How are people affording to buy horses at present?

SOS said:
I completely agree that well bred horses with a good confirmation and a good start in life should be worth a lot. However this attitude that as someone’s spent X amount on a stud fee/foaling/livery/training/their time every youngster should be 20k+ is ridiculous.

If you’ve chosen to put your broken mare to a BOGOFF stallion and it produces a horse that looks akin to one a child would draw or if you do an awful job of handling the foal and it turns into a bolshy thing that doesn’t understand pressure, you don’t then automatically get X price because it’s survived to a certain age. Equally your nicely bred horses that won’t stand up to their purpose bred job or isn’t talented enough and is essentially a cast off that is too sharp for most of the market but not good enough for a professional, should be priced accordingly.

In no other aspect of life do we take a big gamble on something and then expect someone to pay for every minute we have spent working on it. Racing very much understands this (although their cast off number is unacceptably high) so why don’t other equine sports?
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I also think that anyone who's bought a horse for themselves can't put all the costs as what it costs to produce a horse and hence what it's value should be as some of it is the cost of our enjoyment and use - would it be akin to saying that our cars should all go up in value because we've paid for the petrol to go in it and for servicing, insurance etc? I can understand professionals need to cover all costs but they would have a very different business model, such as they wouldn't have them on full livery, would probably have a few at a time and unless they were aiming for a certain market they probably would train and sell them a lot quicker.

ASBMO - aware this might sound like it's aimed at you because of your earlier post on this thread but it's not meant to be :) I've seen a lot of people mention it and have always had the same thoughts.
 
I find the price of everything scary. I have a horse who was given to me, a very old lorry we fitted out ourselves and a company car...
 
I've bought very cheap babies and done it myself.

It's long winded and you need patience. You also don't necessarily end up with what you want. My now 4 year old is a full hand smaller than expected.

I'm hoping I'll have 2 young ponies next year to be able to take out and do bits and pieces with. I wouldn't be able to afford to buy what I have now in comparison to the market but have probably spent more than market value getting them to this stage.

We also have a 20 yr old lorry which OH fitted out as and when we had the funds to do it. Everything we have we own out right I don't believe in finance on luxury items but that means we don't have top of the range, the things we have make us happy and I think that is more important.
 
I went down the sharing route after G went.
There are mental hurdles around not being fully in charge any more but it ticks a lot of boxes for me, as well as being hugely cheaper. The mucking out and mud-fighting isn't as relentless. I'm too old to start another youngster. A lot of the single owner horses I know are fat and under-worked. Horse gets variety as we want to do different things. Also horse will be safe if I decide to snuff it!
If there aren't enough good horses around & the ones there are cost too much, maybe an increase in sharing would be an answer for some? At the moment it seems ok at the very top of the price range (multiple owners for a race horse for example) or at the "bottom" of the pecking order, as a slightly sneered at starting point for beginners.
 
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I bought a 4yo unseen from Ireland last year for mid 4s. Total cost including vetting, transport and professional rebacking when she got here was around £7-8k. Ended this season with some good results at grassroots level and is very level headed and easy to do everything with- but she’s on the smaller side (15.2hh) which I appreciate is less attractive for a lot of people. I won’t be selling her but I’d assume she’d be worth well into the 5 figs if I was to advertise her.
Would do the same again if I was ever looking for another!
 
God knows, I just have my 24 year old welshie , and I won’t be getting another until he goes. Dreading it, the prices are insane and I’m not confident or competent enough for a youngster. I’d really like a Spanish horse so I will probably explore options to buy abroad and import. Until then I’m just continuing to save up, not least for the vetting as well as the horse.
 
Also on the car front - those with decent company cars may well have fuel allowances too. Every little helps and all that.
 
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Barton Bounty said:
PCP is apparently all the rage, no one ever owns cars now 🤣
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This is me! 👋😄

Currently getting grilled by my neighbours about why I've got another new car....

I used the now defunct scrappage scheme to deal with an old car that was becoming too expensive to keep repairing.

If you compared the monthly cost of a new car with what you get for the same money on the second hand market, it's a no brainer.

On my second car via pcp but planning to keep this one. 😊
 
Squeak said:
I also think that anyone who's bought a horse for themselves can't put all the costs as what it costs to produce a horse and hence what it's value should be as some of it is the cost of our enjoyment and use - would it be akin to saying that our cars should all go up in value because we've paid for the petrol to go in it and for servicing, insurance etc? I can understand professionals need to cover all costs but they would have a very different business model, such as they wouldn't have them on full livery, would probably have a few at a time and unless they were aiming for a certain market they probably would train and sell them a lot quicker.

ASBMO - aware this might sound like it's aimed at you because of your earlier post on this thread but it's not meant to be :) I've seen a lot of people mention it and have always had the same thoughts.
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I get what you are saying but some of these horses have come over from sales in Ireland or the continent extremely cheaply and the price is being hiked with little or no regard for the purchasers or being fair to them and asking a reasonable cost.
Hopefully the winter will put pay to some of these ridiculous prices that I keep seeing.
 
I am currently looking after having had a few years off and saved some money. Now in my middle 50's returning to riding I want safe and sensible and sound. I've been told this is what every one wants and therefore there is a price tag to go with it but I too am struggling to explain to the husband why I need to spend so much on what will now be a hobby. My knowledge is there but the confidence is not the same and I want to be able to go for hack or do a small course without being bucked off or run away with because it wasnt ridden yesterday. I have always had OTTB and unfortunately all ended up with issues of some sort and this has put me off. Mine were also sharp at times and absolute saints at others and I loved the challenge at the time. I am just too old for that now.

The other thing I have noticed is when I say it will be 5 star vetted and back and feet xrays it is deemed odd when buying a 'cheaper' horse. Any money I spend has been hard saved and I feel I need to cover my investment somewhat and yes I know it could break a leg tomorrow but at least I have tried to cover some of the bases which will make me feel better. Unfortunately this means some of my budget is being eaten up by this but in my opinion something I need to do. I have spent thousands in the past as I am sure many have on health issues that may have been picked up on xrays had I had them done in the beginning but they were my babies and I did what I had to to try and 'fix' them. I would like to enjoy this next horse for a few years before any degenerative type conditions start setting in.
 
MardyMare said:
I am currently looking after having had a few years off and saved some money. Now in my middle 50's returning to riding I want safe and sensible and sound. I've been told this is what every one wants and therefore there is a price tag to go with it but I too am struggling to explain to the husband why I need to spend so much on what will now be a hobby. My knowledge is there but the confidence is not the same and I want to be able to go for hack or do a small course without being bucked off or run away with because it wasnt ridden yesterday. I have always had OTTB and unfortunately all ended up with issues of some sort and this has put me off. Mine were also sharp at times and absolute saints at others and I loved the challenge at the time. I am just too old for that now.

The other thing I have noticed is when I say it will be 5 star vetted and back and feet xrays it is deemed odd when buying a 'cheaper' horse. Any money I spend has been hard saved and I feel I need to cover my investment somewhat and yes I know it could break a leg tomorrow but at least I have tried to cover some of the bases which will make me feel better. Unfortunately this means some of my budget is being eaten up by this but in my opinion something I need to do. I have spent thousands in the past as I am sure many have on health issues that may have been picked up on xrays had I had them done in the beginning but they were my babies and I did what I had to to try and 'fix' them. I would like to enjoy this next horse for a few years before any degenerative type conditions start setting in.
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I could have written this MM.

Exactly me. 54, used to compete competitively grass roots, SJ, Dressage, eventing, etc. But had some bad falls in the past, lost my confidence totally with my weight gain and missold horse who is now retired.
I need something safe, not worried if I get a stride wrong, won't spook at a filler or a patch of grass that is a different colour! Nothing sharp, silly, and MUST be able to hack on its own as I do that an awful lot, particuarly when I first buy it.

I was looking in the 10 - £12k range originally but soon found that this wasn't really feasible as everything I looked had had issues, either ridden, behavioural or both!
So I upped my budget to £15k.

The photos below are of the third horse I went to view. "Oh he's never done that before" I was told. Yeah right.

Then I tried a lovely one the weekend after that I would almost certainly have bought, but when I tried him it was wind and rain (coming down horizontally) and there were hollow plastic poles in the arena with wind whistling through and the horse started getting tense (probably due to me to be fair) and I had to jump off. Haven't ridden anything since, that was in April this year.

I've lost 1stone 8lbs and feel a lot better in myself but I'm really going to concentrate this next few weeks in shifting as much weight as I can so that I can start looking again. Unfortunatley I have nothing to ride and can't go for lessons at the moment, so any horse I try will be the first one I have ridden in many, many months which makes it even more daunting for me.

Like you MM I feel I need to spend a lot of money on vetting and possible xrays too and paying to take someone like a professional with me to a viewing. So there is a lot of cost before you have even got it home.

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Thinking back many years ago, l worked my way up the horse ladder by starting with unbroken 3 or 4 year olds and bringing them on myself whilst working in a non horse related job. I’d be out most nights after work schooling or playing around. I usually had a yearling or foal in the back ground as well. The trick then as now was succession planning if you hadn’t the money to buy something ready made. We frequently had insurance which included LOU and paid out if anything went drastically wrong. At that time a decent horse was around £3000 - if you consider how much costs have increased over the last 40 years then say £15000 seems reasonable. Some people equate the cost of a horse to the cost of a car - worth thinking about in terms of competitive interests? The other thing to factor in is geography. People don’t seem to want to travel to view but a weekend in the far north or south could be money well spent and if you’re a genuine buyer looking at a horse from a genuine seller things may work out better than visiting a local dodgy dealers yard.
 
I paid quite a lot for Wiggy but I don't begrudge it all. I work hard, don't spend a fortune on holidays or big nights out, had been saving into my horse fund (self-insurance and new horse fund) for years and had been lucky enough not to have to pay lots out of it so I had enough to buy Charlie, sell him for a fair bit less (especially when you consider sales livery costs) two years later and buy Wiggy for more than I paid for Charlie. He was also the same size everything as Charlie and Arhie so I saved a fortune on a saddle and rugs etc.

The work that had gone into Wiggy over the 10 years prior to me having him was worth every penny. I'm not the sort of rider who could buy an OTTB and turn it round, I'm too heavy and nowhere near confident enough and Charlie taught me that I don't want a youngster so the only option I have is to pay for a well-established, popular type. That means I pay more but i'm fine with that. Over the years it'll even out and the cost of keeping them works out way more anyway.

All the horses I've bought have been the same type so it's interesting to see the market progress over 20 years. Wig was £7k more in 2022 than Archie was in 2005, with Charlie almost slap bang in the middle (4k more than Arch, £3k less than Wig) in 2020 so prices went up roughly as much in those 2 years as they did in the previous 15!
 
Quite interesting - horse previous to current horse, I paid around £3,000 in 2005 which is now £6,000 or so the calculator I used told me. He was a reschooled 7 year old ex racehorse who had evented and won his first affiliated event but was felt to be more suitable to a dressage or showing home as not overly brave cross country. Had a heart murmour which never affected and he went to the top showing. Imagine similar horse would perhaps be £8/£10k now, or perhaps less as being sold not to event.
 
I have done the buy a young horse and bring it on myself thing many times over the last 40 years. At the moment I have 2 wonderful horses, both of whom I bought on myself. One is 21 now the other is 10.
The 10 year old will be the last i start myself. I am too old for it now. If i have another horse after my 10 year old it will have to be started and having seen the world a bit.
Looks like I had better start saving!!!
 
We save money, have good jobs, but live in a country where horses can be quite pricey and their keeping too. I always buy young, and that tends to be more affordable, but I know not everyone wants to back a horse or deal with young/green horse things. I have and will buy a horse unseen.

So I think that helps keep prices down for me. Which is fine, because I spend $$$ on vettings!
 
I don't think I'll have another horse after my current one (hopefully many years yet), as I wont have the sort of money to purchase one.
Though even with my current one I didn't have a lot of money to spend up front so I bought him at a very low price at a horse sales.
I hadn't even seen him in the catalogue but the few I had put a mark next to to look at had either terrible conformation / action that had been well hidden in the pictures/videos of them.
Luckily my boy caught my eye as he was lead to his pen for the day.
He was far less handled than the others I had seen - they had all been sat on / started - he was straight of a welsh hill side with VERY little handling.
But he had decent confirmation/movement and a nice person, I took a massive chance on him as he was 6yr old an unbroken - luckily it turned out he was genuinely untouched and not someone's cast off that had been turned back out after trying.
As he was 6 once I got him home I could crack on with starting him as he was plenty mature enough.
He is and utter pleasure he wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and I very much imagine in the wrong hands he could be a total nightmare but I love the bones of him, he will literally turn his hoof to anything and at a decent enough level for me. He is no world beater but can hold his own locally and be placed most times out and is super easy going on the ground and will turn out alone or with others mixed or single sex groups can be left alone in the field as well so makes my life super easy on livery as don't need to rely on others if I want to turn out/leave out.

If I sold him now I think I could easily sell for tipple what I bought him for, but he's with me for life
 
First Frost said:
I have done the buy a young horse and bring it on myself thing many times over the last 40 years. At the moment I have 2 wonderful horses, both of whom I bought on myself. One is 21 now the other is 10.
The 10 year old will be the last i start myself. I am too old for it now. If i have another horse after my 10 year old it will have to be started and having seen the world a bit.
Looks like I had better start saving!!!
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This is it, you don't bounce once you get past 40, and past 50 all the confidence goes out of the window.
 
When I was last looking I had a 5 figure budget and wanted a nice, sane well bred 16:2 jumping bred mare. Was happy to compromise on jumping talent but needed a good brain. Horses I liked were either out of budget, had done too much too young or failed vettings.

I compromised and went younger on age and taller on height. I think it costs a lot to breed a nice horse and get them to 4 so understand why they can easily be 5 figures. In any case, the costs of keeping my herd makes the purchase price of any of them look insignificant.
 
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Honestly in my opinion horse people don't think enough about the income side of things. It's a lot easier to earn more, rather than pay out less with horses! I have made all my career decisions based on trying to earn as much money for as little time as possible (so I've got time and money for horses and holidays!).

I work 3.5 days from home and 1 day in the office, so I have Wednesday afternoons off and other than office day the rest of the days I have time to ride before work. I have a boring corporate job that pays enough for a modest house, horse, lorry and a good few holidays.

If you are struggling to afford what you want, think about retraining in something like accountancy or HR or or IT or corporate sales. It's dull AF and I'd like to work outside/do something worthwhile but I have a wonderful life outside of work! With jobs really consider bonus vs salary. I find it tricky to save so went for a slightly lower salary but decent bonuses, so if I want to buy big expensive purchases eg a horse or a saddle, I've got a lump sum and don't need to do loads of saving each month.

As someone else said my peers all have nice cars, v expensive holidays, nice clothes (or kids in childcare!).
 
Y.O where partner works on Monday just rang partner to ask him to do some specific work on a field on Monday as she's away.

I suggested that if she was short of a stable for the new horse I'd give mine up temporarily so she's kindly agreed so that will save me some more money I can put towards my horsey fund. She's really kind like that.

I can feel it getting closer now 😁.....
 
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Birker2020 said:
I've lost 1stone 8lbs and feel a lot better in myself but I'm really going to concentrate this next few weeks in shifting as much weight as I can so that I can start looking again. Unfortunatley I have nothing to ride and can't go for lessons at the moment, so any horse I try will be the first one I have ridden in many, many months which makes it even more daunting for me.
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Birker, you’re doing really with your weight loss.

Stick at it and get your weight down more so that you are within the weight limits to get riding again at a RS or trekking centre before you go trying horses again. You know what the targets are to be able to do that, keep at your weight loss regime, and soon you’ll be able to reap the rewards.

You’ll be much better placed confidence wise to go trying horses with some recent hours in the saddle.

ETA I’ve recommended the very good trekking centre on Cannock Chase that I ride at to you before, Birker. It’ll be within comfortable reach for you for a day trip, it’s 48 miles each way for me and well worth the run. There’s a selection of decent sized horses of 16hh upwards there. A book of 6 x 2 hour treks in wtc for £400 over very varied terrain would set you up very well to be riding fit again.
 
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Tiddlypom said:
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Birker, you’re doing really with your weight loss.

Stick at it and get your weight down more so that you are within the weight limits to get riding again at a RS or trekking centre before you go trying horses again. You know what the targets are to be able to do that, keep at your weight loss regime, and soon you’ll be able to reap the rewards.

You’ll be much better placed confidence wise to go trying horses with some recent hours in the saddle.
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(Sorry to digress @Spanish Dressage )

Agree 100% but it's not just a matter of confidence. If you aren't riding fit @Birker2020 horses feel completely different to you & you would risk buying one you don't like later or could miss a gem.

TLDR
Our lockdown was longer than most people's because of having a special physical needs person in the household. When i eventually stuck my nose back outside a friend very kindly lent me her horse. I didn't gel with her at all. Just felt like we didn't get along & like she was unbalanced and I was fighting her every inch of the way.
Now back to full fitness and riding regularly, I borrowed the same horse again when my boy was temporarily out of action. I almost said "no" but didn't want to offend. Mare was great! Went very well for me. If it had been a viewing I'd have been booking a vetting. Mare hasn't changed, I have.
 
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When I had to have Homey pts due to his stomach issue as it was on Beva grounds and it would have been cruel not to PTS I surprisingly got an insurance payment despite him being 20 and having had 2 soft tissue injuries, a bit of arthritis, he had a reasonable market value due to being a smart schoolmaster type.

It took me a year to find my next forester and during this time not being on part livery for a year I saved a lot of money. Homey was PTS in July 2022. YO had seen Bert on Facebook with a local dealer who specialises in NF asked if he was for sale in March she said she was not sure if she wanted to sell or not but would want 10k which I felt was too much for a 5 year old 13.2 NF. He was then advertised on horsequest in July for 9750 which was still too much his price dropped to 8500 in August I was the first to view and then he was vetted by my vet and arrived a week later.

As a comparison Homey also a NF also 5 when I got him in 2007 cost 3000 and people thought he was expensive back then. Since then NF have become popular.

It is not the buying that is the difficult bit it is the keeping that is costing an absolute fortune. Thankfully I have a well paid job and got a bit of money when my grandparents died which I put by as savings which I have used to help fund Bert's training and my lessons.
 
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