The price of dressage horses!

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I have just been having a quick flick some of the adverts on Horse Mart and Horse Quest (looking for any Pro-Set babies so I can have a look at how they are turning out height wise
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) and am absolutely gob smacked at some of the prices out there!

Is it just me, or do others think that people are just picking a price out of thin air and seeing whether they can achieve it?

I have seen a few that I would consider if I was looking at the moment, but they are all completely out of my price range being well over £15,000 for something that has not been out and done anything at all!

Rant over... I was just very shocked
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If the breeding is good and the conformation/temperment/paces are there to go all the way then people will pay a lot of money for the right horse.

There was a 7yo KWPN in H&H this week for £40k!!!! Granted it was working at PSG/Inter 1 however i nearly fell off my chair!
 
I must be so behind the times... I thought £15,000 was quite a lot to spend on a horse, but it seems that this is pretty much the norm these days
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It's not just dressage...plenty of people seem to think they can ask £15k for Foxhunter horses...and I don't mean horses that are going through Fox on their way to bigger things...I mean horses that won't go much further
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can i join you with rant

BUT, how many people get asking price tho???

I'm looking at lorries at mo and there silly dosh but everyone i've chatted too has said put in stupid offer and see what happens
eg friend lorry advertised 14K bought under 10K, other friend advertised 15K bought for 10K
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Totally know what you mean, recently I have been having dressage lessons on my mare, who I bought 3 months ago to showjump. However she has amazing paces and is very well bred for dressage. Now my dressage trainer (who owns her half brother!) is trying to convince me to work further on her dressage as she could go so far, when he talked about how much he expected me to have paid, I almost fell of her! Put it this way, it was 3 x times what I paid for her as a showjumper……….If she continues to improve it may get to the stage where I can’t afford NOT to sell her for dressage, they seem to attract such silly money.
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I know of a couple of people that bought horses recently;; One a dressage horse that is competing at medium. It was @20K. The other person has show jumpers that are competing at county level/foxhunters etc - One was £60K and the other £30K ish!!!!!

It does seem to be gettting crazy. I used to consider £10K to be a really decent budget for a horse. Now I think if you want something special for dressage you are in all probability looking way above that!!

I do wonder how people price horses. I wonder if maybe people see something advertised at a high whack, and then think that they can do the same. Pricing must be based on what other people see comparable horses advertised for??? I dunno
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I think they're insane as well. I agree with you Weezy, buying a horse purely on its breeding is a bit odd I think - they might not have the right attitude! Good breeding doesnt guarantee a top level horse.

I think £15k shouldn't be the norm for horses. I thought we were trying to get rid of the "elitist" image of riding but with prices like that, it'll be getting worse! I wouldn't pay more than £5k for a horse and even then would expect it to be decent!
 
The price of horses generally is ridiculous, last year I was struggling to find a couple of horses advertised per week within my (rather small) budget, this year I'm testing the market ready for buying next year and I can't find anything decent for the same amount of money! £4000 used to be what I'd dream of being able to spend, and I could find plenty out there for that price, now everything is at least double that. No wonder people who are pricing their horses decently are having trouble (another HHOer posted the other day about this), people must see a sensible price and wonder what is up with the horse!
Potential seems to be worth more than actual experience and achievement these days!
 
I am about to sell a little mare and even though she was bought to event it seems her talent is def more in dressage....

i too have been looking at prices to see what i should advertise her for and too was gobsmacked.... she has good breeding (Weltmeter lines) and good confirmation and lovely paces and won her first two outings all be it unaf dressage.... i was thinking £8750 - £8500 is this a silly price???
 
well - lets put this in perspective.

nearly 11 years ago I paid £4000 for my current horse who was bred to event and is a sound and fantastic genuine loving horse that wants to please and with no hangups. Good Irish breeding.

My first horse in 1980 cost 2200 and again was my pal for the whole of his life, did everything, sound as a bell and was good english bred TBx and went on till his heart failed at 21.

Now if you work on inflation and the way prices have jumped in the UK over the last 10 years of New Labour then my 4500 horse would cost at least 8k now and that is for an average all-round national level riding club turn his hoof to anything horse - nothing that is going to make grandprix or badminton.

Some of the prices are outrageous for unproven stuff but lets face it - prices of everything else have gone up over time (unless you are a farmer supplying stuff to Tesco's in which case your income has gone down whilst Tesco's profits have gone thru the roof) so why should the prices of horses not rise

People still expect to find a top class national level horse with no problems, completely sound, good temp and ability and no hangups that will still be going strong at age 25 for 2000 quid.

That simply isn't realistic. If other prices go up why should horse prices be any different.

Just another economic perspective.

Or for another comparison - just think what price you pay now for a set of shoes and how much you were paying 10 years ago and 20 years ago.....
 
That's an interesting point actually.

When I quit in 1987 we sold my 7yo ISH Gelding, 16.3hh who was jumping DC's at Foxhunter and would have probably gone on to 1.30m's but not much further, for £5k.

In 1987 a large 4 bedroom house in Tunbridge Wells was selling for around £200k...today that house would be nearer £600k maybe more
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Yes - my point exactly - people seem to be prepared to pay higher prices for a lot of things but expect the price of horses to stand still comparatively despite the increased costs of vets, farriers, feed, hay, diesel, etc etc etc

remember when hay was 50p a bale off the field and your vet charged less than 20 quid including VAT to walk in the door ?

gosh - those were the days

the two horses I mentioned were both 3.5 yr olds that had done nothing much more than be broken in, ridden out a little and popped a few small cavaletti and knew how to walk, trot and canter in straight lines

some of the horses advertised at 'silly' prices have got PSG form or have competed at YR international level or whatever and these days 12k or more for something like that is NOT unreasonable IF and ONLY if the horse is actually sound and capable of being ridden by a good rider and not just by an 'expert'

'meat money' used to be 100 quid or less - now it's 400 quid or so - even meat money has gone up !!
 
my friend phoned up about a 14.2hh pony who, although was doing well wasnt HOYS quality or anything, and i think he was 12. They where asking £100k for him. I kid you not.
 
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my friend phoned up about a 14.2hh pony who, although was doing well wasnt HOYS quality or anything, and i think he was 12. They where asking £100k for him. I kid you not.

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£100 000? for a 14.2?
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Sure it wasn't £10 000? But that would still be rather expensive
 
Ponies! Now that's a whole different ball game. There are some seriously well-off people out there who think they can buy their offspring into the big time - makes it almost impossible for the ordinary kids unless they get some kind of lucky break. And the trainers sniffing round the rich kids' parents and promising the earth used to make me feel sick! Thank goodness for the sanity of the eventing scene.
 
nope. 100% sure it was 100k cos i was there when she phoned for him. the woman said on the phone "before i tell you anything about him, he is for sale for quite alot of money" to which she responded, "oh, how much?" "100 grand" "oh ok, we'll go no further then".
 
I sold my JA pony last year for £17,500, bang on the asking price. He was only advertised for a week in H+H and I had absolutely loads of phone calls as he was quite well known and he was considered cheap!!! I wish I had put him up for more, I thought I would be knocked down to 15,000 or 10,000 at the lowest! The first person that tried him, vetted him and bought him. When I asked if she wanted his tack in with the price (1 yr old pessoa saddle, equiport bridle, JHL stud girth and all the accessories), she said she wasn't interested as her daughter only liked black tack not tan!!! She said she had a budget of £30,000 for the right pony, and that she would buy him everything brand new!! Well I just stood there in shock!!! I would take any tack if it was free!!! There was around £2500 worth of stuff she just didn't want!!!
The yard was out of this world and he had his OWN groom, he thought it was fantastic!!!!
FYI he was a 12yr old absolutely full-up FEI measured 148cm JA with around £2500 winnings at the time of sale. He had qualified every national final inc. HOYS, Scope, Blue Chip etc. He had qualified new/fox finals and was jumping winter JA classics. He would basically jump upto 1.50m courses. He had also done everything else, inc qualifying for Sansaw PC Eventing Finals.

And do you know, she never competed him in any class above 1.10m and never even entered any qualifiers!! She has just sold him as she is out of juniors and he is now going round PC and all stuff under a metre with a 12 yr-old boy who is tall for his age. It is unbelievable how a horse can change in 2 years!!!

I bought this pony as a local show pony for £2,500. He was sold as useless because he used to refuse all the time. The previous owner got such a shock when I told her that he had just qualified for HOYS, she got quite bitter about it!!! She got even more bitter when she learnt how much I had sold him for, nearly 3 years after I had bought him from her! But alas he looks like he will go back to being a local level pony and be one of those forgotten JA's!!!
 
£250,000!
(Falls over in shock)

I had no idea people would pay this much for ponies!
But to the original poster, don't give up hope, my current horse cost me nothing, he was given to me as too sharp for his old owner who was scared to ride him. Admittedly he was extremely difficult when I first got him and has taken a lot of work but recently (after just 6 months of having him) we went to dressage and came first in both our classes. My dressage trainer is really impressed with him and thinks he could go a long way, obviuosly we don't know how far yet but he is incredibly willing and has a lot of potential. So keep looking, there are bargains out there!
 
A friend of mine went to stay with the Funnells, and william had clients around. A father and daughter and they werelooking for 128cm ja ponies to buy for 100grand each!!! saying that they had just built a massive olympic size indoor arena ect..!!! I think that some parents do spend ALOT on ponies more so than horses.
 
I am so glad that it is not just me... If I was looking for something now I would have absolutely no hope whatsoever of finding anything remarkably like what I have now. It has made me even more determined to reinsure her for her current value
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My dressage horse cost me £450 this weekend he is in Keysoe with a member of the Welsh Junior A squad. Prices just don't make sense do they? He is a Welsh Cob/Hanovarian nothing fancy he just moves beautifully, has a good head on his shoulders for competions and has the ability to learn. What more does a rider want?
 
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A friend of mine went to stay with the Funnells, and william had clients around. A father and daughter and they werelooking for 128cm ja ponies to buy for 100grand each!!! saying that they had just built a massive olympic size indoor arena ect..!!! I think that some parents do spend ALOT on ponies more so than horses.

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LOL!

You obviously have no idea what the top SJ'ing horses sell for then
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Oki Doki I think it was sold for EUR 4.5m a little while ago, and more 'ordinary' international Grade A's will often sell for £350k+
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I am so glad that it is not just me... If I was looking for something now I would have absolutely no hope whatsoever of finding anything remarkably like what I have now. It has made me even more determined to reinsure her for her current value
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Ditto!
 
Is it just me who is wondering......where do the people get the money from to buy horses which are THAT expensive?

Argh at this rate I will never get a decent horse because their prices keep going up!
 
Don't worry hardcore, you just have to buy and sell and have a quick turn-around until you have made enough money to buy a decent horse. Listen up, this is what you have to do!!!:

For example, go to your local horse market, and pick the scruffiest horse aged between 4 and 8 years old, unbroken is even better as it means they haven't been hammered or have bad habits. Make sure it has a pretty face and decent conformation and look beyond the shaggy legs and dreadlock manes!!! You should pick a pony around 14.2h up for around £300-£400. Make sure it is not too light or heavy weight, go for the middle grounds, native cross type thing. Get it home, bath it, pull its mane/tail, trim all its legs up, give it a clip if necessary and start feeding it gradually. Break and school it until it is walking,trotting, cantering and jumping a small course, qualify it for trailblazers , it will add value. Now I can get all that done in around 2 weeks and sell the pony for £3000 without much hassle!!! Now just think if you do that every 2 weeks, it won't take you long before you can get a decent horse and stop buying/selling. You should try and get a better horse each time until you end up dealing in quality horses if all goes to plan and you have a good eye for a horse!!!

I have found the main market is for safe cobby horses no bigger than 15.2hh. When you start selling 16.2hh competition horse or wizzy sj ponies, nobody really wants them!! I find it easier to sell a cobby allrounder that will struggle to get round a course of cross-poles than I do a talented jumping pony/horse with good breeding!!! You do sell them in the end for more money, but it can take a little longer!!! This is how I ended up buying my yard, lorry and most of my horses!!!
 
People will pay a lot for potential. But if that potential isn't realised the price plummets. It then rises again if the horse gets to PSG/Inter I and can be sold as a "schoolmaster" before it gets old. And if the horse is successful and goes to GP internationally (with decent scores), then you can pretty much name your price.

One of the young horses who won at Addington this week was bought for over 600k. Is it worth it? Depends on who's buying and how rich you are! If you are rich enough to begin with, 600k might not seem that much......for a horse that wins......
 
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