 and poss 100 in future. PC and NSEA in winter.
For me it has to be safe xc but we rarely win and she likes doing team stuff, all about competing and training with her mates.
We are neither experienced or patient enough for baby horses.
Oh and needs to be 16hh+ as tall leggy child.
Help! Am I unrealistic??

 

[greenbean10]

Hmm, I think the problem is that if you don't have that much experience yourselves, you need a horse with some experience to take her round. I don't know as much about prices for eventers but for a sound, safe and easy going horse with experience at BE90 or 100 (which I would think is what you'd want?), you'd be looking at around £15-20k right now.

So you're probably going to need to compromise somewhere! Whether that's getting something a bit older that's stepping down a level or two, or going for something with less experience that's not proven at the level your daughter would like to do.

What age are you looking at? Have you thought about looking for something older?

 

[ihatework]

If you want something proven, straightforward and clean on vetting then unfortunately you are prob being unrealistic with 10k

 

[Limbo1]

Hmm, I think the problem is that if you don't have that much experience yourselves, you need a horse with some experience to take her round. I don't know as much about prices for eventers but for a sound, safe and easy going horse with experience at BE90 or 100 (which I would think is what you'd want?), you'd be looking at around £15-20k right now.

So you're probably going to need to compromise somewhere! Whether that's getting something a bit older that's stepping down a level or two, or going for something with less experience that's not proven at the level your daughter would like to do.

What age are you looking at? Have you thought about looking for something older?

When I say not experienced I don't mean novices I just know our limitations. I have ridden all life, daughter most of hers. We are active PC members and gave a good trainer.
We have seen a few with BE experience but as she will not be competing at that level not the most important thing. The one we nearly bought was 12, hunted, sj and xc but no flatwork. Daughter decent dressage rider so aim was to train over winter. I see too many accidents with kids on speedy horses/ponies who are not quite in control, makes me very nervous mum.
We have seen a couple of older horses, 16, 17 but they have frankly looked knackered. Also she is 14 so ideally needs to last til she goes to uni.

 

[nutjob]

I looked for about a year with the budget you have, for something exactly as you describe. I upped my budget to £15k and couldn't find anything with its original passport that wasn't lame. In desperation I bought a 2yo, this was a year ago. I do think that the market has calmed down a bit now and prices may drop over this winter but your not alone in thinking that what used to be a very healthy budget for a decently schooled, nice sound horse that's done a bit of everything is now barely adequate.

 

[SO1]

Does it really need to be 16h+ would a large native like a Welsh D at 15.2 which took up a lot of leg and was wide work.

There is a 10 year old advertised on horsequest for 10K that has qualified for PC champs and does X country and hunting.

Maybe you need a little bit flexibly as a large horse that will qualify for the PC teams is going to be expensive.

 

[Melody Grey]

Another who unfortunately doesn’t think your budget will get you what you want. Have you tried to look for a loan of something suitable- bang on the right time of year for students off to uni/ people with the too many to work over the winter?

might get you a bit more experience to then be able to buy something a little less finished but closer to your budget?

 

[Polos Mum]

You are looking for what so many people are - it's the most competitive end of the market. Nice to do, sound, sensible and up to doing 90cms riding club type stuff with a child. I think your budget is off by half at least (sorry to be blunt).

Broken (schooled), Sound, cheap - you can only ever get 2 of these three. So if you find one that looks nicely schooled, and is within budget it's almost certainly lame somewhere.

I would look at loaning rather than buy Sound and Cheap for a 14 y/o kid. As around at her pony club / instructor/ farrier / yard owner etc , have a go at a wanted ad. Someone you know of (or friend of friend) might be struggling financially but not want to put a "for loan" ad up that attracts all sorts of numpties.

If ever there was a time to get a nice loan it's now - coming into winter with looming cost of living getting worse.

 

[GreyDot]

Horsequest Ref #: 289259

As long as you don't have chickens

 

[Abacus]

Also this:
https://www.horsequest.co.uk/advertisment/286044

not quite 16hh but sounds fab and fun and v good price.

 

[cauda equina]

I wouldn't necessarily discount a horse that failed the vetting
Of course it would depend on why it failed, but it's only one vet's opinion on one day
I've known a vet failure be a brilliant horse for a friend's child, and know of many more who passed the vetting and went wrong soon after

 

[Limbo1]

Horsequest Ref #: 289259

As long as you don't have chickens

Lol, we have loads of chickens unfortunately!

 

[Limbo1]

Also this:
https://www.horsequest.co.uk/advertisment/286044

not quite 16hh but sounds fab and fun and v good price.

Thanks Will take a look, so hard as bought a 15hh deep connie 2 years ago thinking we would get a few years out of him and her legs are below his belly in dressage saddle and over front in the jump. Plus looks too small in general.

 

[asmp]

have you looked on nfed.co.uk?

https://www.nfed.co.uk/cgi-bin/clas...lay_db_button=on&db_id=175371&query=retrieval

 

[Limbo1]

have you looked on nfed.co.uk?

https://www.nfed.co.uk/cgi-bin/clas...lay_db_button=on&db_id=175371&query=retrieval

Yes but not recently thanks

 

[ponynutz]

I know of a 14.2 that's gone up and is low 5 figures (dk exact price).
Know you're looking for a horse but is a cracking pony

*EDITED* - Just seen you said needs to be 16hh+

 

[Squeak]

Another thinking you’re going to have to compromise.

I think you’d be incredibly lucky to find something like that to loan but you never know.

Something I always suggest is an exracehorse - they’re often still cheaper than an equivalent and would easily do everything you want.

 

[Mouse19]

Join equestrian notice board. Mainly hunters but some event horses.
Although Facebook bans sales adverts people still get round things. So I would try adding as many equestrian people on there and see what comes up.

 

[Muddy unicorn]

Look on different bits of horse quest - we found my daughter’s horse through an ad on the unaffiliated eventing section with a very nondescript photo of a bay horse against a brown fence. In reality she’s incredibly pretty and a XC machine!

We had a similar budget and wish list a couple of years ago and it was quite disheartening at times. We ended up looking at horses who didn’t have great dressage scores as that was what my daughter was most confident she could work with but our (my) non-negotiable was ridability XC.

The other thing I learned is that advertised prices are nearly always negotiable - during conversations with sellers the price could drop by £10k in the space of 5 minutes so don’t be afraid to ask if they’d accept less - they can only say no

 

[SEL]

I was following a couple of racehorse rehoming places when I was looking. Prices reasonable but less proven obviously - the one near Slough I checked out did put them through their paces flatwork, jumping, hacking.

Might be worth thinking about. A friend was talking £25k for similar for her daughter to what you want (except they haven't got it!!)

 

[maya2008]

As others have said, you need more money. What you want is going for a fair bit more than you have. Maybe look at finding a loan, perhaps someone who has gone to university and needs to loan out their horse for 3/4 years?