To those selling ... trying to buy is nearly as frustrating

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Beetle

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Hi I'm Hattikins mum and I'm writing with her blessing, many of you will know she lost her lovely Fiddler a few weeks ago, after much thought has decided she would like to replace him. What a challenge. Whilst we have total sympathy with those of you trying to sell it is just as frustrating trying to buy at the moment, the market is absolutely flooded with horses being sold with 'potential'. As soon as records are checked, which thankfully is very easy these days, most can be instantly discarded unless further discussion revealed a very good explanation.

Hattikins has 3 options:

1. 1st choice: A horse with a proven record at Novice BE/JRN and with ability perhaps to go Int. So she can JRN next year and let Hattie mature a bit more. Prices seem to start at £20k+ and are way out of our range. Many of these have a fairly dodgy record when checked. The really good ones are £25-30k. Dream on.

2. 2nd choice. A 4yro gelding with exceptional paces and huge jump but can be green similar to Hattie 18m ago. Will require huge amount of time and expense to bring it on and H will miss JRNs. A minefield as every Ad describes their horse as a future superstar. Prices start at £10K+

3. 3rd choice. A retired Int/Adv eventer wanting an easier life, diff. to find and the one we did find failed the vet. Again around £10k with the added responsibility of having a very old horse to care for in the future.

Hattikins is doing A level PE, Eventing is her specialised sport, she has just been asked to write an essay justifying why eventing isn't elitist and could be available to all. Given current price expectations we are having a great deal of difficultly explaining how anyone can progress in the sport without a huge amount of private financial backing. We don't have much disposable income but a reasonably talented and ambitious daughter who at current prices will need a lottery win to progress as a junior. I sometimes wish she had chosen any other sport!

Your views would be interesting to hear. Good luck to those of you trying to sell too, we are out there trying to buy one of your horses .

Beetle x

(P.S. If any of you happen to know of a suitable horse we can offer it a great home.....)
 
How about a 9 yr old horse with oodles of experience at novice (23pts), clear round a couple of ints. Not perfect but very capable and great fun. Super safe- doesnt stop, too careful to fall but not a doddle either. Hunts, hacks (not 100% on own)

Cant sell it- 10k.

Have had a long string of unsuitables.
 
The horse Boss is suggesting is absolutely fab, well worth a look and I think he would suit Hattikins down to the ground
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It will be very difficult to replace him and get a horse that matches/is as good as Hattie. Is there any chance she could be ready for some JRNs mid season?

I think the best bet is an older horse, it doesnt need to be really old, but you can pick up 10/11/12 yr olds with good Novice/Int experience for around 10K that will go and do JRN's easily.

Let us know how it goes - good luck
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It's certainly a minefield and becoming more difficult without owners or large financial reserves. I have my fingers crossed you find something soon.
 
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I think the best bet is an older horse, it doesnt need to be really old, but you can pick up 10/11/12 yr olds with good Novice/Int experience for around 10K that will go and do JRN's easily.


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Thanks Holly Jane. Tell me are we looking in the wrong places we can't find anything much under £20k at that age? As you probably know our JRNs come up really early, SoE is 2 April, Nurstead, Borde Hill not much later and Eridge isn't until end June but the ground can be concrete then (or a wash out as this year!). Hattie will hopefully go Novice later in the season but she doesn't have many PN miles under her belt yet and is only 6, all the advice we have been given is to take care of her and not to fast track her plus sending a young horse out at Novice with a rider who hasn't the experience might be a receipe for disaster if they go soon.

Love to know if you hear of anything though.

Beetle
 
Well just thinking something like the one I bought a few mths ago Dexter he is 12 and was really not very exspensive he has been 2* and was on Horsequest so always check there on the Novice and Intermediate horse section.

Hopefully something will come up - oh and dont be afraid to go and look at something at least 2K above budget I always do - and I always get roughly that off! You may also be lucky knocking money off this close to xmas as ppl want rid as I do with one of mine!
 
Thank you - Yes and were offered one but at this level it wasn't a loan but a lease, they wanted £6k a year - not a good investment for Hattikins' money, he also turned out to have some unacceptable manners despite an impeccable JRN competition record.
 
Just a thought/passing on something we were told when we were searching...

Have you thought about buying a nice show jumper and changing it to an eventer? It was Yogi Briesner who suggested it to us and he said he used to do it himself and to look for something that is happily jumping 1m15/1m20 that isnt too old (8/9) and has half decent flatwork... that way you can do a handful of pre-novices until it gets the hang of cross country and then upgrade to novice/jrn fairly smoothly.

I dont know if that appeals to you or how interested you would be in doing that, it was just a thought as they dont tend to be as heftily priced as the eventers!!!
 
They also dont tend to be as bold XC - so you would need to see if it would jump XC at all b4 purchasing really. Well I would imo
 
Definitely a good thought, we actually bought Hattie from a SJer, she had only 4 x BN DCs no flat work and never seen a XC course and she's turned out to be a great success.
 
yeah... the letters J R N seem to add a considerable amount to a horses price tag these days... often the sjers are good enough and if you look at alot of the eventers, they started off as sjers... but like Holly_Jane said, you would have to make sure that they are bold enough... it just increases the market that you are looking at.

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the right horse will come up for you eventually!
 
Thanks, spotted him - there are 3-4 new ones coming on Horse Quest every day. This one worried us as he is obviously having stops SJ not just poles down. Plus he's looks like a boys ride. Difficult to check out his early form as he was imported.
 
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Thanks, spotted him - there are 3-4 new ones coming on Horse Quest every day. This one worried us as he is obviously having stops SJ not just poles down. Plus he's looks like a boys ride. Difficult to check out his early form as he was imported.

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Looks like its only had time pens in three rounds could have just had a steady canter/time tight. Or as you say could stop. I think its worth a call and a chat with them. Could ask them outright are the time pens because of stops, worth a try
 
Continuing with the theme of buying a SJ'er and turning it into an eventer, I met someone at an event last year who had bought a Grade B SJ'er who wasn't going to go any further. She said she got him for a very reasonable price.

People selling it were looking for a young rider typed person to buy it and use the horse as a school master, but this lady bought it to event. The SJ'er had done some derbies so was OK with rustics and ditches. It was doing very nicely at PN.

Not sure how old it was though.

Other than that, people seem to be desperate to sell at the moment, so it should be a buyers market??

p.s A friend of mine always seems to buy horses for a lot less than the asking price, by offering what she can afford and then walking away. She says nine times out of 10 the seller rings her up a couple of days later and agrees the price. I've sold for less than I was hoping for as I liked the people and wanted a nice home for my pony. So if you're nice (and I'm sure you are!) it might work for you!!
 
My biggest recommendation is never to buy off a pro. Make sure its an amateur rider/teenager. You rarely hear of pro horses going on and having success with an amateur.

Diesel Dogs sisters horse was a grade A SJ who had been placed at intermediate and was under £15k aged 12. So they are around.

I think you are in a very good position tonnes on the market and at the moment the weather is good but wait till everything needs to come in and then I think you will see some price reductions.
 
Thanks to all of you for very helpful advice. We can play the waiting game and have until Christmas before we get too concerned. Prices are already shifting, the really good ones like BB are obviously going to go but it may well work in our favour with some of the others we've looked at and passed over on price alone.
 
I have my fingers xxxxed for Hattikins - the JRN window is so short there's no time to make a star from scratch although I'm sure she's more than capable
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