How much did you pay for your horses?

£2500 for polish warm blood with decent dressage lines on sires side. They hadn't done much with her as I don't think she was thier favourite, but I love love love her and she is worth every penny and more to me. Great little mover, huge jump and adorable nature.
 
Gloi said:
The thing that is most shocking, I think, is that in 1972 my parents paid £120 for my first pony. He was a 3 1/2yo unregistered Fell type, who although he would follow others when ridden had had zero schooling (came good in the end though). The other pony we looked at at the time was a 13.2 welsh who I fell off so I didn't get her. She would have been £150.
Looking at ponies today I could probably buy similar for £400 or so, I paid £450 for a 14.2 hairy pony to school on recently, yet when the value of the money taking inflation into consideration is worked out £120/£150 in 1972 is £1500/£1900 today.
Click to expand...

I noticed similar when returning to horses after a long break. I was quite shocked and saddened to find ponies, cobs and horses of quite nice types going for just a hundred or two and maybe a couple of hundred more 'ready-made'. My first ponies cost a darn sight more and not because they were better stamps, necessarily. Reasonable equines just seemed to be valued more in general back then.
 
DirectorFury said:
Given the insane amounts of money that the Americans spend on H/J horses I'd say around $70k. I follow a US H/J forum and they are mostly of the opinion that you can't compete successfully at anything above local level unless your horse was $50k+ and you have the 'right' sort of tack ($6.5k for a saddle anyone?). Crazy :p.
Click to expand...

Double it, he was £150,000.
 
Llanali said:
I too have had my eyes opened by this thread like AA, I am astounded by how little some of you have paid for some of your horses. No wonder the middle breeders and producers are struggling as it seems to me that prices are being driven down in some parts probably by increasing numbers of horses and a flooded lower end market and a rise in the cost of horse keeping.
Click to expand...

there's also a good element of being in the right place at the right time and I bet I'm not the only one on this thread to find that.
I certainly was when I picked Millie up - she's been successful at BE novice and BD Medium with me, horse of a lifetime material and essentially a freebie.

Likewise with my cob - another freebie as her owner wanted her to go to a good home and wasn't bothered about the cash. She was bought for a reasonable price originally but then passed on for nothing. Tricky to start with but turning out to be super.

Just after I picked Kira up, I was offered 2 more freebies. I have no budget to buy horses at all, I have no savings, just couldn't spend out to buy one. But I've been offered more horses than I could accept. If you have your ear to the ground and you can work with something less than perfect then there are golden opportunities out there.
 
milliepops said:
there's also a good element of being in the right place at the right time and I bet I'm not the only one on this thread to find that.
I certainly was when I picked Millie up - she's been successful at BE novice and BD Medium with me, horse of a lifetime material and essentially a freebie.

Likewise with my cob - another freebie as her owner wanted her to go to a good home and wasn't bothered about the cash. She was bought for a reasonable price originally but then passed on for nothing. Tricky to start with but turning out to be super.

Just after I picked Kira up, I was offered 2 more freebies. I have no budget to buy horses at all, I have no savings, just couldn't spend out to buy one. But I've been offered more horses than I could accept. If you have your ear to the ground and you can work with something less than perfect then there are golden opportunities out there.
Click to expand...

Having the eye to see what the freebie or cheap 'troubled' horse could be, and the skill to achieve the end result is crucial too.
 
MargotC said:
£600 for the Standardbred
£3200 for the ride and drive Dole Gudbrandsdal (the heavier Norwegian native draft)

For what they were... bargains.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, several hours later and properly awake I realise the above is with today's exchange rates. Would have been a bit more back then.
 
Paid £2500 for my first would be 6 year old eventer over 30 years ago and have paid equivalent all the way through to current horse. Never had a bargain horse! Even today though, if you want a well produced and straightforward horse that's not heading into the back end of its teens....you have to pay a decent price. Bargains are great but there is nearly always a caveat. I am at the age now that I don't want surprises, had my share of producing on, had my fair share of babies. Doesn't excite me in any way shape or form now, so I paid my money and have a lovely boy to go off and event next year..and am beyond excited as there as no questions over his ability or temperament.
 
skint1 said:
I paid too much for my daughter's ex racers, lovely as they are!

For this handsome beastie however, I paid princely sum of a shiny £1.00

Alex%20Autumn%202015_zpsstjssled.jpg
Click to expand...

Gorgeous and a bargain, but do your horses not try and kill themselves on those water pipes
 
I bought Pie for £2,000 back in 2003. Very expensive for what he was - cobby/ISH with no brakes, no schooling, issues on the ground and a biter!! However to me he is priceless - we have worked through his problems, he supported me through a very dark time and we have so much fun together. He is my absolute world and that £2k I paid is a drop in the ocean of what he is worth to me!
 
For my pony, a 14.2 hh connemara eventer we paid £17K. He is an absolute legend, been there and got the t-shirt, competed consistently at BE100 rarely ever not coming in the top 3. He is such a sweetheart and has taught me absolutely everything I know, worth his weight in gold! Took me from not having ever jumped a cross pole to winning 1m sj rounds against whizzy sj ponies and I won my first ever BE on him! Always scores over 70% dressage and has massive scope. Previous owners had paid £25K for him.

I then got the most stunning six year old mare with amazing bloodlines and massive movements, already been out consistently placed at elementary, for, wait for it: £50K... she is a serious class horse but they ripped me off so much, she went to a top sport-horse stable but we later found out that the breeder had her up for sale for £35K just 3 months earlier!!!

My newest horse cost the same as the mare, he is a 15.3hh hanoverian, has evented successfully up to 1*, could easily jump foxhunters he has a maasssivvvveee jump and incredible adjustability. Have done 3 dressage comps on him, all three he scored over 70%, one of which was the NSEA champs where he came ind. 3rd and the team won. He is the most insanely talented little man, have just done our first elementary yesterday, came second with 71% (beaten by 0.3) but he could go up to advanced medium only thing we need to get sorted are the changes, which he gets right about 75% of the time. Can't wait for the eventing season with him!

please don't take this the wrong way this post is NOT about me bragging or anything like that, I have very very supportive parents and I am incredibly lucky to have such amazing horses, just found it really interesting to read what everyone paid and thought I would share. They have all been worth it although we paid way too much for the mare there are no regrets.
 
MargotC said:
Blimey... they reduced it to 9k from 150k over a cosmetic injury? Goes to show my ignorance, I would never have guessed that difference.
Click to expand...

Exactly - a horse is worth what someone will pay and whatever a vendor can get out of them.

No one in this country would buy him at that price would they. Just goes to show what Americans will pay. The vendors were top end and very well known dealers. I would think they thought they had hit a jack pot. The horse as a stallion was high value, he is Alme/I Love You bred, so potentially a top drawer show jumper and he had jumped to a high level in France before moving onto Holland where is was spotted by the dealer who imported him. I bet they didn't give a lot for him and I was told he was in a dreadful state when they bought him despite him being used. But the breeding of warmbloods is factory like in Europe.

It was just a case of right place and right time for the dealer when the American hunter/jumper people got involved, until the horse rolled under the post and rail and made a mess of himself before shipping. It was very interesting finding out about his history, I wish I knew more about him. I did write to his breeders in France but although they did respond there was not a huge amount of information, his allbredpedigree entry is amazing, full of Olympic sires and dam sires.

I got someone to give him a jump towards the end of the first year I owned him, he napped and stropped at our idea of a jump 2'6 ish, couldn't get him near a cross pole. We decided to free jump him, he promptly jumped out of the lane and straight over the school gates at 5'. Even at 21 he treats his field gate as a cavelletti.

The horse I lost was a heavyweight ID show hunter. We competed at Uttoxeter ID annual show and 2 people followed me back to the lorry, they got a cheque book out and said name my price. There were also american. They could not get the concept of 'not for sale' I must have been mad that day, but I loved that horse.
 
My first horse cost £1000 in 1994 - a 4 year old 15hh hw cob, who turned out to be rising 3. He was a difficult horse, not an ideal first horse at all but I loved him to bits. Fabulous to handle, nappy to ride with 2 speeds: dead slow and bolt. Jumped for fun though and he both shattered my confidence (for a while) and taught me to ride.

Second horse cost £250 (or might have been £200) in 1997 with luck money (£10 I think) given back. He was a foal when I bought him and ended up a maxi cob/drum horse. An absolute dream to ride despite his considerable size He was my horse of a lifetime. If only I were 10 years younger I'd love to do it all again.

Third horse was my husband's. We had a budget of £4k and had looked at many. A friend mentioned an Irish horse that a local dealer had for sale and we weren't very hopeful as he was only asking for £2.5k. Went to look and he was the nicest we'd viewed. I think we paid £2250. He was a 16.3hh ID x TB and 4 years old. We had him for around 2 years, but my husband never really gelled with him (no apparent reason, just one of those things). He was sold for £4.5k with a couple of prelim dressage wins and a couple of showjumping second places under his belt.
 
I think this thread may give the illusion that most people pay not much for great horses possibly because people who pay a lot may be more shy about admitting it!

I paid £3,150 for my registered new forest 8 years ago when he was 5. He was late gelded as he had been a forest run stallion and had been bought on slowly in a family home. They did not have a school so he was not over produced or schooled but had been to some pony club rallies and shows as well as pony club camp.

I was 35 when I got him so an adult and was just looking for a fun, safe pony. In the 8 years I have had him we have done most things, bit of dressage. sj, sponsored rides, Le Trec, and even taken him to some county shows, but mainly enjoy hacking and pony cuddles. He is not 100% straightforward but mainly a good boy and I am a fairly nervous numpty rider so he is quite tolerant. I expect with a better rider he would have excelled in whatever they chose to do with him as even with me he has been great. He is good to catch, box, shoe, clip {I have learned to clip using him} he is friendly.

Had he been a Connemara instead of a new forest he would have been twice as expensive. Supply and demand is a big issue with some breeds and types being massively popular so you are more likely to get an ex racer at a bargain price compared to say a Connemara or warmblood bred for dressage at the same level of training.
 
£3250 for a 5yo TBx - way overpriced for what was a very green pony.
Swapped for a Welsh D (who was probably only worth 2k).
Swapped for (and added an extra £1000) for a PBA working hunter pony (originally advertised for £7000 but had been sat in a field for a year). Totally worth what I paid and I still have him 16 years later.
£1000 for a TB x Welsh D yearling - now my 5yo baby dressage superstar. He'll be worth quadruple that once he starts going out to shows but he won't ever be sold.
 
For my first pony, way back in the 60's, we paid £75 - she was a total nightmare and we ended up selling her for £45..!! My second horse was also £75 and I sold him for £125..! My late great mare was £2,800 and I had her for 25 years. I can't say she was worth every penny(she did have one or two quirks!!??), but she certainly was to me - I adored her and miss her SO much. She originated from the erstwhile Robert Smith/Paul McAteer partnership. They're worth what you're prepared to pay and also how much they mean to you...not sure that makes sense really?!
 
My dad paid £900 for a 9yr old fell x from the local riding school - they wanted rid of him as he kept throwing children across the yard and bucking them off! But I adored him (still do), and didn't want anything to do with the other ponies at the school, they were boring! 15 years of enjoyment later and I think he was quite the bargain, although no one else would want him!
£1400 for a quirky but very genuine 16 yr old tbxconnie 4 years ago, probably over priced by £3/400 but he was exactly what I needed at the time so I happily paid it.
£2400 for a just broken 4 yr old cob, bit of a gamble as he was very green obviously but had a fab attitude and is growing up into a really fantastic little allrounder (more importantly he gets on with the rather cantankerous now 25yr old fell x!) who I intend to keep forever so what I paid for him doesn't seem important!
 
Llanali said:
I too have had my eyes opened by this thread like AA, I am astounded by how little some of you have paid for some of your horses. No wonder the middle breeders and producers are struggling as it seems to me that prices are being driven down in some parts probably by increasing numbers of horses and a flooded lower end market and a rise in the cost of horse keeping.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how well bred a horse is, it is the training that goes into it that gives the horse a value - noone wants that well bred psychopath. All bar one of mine (A sec D that I paid £1500 for at 3 weeks old) have had issues of one form or another be they sphychological or physical. Take my mare - she is by a stallion who is the only one ever to go grade A BSJA and 4* BE - she got a rope burn across her chest and leg at 15 months old so her value decreased (I paid £1000 for her) - I was however offered £4500 for her as a newly broken 4yo. At 6 and jumping 1m10, dressage at home up to elementary level I'm not sure what she would be worth. She'd be worth more if it would stop raining and I could actually get her out competing!
 
Tiarella that sounds a fair price for your connie - this thread is interesting but as there are no photos or other info it's difficult to work out what's going on! Yes there are a lot of very cheap horses about at the moment but it doesn't mean that they have been correctly broken or what their breeding/temperament/previous lifestyle was. Basically unless you are lucky and find someone who is genuinely looking to rehome a horse to you, you get what you are prepared to pay for. So for a four year old you should consider the cost of getting it to that age - i.e. stud fee, keep, farrier, vet, registration etc and then unless you are going to break yourself the cost of this which seems to vary amazingly between about £100 and £350 a week.
 
Last edited:
i think what this thread illustrates is that its the hard work poured in to a horse that gives it value. Potential and breeding only go so far if a horse is *in the rough*.

Goof was £3k as a 2yo colt and was seriously rough and ready. He didnt know anything and you could barely lead him.

He would have been rather more if he had been fit,clipped, pumped full of food and prepped for stallion grading that year but instead we have taken our time and done the blood,sweat,and tears work ourselves and he will go forward for grading in 2016.
Its been a damn hard slog at times but i wouldnt change it for the world..................but if you cant physically(or mentally) do the damn hard slog part, you will need to pay more for a horse past that stage!
 
My old boy - in 1996, an 18 yr old Sec D with very good breeding £5 to get him out of a tricky divorce situation. I'd already had him on share/loan for 5 years.

My current boy - in 2005, 9 yr old Riding club all rounder, 16.3 IDx something - 2,800. He's since developed some foot issues and melanomas which mean I haven't got my full "use" out of him but £280 a year so far is well worth it.

Share horse cost £2,000 as a 4yr old in 2000. My friend has since been offered many different sums for him, usually after he's done very well at shows before going back to sleep practically before he's out of the ring, but also by a couple of eventing instructors who think he could have gone really far in the right (their) hands. I think 12k was the highest.
 
Not much... 7yo 15.2hh exracer fresh out of racing for £1k plus £100 livery (whilst we made a stable free).

He's taken me to Regionals and Area Festivals at Prelim - Adv Med. Qualified for the Winter Champs 3 times in a row. ROR Elem and Med Champion.

He jumps, hacks, goes to the beach and the gallops. He can be a bit of a prat but wouldn't be him without those quirks.

So despite being a TB that looks and moves like a TB he was worth every penny!
 
I paid £2700 (including vaccinations) for a 3 year old 16.2h buckskin appaloosa hunter type gelding in 2013.
He was over priced for his age and ability to be honest but he just filled my eye and we have had so much fun together since.
I know i paid over the odds for him in reality but i always say they are only worth what someone is prepared to pay, and i was happy to pay £2700 so that is what he was worth.

I would like to think though that with all the things i've done with him in the last two years that he is worth more than that now, not that i would sell him mind!
 
My first horse, 15 yo bombproof novice ride Section D - £1500
My current boy £5500 including full wardrobe. A few people have said I over paid but he is my perfect horse and I could afford it so I dont care! :)
 
I paid nothing for Star - my old man wanted me to get her going under saddle so that she could be sold as a rider after she had proved she wasn't a particularly good racehorse. He told me he wanted £1000 for her; I advertised her at £1250 knowing she was over-priced as a one-season hunting 4yo pacer. Before I moved to Scotland I offered him the £1000 and he said he couldn't take any money off me so I had her for nothing, plus the saddle he'd bought himself when he turned 18 to go with her. I subsequently raced her this summer with one win, three seconds and three thirds in 12 starts. Not bad for a 'useless' racehorse that I got for free!

Of the remaining 10 we have, OH's family bred 5 of them, OH and I bred 2 of them, we bought one at public auction for £900, one through a private sale for £4000 (in foal, and sold the foal back to the breeder for £2000, so technically she cost us £2000) and one at public auction in America for $10,000 (in total with transport into Prestwick worked out as £13,500).
 
Forgot about my two previous horses, d'oh!

My first mare was a 14.2h coloured cob x arab 11 years old, very green - I paid £1750 for her. I didnt really know much about horses prices then and was happy with that price. I later sold her for £1500.

My second horse was an unbroken 3 year old, son of the above mare cross tb. Coloured 15.1h gelding. I paid £1100 for him and spent about £600 on having him broken in and even more on lessons etc. He was a lovely horse but wouldnt load and was nervous to hack so I never really got to do much with him unfortunately. He also developed sarcoids whilst with me, treated unsuccessfully, so despite all the work and money i put into him when i sold him after 3 years I only got the same price I had paid, sarcoids can destroy a horses worth :(

Looking back I'm not very good with finding good deals on horses it seems, lol.
 
£4500 for my girl.

16.1 hh 9 year old KWPN Registered Dutch Warmblood, imported from Holland as a 7 year old.

Evented to intermediate in Holland, good to hack, clip, box and shoe. Hot to ride, uncomplicated on the ground and not mareish at all, no vices, doesn't nap, buck, rear, spin. Jumped 1m30 with previous home, competed unaffiliated Novice dressage and winning, and done some SJ and XC. but I got her cheap as she hadn't jumped in 9 months due to unrelated rider injury. Very good breeding, Puriso and Furiso bloodlines, well put together all rounder with straight correct movement. Only blemish was slight windgalls on her hind legs. Also bred a foal in Holland to KWPN Stallion Montreal as a 4 year old.

Not sure if I over paid but I recon for what I got I got a rather good price. They told me after I bought her she was going to go up for £9,000 if she had been jumping!

She is probably worth about £2,000 as a 14 year old brood mare. She hasn't been ridden in a year but there is no reason why she shouldn't be, I just haven't ridden her.
 
Last edited:
First horse, Pip, was £600 at 18months - probably far too much for what she was, but in time became so much more than we even imagined, although we left alot unfinished and she was quite a difficult character to ride she was just amazing for my first horse. Super easy to have around never caused us a moments bother on the ground or day-to-day handling such a lovely person, to ride she was brilliant - in all the years she never did anything dangerous or nasty, never a dirty stopper but she did have a good nap and a leap in her should the occasion arise, I competed her novice DR, 1m05 SJ, 1m20 at home and she took me round my first 90ODE. She was as brave as a lion unless it involved water jumped anything cross country, the most angelic horse to hunt and gorgeous to boot. the last 18months were plagued with stifle problems, ulcers and then a suspected tendon injury (scanned clear and then came sound though) so shes out on loan hacking with my farrier and his girlfriend, who love her almost as much.

Current horse Ruby, 15.3/ hopefully make 16.1 4yo HannxISH was £3500 - just backed all the ability to do anything, a really versatile sort. Endless amounts of scope, gorgeous on the flat and super quick learner. Shes beautifully natured and easy/ laidback on the ground but is a bit sharp to ride but not spooky or flappable. Having just been horse shopping with a friend looking for something similar i think we paid about market value, would have liked to paid less but i know she was a good buy so i'm not overly worried about a few £100
 
I'm interested to know why so many people think they paid too much for their horses when they paid less than £3000 at three years, or maybe we should consider £2000 at 2 years. Lets think about the costs that the breeder has to pay in producing your horse. First there's the cost of the mare - we'll call this £0's and assume she's been around a while so lets start with the cost to get her in foal. The service fee should be anything from £50 at the very bottom up to ££££?!!! and this is arrived at partly by considering the swabs carried out on the stallion to ensure he's fertile and not carrying any nasties - so that puts £50 out of the window by the time the vets call out and lab fees have been taken into account. Next the mare needs to be swabbed for the same reasons, and assuming the mating is successful first time a scan will reveal if the mare if in foal and not carrying twins - no you don't want twins!! So that's going to cost the vet/technician fee. So now we have an in-foal mare who requires feeding for the next 11 months as well as worming and tetanus as a minimum. OK its your own land so no livery fee but you still have to maintain, fertilise, mend fences, reseed from time to time but lets be conservative and say this costs £5 a week!!!! You may also want to worm the mare at around £15 a time and throw in the odd bale of hay at say £3 a bale, then there's the farrier who will need to trim at around £15 so we're doing this as cheaply as possible and not costing in time or the odd present to someone who checks the mare so we can go on holiday and yippee 11 months have passed and we have a foal. Sadly its a colt and so it will need gelding - luckily the vet college have a scheme were they'll subsidise the cost so the students can carry out under supervision so that'll save a little from the £120++ cost - although the horse will require to be transported to the college - so that's another £?? - we've now a yearling gelding. He'll require worming/feeding/innoculations/farrier over the next year or two until he's ready to sell and we aren't including the costs of our time in the equation for the handling/leading/halter training etc etc ...yet so many of you seem to think you've paid far to much for your horses!! Before to long there won't be many people still breeding and then the costs really will escalate because horses will become less disposable. The costs will then probably be more realistic maybe along the lines of the cost of a small car for a 'starter' horse, those with a performance / competition record will continue to be worth a more realistic amount in comparison with the costs the breeder/owner has to account for.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top