How much?

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flowerhorse

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I am looking for a bit of advice please. For the past two years I have had an ex racer on loan to me. Her owners raced her a couple of times and then bred two foals from her. When I got her to years ago she had wintered out and was quite underweight. It did take me a while to get her weight back on, re break etc. but now I have a lovely horse and have high hopes for her competing this year.

Her owners have now decided to offer her to sale for me which is great however I feel that they are asking a little too much, £1500. I believe she is worth that now but not when I got her two years ago. They believe that as she is well bred she woudl easily make that as a brood mare.

I guess my gut feeling is that I should pay a nominal fee for her, £500 for example, due to all the work i have put into her. I can see why her owners would think that she is worth that but as I have no idea of brood mare prices etc i woudl like some advice. So what do people think, I wouldn't want to upset her owners either as I do want to keep her.

Any comments welcome:)
 
Oooh that's a tricky one. They will probably be looking at what they think she is worth now, rather than what she was worth when you first started work with her.

If I was in that position, selling to a loaner, I would sell for a small price due to knowing that she would be going to a good home. And because you have put the work in to get her to where she is now.

To be honest, they will probably struggle to sell an ex-racer for £1500 in the current market. Unless they get lucky and find someone that really wants her (I paid £1900 for mine last summer) Or she is well schooled/a good allrounder/easy to do etc. As you can pick them up for next to nothing.

Everyone else I know with ex-racers has paid around £1k for them from dealers etc. I paid more for mine as he has the best temperament EVER and was reschooled well (he was up for £2250) and is alot bigger at a little over 17hh! :D
 
flowerhorse said:
I guess my gut feeling is that I should pay a nominal fee for her, £500 for example, due to all the work i have put into her. I can see why her owners would think that she is worth that but as I have no idea of brood mare prices etc i woudl like some advice. So what do people think, I wouldn't want to upset her owners either as I do want to keep her.

Any comments welcome:)
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I think the crux of the problem is that you didn't get any sort of agreement with them in the beginning - you loaned her, and any work you've put in I'm afraid just adds to her value.

I don't think they'd get £1,500 for her as a brood-mare, however she could well be worth that in the open market as a riding horse.

If I were you, I would go back to them and say you'd be prepared to pay £500 for her - if they don't accept that, then you may need to be prepared to give her back & go and get something off the racetrack for peanuts, and do all the work again.

If you keep her as a loan, and compete her this summer, she may well be worth even more with a good competition record, and in a year's time you could be doing the same post but with owners saying £3,500 not £1,500.
 
I too am not experienced in broodmare value, but if she was worth anything as one surely they would have focused on that prior to the work you've done. Unfortunately it sounds as though you'll be paying for your own work unless there is a contract in place to say otherwise.
 
Thank you all fo ryour advice. I have a loan agreement, I will check that tonight. It's a shame that we didn't put an agreement in place beforehand. I was under the impression that she was going to the kennels if a home wasn't found.

I'll talk to my husband as I know he won't be best pleased!
 
The horse is worth how much you are willing to pay. If you would rather let it go than pay the price do that. If you want to keep the horse make an offer, point out its all your work and hope they'd rather it go to a nice home than make a couple of hundred quid.
 
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