Why is it so hard to find a quality youngster and have horse prices gone up??!

[lauraheads]

Is anyone else finding it difficult to find a good quality youngster at the moment?

I sold my horse last sept, and looked around and seemed to find lots of young unbacked /lightly backed horses in my price range and now I cant find any!!

I needed a winter off but surely just as its coming up to the showing season people dont add on almost 1000 pounds to the price - do they =S

Has anyone else found similar problems?

 

[rhino]

Whereabouts are you? There are so many quality horses going for absolute peanuts around here - yes they need the work putting in but I prefer a completely blank canvas

 

[lauraheads]

Im in Lancashire.

I have seen a horse I like in wales but he is a 6 hour drive away =S, is it worth going that far to spend 1200?!!

 

[PapaFrita]

I suppose it depends what your budget is vs your expectations.

 

[cyberhorse]

I suppose it depends what your budget is vs your expectations.

Exactly!

What you'll tend to get at this time of the year is those youngsters that have been backed this autumn/winter and showed enough promise to continue rather than be moved on quickly. Anything the dealer/rider was not going to make much money on tends to get shifted before you are into winter feeding and these are the cheaper ones. At this time of year people see spring coming up and therefore the horses are going to be cheaper to keep so if they have 4 youngsters there is not the same pressure from costs and there is money to be made by further educating them and getting them out at their first shows.

We struggled last year to get a quality youngster for a £3000-3500 budget. There was a good dealer in Lancashire where we hit lucky so I will PM you their name as you could always get an idea if you are in the right ballpark for what you are wanting.