scats
Well-Known Member
Prices comes up so often these days, l wonder what planet people have been living on! so many people wanting a cheap pony but equally want it to have been nicely bred, correctly fed/handled/ backed/ schooled.
My advice is always to look at a rescue centre or maybe for a loan that someone genuinely doesn’t want to sell but is happy to let it go on loan on whatever terms THEY decide. You may be lucky and pick up an unbroken 3/4 year old at a sale or may find an older pony not at a sale just looking for a nice happy home.
Going back to basics though many people stopped breeding because it simply wasn’t worth the hassle, therefore there are less horses/ponies about than there once were especially in the 13-14 hands range which is a useful height for people in the mid height range which includes children and even older adults. So …it costs around £3000 to get a foal on the ground - that’s including stud fee and keep of the mare, and then at least £1000 at a very minimum until 4 years old when it’s time for a bit more work, either the breeder is able to do this or pays someone else so that’s about £250 a week for xx weeks by which time you should have something you can sit on and will go forwards happily for its age and level of experience. Maybe people need to do the sums! It’s hardly surprising so few people are breeding these days and the future isn’t looking good for many of the registered types. There are always plenty of retired racehorses about, perhaps that would be a better bet?
I understand your points, but the problem is (and I include myself in this!) we’re from the planet where you used to be able to pick up a project for under a grand and it’s quite hard to get your head around the fact it’s not like that anymore
Happy to hold my hand up and say that perhaps it’s us not living in the real world and we need to move with the times. I will repeat that my friend has no issue with paying up to 4k for something, but maybe we expected something at that price to be able to walk and trot under saddle, even if just a straight line!
Nothing we have viewed has been registered/known breeding.
An OTTB is out unfortunately as needs to be between 13-14hh as my friend is tiny and looks like a pea on even a 15hh horse.