The horse market

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Cherryade

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Reading several threads on here recently and a few have mentioned the horse market being slow, divided etc, will it pick up again? Good horses will always sell, that is true and most seem to be holding their place at the minute but how long can the lower end keep its head above water when they are practically being given away at the moment, its very sad to see.
 
If by lower end you mean the old, that should not be sold on generally, the young that have no known breeding, poor conformation and have been bred with no purpose other than to make a few pounds, the ones in between that are injured, are not useful for whatever reason so need "getting rid of" then maybe the market being slow is no bad thing if it reduces that end of the market.

Sadly it doesn't tend to work that way the bottom end pulls down the values of the well prepared, correctly produced horses as people see cheap ones hardly making any money and think they can buy a good horse for peanuts, the top end will always do fairly well as will those who are in no rush to sell at a low price, maybe once people realise they will not sell their broken or useless horses at any price they will stop breeding indiscriminately and put more effort into the ones they already have.

I think it will be a slow process, the decent breeders have cut back but the numbers are still so high it will be a long while before numbers are reduced overall.
 
What is selling at the moment- 15hh to 15.2hh all rounder riding club types, not TB's but slightly chunkier sport horse types.
Decent ponies- i.e good all rounders that can be trusted with kids, not sharp silly ones.

We are flooded with ex-racers, unbroken/ half broken coloured things, especially in Cumbria.
I am trying to give away an ex-racer at the moment and have had no takers!
 
I do have to say, having recently bought & knowing someone looking with a serious budget, that many people selling horses would struggle to sell water to someone dying of thirst in the desert.
 
hairycob said:
I do have to say, having recently bought & knowing someone looking with a serious budget, that many people selling horses would struggle to sell water to someone dying of thirst in the desert.
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This is a big big issue. Horses are badly presented in an awful lot of cases. There is trade and money out there. I sold three horses last year. Two were home breds....a 3yr old and a foal, and one was a 5yr old that I had bought and produced. I was in profit on all three, significant profit in the 5yr old. All three were good movers, well bred, well handled/mannered. The 5 year old was riding beautifully. They were also three goodlooking genuine horses and with the 5yr old in particular from the day I bought him I knew the market I was producing him for. The old adage the day you buy is the day you sell rings very true. I went out to buy a type with him and then produced it. I got 4.5 times what I paid for him 12 months earlier. There is money out there....there just isn't always the horse to match it. I really struggled to replace the 5yr old. I have a project now to keep me going that's a failed racehorse. He moves, is super careful and jumps so will have the same production path and we'll see
 
Mum went to Malvern yesterday and couldn't get over the nice sorts that just weren't selling or going for peanuts.
Connies sold well as did the 15hh/15.2hh mark, but bigger horses including a gorgeous well turned out hunter made about £700. Anything big just didn't seem to be making much, including an RIHS qualified ROR horse for under £2k :(
 
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