Pointless, nostalgic post about horse prices back in the day….

Burnerbee

Burnerbee

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I always remember a girl on the yard, when I was about 13 (1988), getting an Anglo Arab mare, dapple grey, 15.3, 6yo, to show jump… and thinking £1500 was an incredibly huge amount of money - after all, the 14.2 Welsh cob, 12yo bay gelding, beautiful, well mannered, generally faultless, could easily jump 3’ - that I rode had cost the owners £800.

You could probably put a 0 on the end of those prices now, and then possibly double it - anyone else clearly remember what they / others paid in that era? ( I do realise inflation is a very real thing)

EDIT TO ADD; we need year purchased and estimated equivalent price now please 😉
 
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Burnerbee said:
I always remember a girl on the yard, when I was about 13 (1988), getting an Anglo Arab mare, dapple grey, 15.3, 6yo, to show jump… and thinking £1500 was an incredibly huge amount of money - after all, the 14.2 Welsh cob, 12yo bay gelding, beautiful, well mannered, generally faultless, could easily jump 3’ - that I rode had cost the owners £800.

You could probably put a 0 on the end of those prices now, and then possibly double it - anyone else clearly remember what they / others paid in that era? ( I do realise inflation is a very real thing)
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My first pony, a beautiful mare by Coed Coch GlynDwr, was £75.00……!
 
My sweet little first pony, grey, 14.2, came from a RS and had been used for what was then RDA, was £300. This was 1974. And when the vet did the vetting he said he was "overpriced". He was worth more than gold-dust to me.

I paid £950 for my current one, in 2017. 13.2 gypsy cob (profile pic): she was everything I'd said I didn't want but I bought her anyway! She had been lightly backed and turned-away and I bought her as a 4yo to ride-on with. She's 13 now. The loveliest sweetest mare, but she can be a quirky madam when it suits her. But she is intrinsically "safe".
 
Burnerbee said:
I always remember a girl on the yard, when I was about 13 (1988), getting an Anglo Arab mare, dapple grey, 15.3, 6yo, to show jump… and thinking £1500 was an incredibly huge amount of money - after all, the 14.2 Welsh cob, 12yo bay gelding, beautiful, well mannered, generally faultless, could easily jump 3’ - that I rode had cost the owners £800.

You could probably put a 0 on the end of those prices now, and then possibly double it - anyone else clearly remember what they / others paid in that era? ( I do realise inflation is a very real thing)
Click to expand...
Oh yes. Our first horse 15hh r&d bay gelding cost £160 with a new saddle and bridle in 1975. I remember paying £1200 for a Clydesdale mare who had been working in a RS in about 1990 and only £200 more than that in 2011 for a very similar Kaltblut, although she didn't come directly from the RS.
 
My 14hh pony who had jumped England working Hunter teams was £1800 back in 1990. My pony club horse as a 5yo was £3k in 1996.

Inflation calculator says he would be £6k now but actually I think that under eggs the other issues of land prices, escalating costs everywhere etc
 
My first pony 12.2hh Welsh sec B was 5 yrs old in 1975 Cost £250. I have no idea on pony pricing nowadays but I'm guessing you'd be adding a nought on the end?

My first horse 15.3hh 8 years old straightforward easy but competitive PC type. Was £1850 in 1983. Again I'd reckon on adding a nought to his price now.
 
I like this thread!

My PC horse was £2500 in 1996! That was a fair bit back then but he was a 100% perfect PC horse for a first timer, had competed successfully...looking back I don't know how I got so lucky as today he would be a LOT more expensive.

I bought a warmblood foal in 1998 for £4500 😬Very well bred though, not sure what possessed me to pay that much for her! haha! I'm sure now she would be a lot more to be fair for something with her breeding...
 
My first horse was a 15hh Anglo Arab mare. Very beautiful and only £600 back in 1978. I had had her on loan and the owner decided to sell but I had no money as only earning £16 a week and my parents had no money.

My sister bought her for me as a gift 🤗
 
My first pony was 12.0 hh grey Welsh Mountain (Kirby Cane Kim) bought for £50 in 1968 - so well bred but very naughty!
I have bought three ponies in the last 25 years but all under £1000 as unbacked Exmoor ponies.
Keeping Inflation at bay!
They cost the same to feed and care for whatever you paid for it ;)
 
First pony in 1986 was 14hh 6 year old PBA, £500 including tack. The saddle was one of the first wintec, in a lovely bright red colour! No idea if it fitted!
 
I paid meat money (£400) for an older horse in 1998. He was with me 6 years.
Then I got a 3 year old Fell, that was in 2003 and he cost me £600. He was here for a long time but has also gone now.
I doubt I will ever buy another horse.
 
I’ve mostly had freebies/cheapies/loans as was self funded from 16 so just got what I could 😆

Of the ones I have bought for myself and actually put my hand in my pocket ….

£2000 for a reject (possibly ringer) tb eventer from a 5* rider via a dealer in approx yr 2001, was had then, and probably not worth any more in today’s money.

£2000 for a rising 2yo TB x ID circa 2005. He would possibly be £4/5k in today’s money.

£2000 circa 2006 for a ROR project/turnaround. Probably worth similar today. He wasn’t a good buy.

£1500 for circa 2008 a cool 15hh cobby type. Project/turnaround. He’d probably be 5/6k in today’s money.

£5000 circa 2009 for a cool 15.2hh 5yo mixed breed. I think I was had on him, but his type these days would be at least 15k

£8000 circa 2011 for a 50% share of a dressage school mistress with a vet issue. Unique kind of situation, probably similar, maybe a little more to the right person in today’s money.

£3500 2016 for 6yo ID that had got a bit sour as a project/turnaround. Probably worth 6k in his sour state and 12k in non sour state these days.

£2000 2017 for a huge just backed 5yo, unvetted with sarcoids. Difficult to price. Vetting would probably have highlight a joint and wind issue. He was categorically a good horse with a lot more value than his theoretical vetting would suggest. Sold for 12k in 2000 and they got a very good horse for the money. But equally some people would have run a mile (and missed out!)

The 2 x yearlings I bought in 2000 probably wouldn’t be much different today.
 
I don't know how relevant I will be as I brought Baggs in 2015 for £600.00 with no tack, no rugs and needing to have a fair bit of work done to get him to where he should have been.

Nowadays, I reckon he'd be worth about the £4,000 mark - purely because he isn't a perfect school master.... he is prone to ulcers, has arthritis and COPD, but is a total legend to hack, you can stick anyone on board and he'll look after them, you can leave him for a while and drag him out the field and he is the exact same, and generally speaking he is lovely to handle and deal with on the ground :) x
 
Totally different country, but prices (in numbers!) were higher when I bought my first pony. Then we changed currency!

2001 rising 4yo New Forest pony gelding: 15.000 French Francs (sold 2007 for 6300€)
2018 9yo PFS (french riding pony) mare: 4000€
2022 25yo French trotter mare: 0€
2025 going to view a yearling to make 1m50 filly (mixed breed american x connemara x arab) for 1500€
 
I bought a chestnut mare ex racehorse although no passports or history then in 1984 forI think £450 which seems to be about £1500. She was schooled and being ridden but not really suitable for the young lad she had been bought for. I don’t really know how that would compare now as price is very so much. She was definitely a very good buy as the next year we jumped the British novice showjumping final which in those days was in Hickstead International Arena which was quite amazing. My current horse was a gift out of racing, but I think it could’ve been sold for quite a lot of money as has excellent temperament and confirmation.
 
Bought an unbacked 4yo mare for £1k in 1984. I was offered £3.5k for my homebred 5yo out of that mare in about 1990. Sold him for less to my then trainer who moved to Europe with him. He later had a few years as a French junior team horse. Bought a 5yo native pony for £800 in maybe 2006, a 5yo WB mare for £7k in 2013 and a 4yo ISH for about £9k in 2021. New arrivals since then have been homebreds with stud fees in 4 figures.
 
My first Arab was £1750 back in 2005. He was fresh out of racing but a super sensible hacker. Hated schooling but so do I so no big deal. Second Arab was £3750 in 2021. Nicer schooling but sharper out on the road. They’re one of the breeds that few people are prepared to consider, so don’t tend to command the big bucks.
 
Well I’ve not been around the block quite as much as some of you but have still noticed my money doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to!

The Irish cob I (well I paid about 3/4 and my parents the rest) paid £2k for as a 10 yr old in 2005. He was reasonably well schooled (even if he pretended he’d forgotten it all & identified as a motorbike) hacked out, jumped, had hunted. I did genuinely put my granny on him once. I think even then (properly scrubbed up) he was worth more than I paid for his skinny, disheveled looking ass. Maybe about 10k in today’s money if properly presented?

The orange Welshie would be trickier… I paid £2.5k in 2013 for him as an 9 yr old including a load of rugs and a saddle that my saddler swiftly condemned as having a broken tree. He was fancier and more talented & had done fairly well showing with a previous owner but also quirky / the type a limited amount of people would be prepared to put up with! Maybe £5-8k?

Then the Highland I paid £2.5k for as a 3yo in 2019 (aka JUST before the Covid price boom!). What he’d have been worth in today’s money is an interesting question (if we assume it’s before he showed signs of physical issues). Maybe around £5k but that would be a very wild guess!?

I’ve obviously just bought a 3yo cobxD for £3.7k. I absolutely would not be able to afford the “finished” version of him if he turns into the horse I think he will.
 
I was saying to my husband earlier in the week, in the 80s and 90s every pony £1000. Now we’re not likely to get change from £10k and even daughters £900 five years ago pony is worth more now age 24!
 
My second pony was in 1976. He was a mixed bag of breeds. A 12.2h. He was 500 pounds. I know folk are saying how cheap ponies were back in the day but , my mum had to take out a loan to buy him as that was a lot of money at the time. For example, in that year my parents bought a run down house with three acres in East Anglia for £9,000. If he was for sale in 2025, he’d probably be worth about £25,000 as he was a jumping machine. Competing at 1m.
 

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My first pony was a coloured 14.2 chunky mare who was bought for me by my parents for £150 in 1969. I sold her in 1971 for £350 and in 1978 I used the £350 to buy a 15 month old Anglo Arab mare who went on to do small hack classes as well as ridden Arab.
 
In 2014 I paid £1300 for my 5 year old coloured cob X mare. The absolute perfect mother daughter share. Hadn't done a lot but had the right temperment. At the time the plan was put a year of schooling and events under her belt and hope to sell on for £4k on a good day. Bonkers to think how different that would be even just 10 years down the line.

My first horse was £700 in 2003 as a pc all rounder. Although he was a gamble as he'd gone out on a loan that had gone wrong so he was slightly underweight and not in any real work, but even so for a similar buy now I'd expect to probably still have an extra zero on the price tag

I remember working at dealers yards in 2012-2015-ish and a £5k horse was one of the expensive ones! The PC all rounders were £3500 for an average one, £4500 for a flashy and/or competitive one.
 
In 1978 my dad bought a yearling welsh section C mare for £70. My dad produced her for in hand classes and started her under saddle at 4. I rode her for about 6 years including competing at HOYS. She then went of loan and was ridden until the age of 25. She was PTS still in our care at the age of 38.

After the section C my dad bought me a beautiful HOYS level WHP in about 1988 she was £1200, which was considered a lot for a 14.2 then. I remember lying in bed listening to my parents discussing whether they should buy her. My mom thought she was too expensive -my dad who had a great eye for a horse - thought she has a bargain! Dad won - I had 10 years riding her including HOYS level working hunter and riding her in university teams - fortunately I didn't grow very tall! she also stayed with the family until the end.
 
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