Those who bring on and sell....

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Cathey

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Im looking at buying a youngster/low milage horse after iv finished university in May, and then selling on to work my way up the 'ladder' as it were. Id be aiming to get it schooling nicely and jumping a course of fences confidently, whilst getting as much experience out and about as possible. Problem is, il be paying livery so need to balance the increased sale price that comes with experience, and the increased livery costs of keeping it longer.

Whats your average 'turn around' time? Is there a standard level that you try to get them to before selling on? I know it varies with individual horses but just wondered what the general kind of trends were.
 
Certainly wouldnt be what I would be thinking about doing atm,especially having livery to pay!You would have to turn youngster out to a pretty high standard to aim it at the right market to get your money back....different if you own your own land!
 
Depends how cheap your livery is and how cheap you get the horse for. I have worked out at £75 a month plus a pony that is free I would need to makes roughly £2000 to make any money.

I think I'm look on a different scale to you though as I'm looking for a little project pony (12.2-13.2) so is a bit different but I aim to produce a nice safe pony who I could put any kid on but at the same time doesn't need a kick all the time.
 
I bring on and sell a few not loads i wouldnt do it if i was on livery wouldnt be cost effective, i keep mine for a while so i know how they are in all situations always hunt them or take them to shows or fun rides so i can see how they are in company.

It is funny how horses characters develop i dont belive you can know a horse after a couple or even four months this is why i think there are lots of disasters buying from dealers who sell on quickly.

I always offer to take horses back if it doesnt work out have never had to do this as have been selective about who i sell too.

But i have had a few horses while i have not lost money have not made any as have had to wait for the right home, you have to take this in to account.

If you are really going to do it properly where horse buyer and you are happy it is not always a quick thing as you are dealing with living creatures.
I have a few youngsters coming up every year so know all about them and bring them on sometimes take older horses you are often buying peoples mistakes some bigger than others.

I think doing it on livery in this current climate would be a risk we have 100 acres shared with sheep at out disposal so little feeding costs, so would think about it hard and long you also have to take in to account feed farrier byuing cost wormers jabs and your time and livery for you so may not add up.
 
Im not looking to make that much/any money. It more a way of say buying something for £800, selling for £1200, buying for £1200, selling for £2000 etc until i end up with something to keep for myself. Not to say that theres no reason i wouldnt keep a 'project' if it suited my needs. I figured that i want a horse when i finish uni anyway, and spending my money on something which may not be what im after but that i can sell on rather than spending it on a loan makes more sense. Like buying a house rather than renting!

Just wondered what kind of level people get them to? obviously theres a big price jump between local level and affiliated, but does the price keep increasing constantly with experience or is going to 5 shows the same as 10? There must be a point where the amount of time spent getting the experince doesnt equate in terms of financial reward?

I know what i mean, just finding it hard to explain!
 
So say you buy your first horse for 800 sell for 1200 thats 400 profit ,well when you buy horse you should put on panacur 5 day to be sure of worming thats nearly 20 then worm again say 10 would be more. You would have to shoe in time you had it say 50, how would you get horse from where you bought it say we allow 50 for that.

We can then say 75 livery 15 advertising to sell and this is all to do it within a month which is very doubtful, that all adds up to 220 if im right drinking wine at mo so correct if wrong but at that you have 180 profit not 400.

I am aslo assuming at 75 livery a month you would be giving some fed as well.
This does not take in to account the travel you would spend looking at horse or travelling to attend the horse every day and would be paying you nothing for your time .And is doing it on most basic scale with no consideration for anything outside basic care.

This just goes to go show when good british breeders are branded expensive they have to look after mare pay for stallion stable feed care for animals and produce good stock not as cheap as it looks at first glance.
 
I had a few project ones in my teems the last of which was an unbroken wb x tb. I had it about 6 months by which time it was getting placed 1m sj & had done a little xc, working in an outline, lateral work & was hacking alone, in traffic etc. I wasn't paying livery, it only had a pair of front shoes and lived out unless it was very cold. The horse cost me £700 & I sold it for £2400. I didn't make a lot but it worked out ok but there is always the risk of injury and a vets bill. Buying them already broken its even harder to make any money & you often find issues you hadn't bargained on.
 
Sorry forgot to say changing passport in to you name costs and if you intend to take horse anywhere diesel and entry lucky by the sounds of it if you are going to be left with any profit by the time you work it all out properly.

That is all without buying on piece of tack rugs or any vets bill you could incur no extras at all not even a mineral or salt lick which are all pretty basic not a mane shine or cleaning product etc.

I would say at the money scale you are talking about not doable.
 
You need to be looking at buying a much cheaper horse to make money I think. To get a foot on the ladder as it were, I would be looking at producing an unflappable family type large pony which has a much wider appeal/market.

I 'flip' (colloquial term, not derogatory) youngstock, usually buy weanlings either locally or from the stockyards, usually from $100 - $400 for papered QH's or Paints, occasionally I buy unpapered babies if they are pretty and well put together. I only buy paints or 'fashionable' colours as these sell three times as fast as a bay/brown/chestnut that is just as good.

Generally, unless I have a buyer lined up, and I often have a waiting list, I'll keep a youngster for anything from 3 months to a year, do-able because I have my own land. Well mannered, unflappable, started 1-2 year olds start at $1000, costs are minimal, I make my money + expenses back. I don't do it so much for the cash returns, although that is nice, I just enjoy having babies about the place.
 
Insurance or will it be a case of fingers crossed it dont get kicked or cut its self, you know what some vets bills can be like :-(

But I wish you good luck with your venture, enjoy it, its a great thing to do, produce horses & ponies I loved it.

I dont think horses/ponies are selling very well at the mo there are 2 nice ponies I know of for sale and they have been for sale for about 3-4 months and a big horse he's been for sale since the end of last summer ...
 
I would say buying a youngster at the min wouldnt be the best move, unless you have someone around you who can help and enough time to spend on it.

Most people seem to be looking for horses around 15hh-16hh medium build and early teens, been there done that types that are safe. and most dont want TB's.

Before I buy to sell I always look at the market to see what is selling , hope this helps :)
 
If I get this right, the OP is basically saying she will want a horse anyway.....so worming, feed, livery etc are costs she will incur regardless of what horse she has.....(I *think* I am right!!??)

However, I would say it would be very risky to bank on 'making money' on bringing horses on in the current climate, as buyers seem to want the world for the money at the moment as there are so many horses for sale!
 
Maisy said:
If I get this right, the OP is basically saying she will want a horse anyway.....so worming, feed, livery etc are costs she will incur regardless of what horse she has.....(I *think* I am right!!??)
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That is the way I read it. We did it with ponies to enable us to buy an event horse for my daughter. Worked on the basis that we would have a horse anyway and just needed to make the free cash to move onto the next 'project'. We started out with £250 and ended up with £6500 over 2 years. Admittedly that was 5 years ago when the market was much more boyant, and we had some very lucky buys, I don't know if we could do it now.

One word of warning, as we were selling on and didn't want any nasty shocks, we always had a 2 stage vetting on what we bought.

Good luck and I hope you manage to get there.
 
Wonder if you would be on more secure ground making general riding types (& dare I mention the word cob??).

Good, safe allrounders always are hard to find. You could take young horses with good basic temperament & educate them to been there done. Whilst your horse value probably wouldn't increase each time, you could put the profit from each away. This also lessens the risk of getting a dud higher value horse near the end, as your losses each time would be limited.
 
I wouldn't even consider it if I had to pay livery costs tbh.

There are easier ways to make some money in the current climate.

FWIW a friend and I bought a cobx filly to bring on and sell and she is an absolute star but even though we don't pay livery its not going to be worth our while by the time you factor in feed, feet, wormer, inj, vet etc etc. The only way I think you could possibly make some cash is to buy more of a sports horse type and hope it becomes a bit of a star. All rounders IMO will not make the money for it to be viable given the cost, time put into the horse.
 
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A friend and I have done this s few times now and while it is possible to make money or at least break even, I wouldn't recommend it in the current economic climate.
Between us we currently have two youngsters to bring on, two to show and sell and two we've been trying to sell for a while now with no luck.
Nothing wrong with them at all one is a bombproof PC pony, the other a well schooled regsitered Friesian mare.
The market is still very slow and the two youngsters have cost a fortune in vets fees, feed, shoeing etc over the winter so we will struggle to make any profit at all I fear although they are both quality horses.
 
Cathey, I think if your ultimate aim is to bring on a nice youngster for yourself, in this financial climate you should be able to find such a horse without having to 'climb up the ladder' as you describe. There must be plenty of people out there with such animals which they can't sell at this present time.
 
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