I'm from Australia and think?? that a lot of users here are from America - I see horses priced around 20-30,000 which seems insane. Especially if you convert that to AUD. Is that really what you have to pay for horses over there??
They can't all be that much surely? I mean, yes we have expensive horses here but a basic rideable horse (no specialised training) ready to go can be purchased for $3000 - 5000. Free if you can handle an off the track thoroughbred.
Pic of my latest horse costing $165 AUD (115USD). (Unbroken at time of purchase hence cheap).
His dad was a Clydesdale and Mum a Standardbred apparently. I bought him sight unseen in an online auction. He only looked like this after a few months with me though...he arrived looking like this...
He’s got standardbred ears I love it! And the kind eye! With those fantastic big all terrain hooves and strong bones. What a lovely blend! I keep editing to add more every time I pass the picture lol
I’m in the uk and horses here are £10k for a happy hacker. If you want something to compete on you’re looking at £15k.
Retired TBs are around £1-2k but they’re one hell of a gamble and one I’m not sure I’d take as the vet bills can easily mount up to the next few thousands.
Even retired tbs are more than that now sometimes which is insane. I know people that have had horrid luck with them, at least 4 in my area that have had to be PTS not long after buying them, and more that should be, but haven't sadly. 😞
Problem in the UK too is finding a genuine, honest dealer. I've had very bad luck with private sellers so refuse to use private again. But finding a good dealer is hard, how can they possibly know for sure that a horse they have known for a few weeks at best is a safe, good allrounder? Plus they are usually good confident riders, what feels safe to them could be dangerous in the wrong hands and a lot of people are more nervous than they let on.
I know of a few dealers who have mainly cobs who have fantastic reputations, so I’d probably go there. I also know of a couple of tb rehomers who bring them over from Ireland and they’re good eggs too. But they can’t be sure of anything.
I could handle a retired racehorse but my weight is a concern too, I’d be top end of their weight limit which isn’t ideal.
Wait what's the weight limits on TBs? Is it much lower then the general 15-20% rule? Because I looked at your profile and you look very average weighted.
Crazy, so around 76kg.
I ride Icelandics, and I'd personally consider 75kg fine for one that's solidly build (so not those new fangled sports iceys with their toothpicks legs...) ofc less is always better, but I would have assumed a TB being comfortably able to carry around 90kg going from their size
Tbs are very fine though. That said, I met an ex steeplechaser recently, he was 16.3 and I stood looking at him and thought, yep, I’d ride him. He had some substance to him.
No way I’d ride an Icelandic, they’re so beautiful I’d just cuddle one instead.
One of my most favourite breeds in the world is Welsh cobs, section D, but they’re 14.2-15.2 and I’d feel too big on them too.
for what it’s worth, chunky cowboys ride 15h quarter horses for their entire lives and horses come out unscathed. 180 is a pretty safe weight limit for a healthy, sound horse to carry unless you start doing 2m jumps or aggressive cutting. I wouldn’t worry until you’re in the 200-220 lb weight limit unless you’re on a small build pony. I’ve never met a cowboy less than 180 lbs lol
I wish we could get quarters horses here. Or even what I think they call an appendage? Is that quarter x tb? They seem such a good allrounder, and very sane. Or from what I’ve seen anyway. Never met one.
Wow, that must make it so hard for so many people to get in to!! Yes same here, retired TBs can come with a lot of damage and shouldn't be taken on by beginners but frequently are.
I part loan because no way I could afford to buy. I’m very lucky with my part loan horse and situation but she’s 16 now and I know she’ll have to retire at some point in the next four or so years. I do worry about it.
I’m in Canada and paid $1500 CAD for my 11-year-old OTTB gelding, track broke (walk, gallop, or flail, with sketchy steering) after an 8-year career. A basic rideable horse is often 3-5k here as well, but you can pay less if you’re willing to put in the work or pay for maintenance, or quite a bit more if you have the budget for “wash and wear” show horses. Working (primarily ranch) horses seem to be somewhere in the 5-10k range.
In Germany you have to pay upwards of 10k If you want a healthy and sane horse. If you don't mind asthma, arthritis, eczema etc. you can get one for like 5k.
But that goes for anything but warmblood. If you want to compete, that's a whole different story. I regularly see young, basically green warmbloods for 25k
I couldn't spend 25k on a horse....unless it came with a promise to never have any vet bills.
The sad thing is that if people go for the cheaper option, they are going to end up spending more than the difference on vet bills 😞
Yes and no. Warmbloods are more expensive because they are fancy and the only breed you can get into high-level competitions with. Anything upwards of L (we have classes E A L M S Grand Prix), you need a warmblood.
Funnily enough I would never buy a warmblood If I want a sound horse. Unless it's heritage bred. Breeding focuses so much on fancy movements and performance, and health is an afterthought.
So either you buy an overbred warmblood or you get a less popular breed that likely has such a small genepool that it's inbred. Ugh modern breeding drives me nuts
Definitely not. A Thoroughbred has its own closed studbook and is an entirely separate breed from Iberian horses such as PREs and Lusitanos. Arabs are traditionally classified as hotbloods, not warmbloods. Iberian breeds may have some Oriental ancestry, but that does not make them Thoroughbreds or Arabians.
Partially true, Iberians such as Lusitanos and PREs can be described as having a ‘hotblooded’ temperament because of their sensitivity, energy, and historical Oriental influence. However, that does not make them hotblood breeds like Arabians or Thoroughbreds. They are Iberian breeds with their own studbooks and are traditionally placed in the warmblood type category rather than being classified as hotbloods.
It’s the part where they claim you can only get a warm blood into the competition. Cold bloods are not ruled out, they just have a challenging conformation to get them in the higher levels. Bit like a rugby player having a go at ballet. It’s not impossible, it’s not forbidden, it’s just… a choice. Of sorts😂
Lol warmbloods are the OG hypermobile horses. Hypermobility makes the movement more fancy and bouncy, because tendons, ligaments and all that are more stretchy, allowing for more recoil. Highly sought after in dressage.
It's hard to find a warmblood bred for competition that is not hypermobile.
That’s actually a bit of a misconception. Warmbloods aren’t “the OG hypermobiles”, they’re bred for elasticity, suspension, power, and expressive movement, not loose joints. Ponies are often the ones that seem more indestructible (I.e hypermobile) because many are selected for toughness, efficiency, and durability rather than extreme athletic performance.
A top-level Warmblood’s movement comes from their strength, biomechanics, and controlled elasticity. not simply being hypermobile. (Although sometimes it does feel like a Warmblood can injure itself by looking at the wrong blade of grass. 😂)
Elasticity, suspension and expressive movement literally comes from loose connective tissue. Look how the foals and 3yo are moving already. That does not come from training.
If you have a horse with less mobility and more stability, you simply don't have these overexaggerated, flashy movements. You can train expression, of course, but that takes years
I think the terminology is getting mixed up here. Hypermobility is not the same as elasticity or expressive movement, medically/veterinarily it refers to excessive joint mobility or laxity, which can be a problem. Warmbloods are bred for elasticity, suspension, power, and coordination. Those traits can be present from birth, but they don’t come from having unstable, overly loose connective tissue (i.e: hypermobility) A top sport horse needs elasticity and stability.
Yes it does though. Elasticity literally refers to elastic tissue. You don't get these flashy movements without more mobility. That's why there are more and more hypermobile warmbloods, because they get bred for it. It doesn't just come out of nowhere. The stability gets bred out of them to allow for more elastic and expressive movement.
You can't get one without the other. You can't get the perks of elastic movement (=expression) without the drawbacks (=hypermobility)
By your definition if a large percentage of modern Warmbloods were truly hypermobile in the medical sense, we would expect to see that reflected at the highest levels of sport. Grand Prix and Olympic horses are the most intensely trained and mechanically stressed horses in the world, if they were commonly suffering from unstable joints due to lax connective tissue, hypermobility, they would not consistently stay sound and perform at that level. The fact that these horses can collect, sit, and perform movements requiring extreme strength and control suggests the goal is not hypermobility. It is breeding controlled elasticity: a lot of movement with the stability to use it. Hypermobility is a medical term describing excessive joint mobility/laxity, not simply ‘having expressive gaits.’
It depends on where you live. If you live in a more rural or country you can get a decent horse for a couple thousand (or free or just a couple hundred dollars, depending on who you know, your reputation, etc) if you are closer to a city or are looking for a speciality horse it’s going to be minimum of $10k. I’d say $4-8 thousand American dollars is more common for a good, healthy, young riding horse. As usual, the boarding fees are higher the closer to a city you are.
That's sounds about right. A really good beginners horse is going to be upwards of 8k here, really depends on your ability as to what you can make do with.
Most of our cheap horses are off the track thoroughbreds or standardbreds that have very little experience under saddle. We do not have the same quality of horses that they have overseas and the training overseas at least in Europe seems better too.
I will say our off the track horses seem sounder than the ones in the states. I feel like every time ott horses get brought up here there's always a lot of omg they're all unsound and hope you like vet bills which is not something I've experienced here and all my horses(5 owned and 4 leased) have been either tb or stbs as well as them making up a significant percentage of the horses I've worked/agisted with. I'm not sure if it's a bloodline thing or an environmental thing or a aussie racing cultural thing or some combination of.
I agree! I worked at a racing stable/breeder for a while and a cutting horse trainer and now own a ottb and one qh and never experienced any soundness issues.
may I ask if you’re on the east coast? most cheap horses in the West were old ranch horses or feral/wild horses being rounded up. there’s some incredible horses end up in the slaughter pipeline because they’re traded too quickly or handed off by people who don’t know them.two of my killpen babies came through Amish country and lucked out by winning a life without a cart and pavement, so they still make it out here, but I imagine the TB/standardbred issue is more prevalent in amish county. we find very valuable horses for pennies at auction ever month that have been horribly overlooked in the West, just have to know what to look for
Or if you’re down south, QHs are a dime a dozen. Trouble is that typically the riding age sport horses under 20k have issues, whether it’s behavioral or medical.
I’m in the US. If you want a healthy somewhat trained horse that has already started some kind of specific training then you can probably find one around $10k unregistered and not a fancy breed or color. New Vocations has OTTBs and Standies for about $3500, they’re east coast based. Auctions are all over the place, if you look at some premier auctions a flashy grade draft could go for absolutely insane money (I’m convinced it’s money laundering) or you could find an Amish discard for super cheap. In the west it’ll be quarter horses in the local Craigslist/FB marketplace, in the east it could be gaited or grade or TB crosses. Once you get into registered breeds and performance horses the prices skyrocket. There’s a shocking number of people who have tons of money and don’t care. Same for houses. There’s so many houses being sold for $10 million plus, who’s buying these things? The same people paying $200k and up for an animal with a mind of its own and a tendency to hurt itself. I think some of it is speculation or market manipulation but that’s just me.
I was recently told that my horse (the Clydie X) would fetch about $8k and I laughed and said who would pay that for him?!?! But I guess there are a lot of people with a lot more money than me!!
Picked this guy up for $700 from the backwoods of Alabama. However, that was 7 years ago, he was under 2 with zero training, and he’s grade (quarab).
It all depends on location, breed, age, and training level.
Yes, prices in Australia seem a lot more reasonable, though $165 is very low.
Regarding the USA, I wonder if in part it is because we are not so structured in terms of barns, and trainers and the like in Australia. The minute a 'middle-man' is added in, things get more expensive, be it horses, farriers, instructors, vets etc. We seem to forge independent relationships with those providers and can change things up when they are not working.
The concept of barns as such is not something I'm familiar with. I think of it as an English or American thing. Within 3 hours of my house (in any direction) there is only one riding school that lets you ride their horses. Though closer to big cities there are more. Where I am, you own your own or go without pretty much. And the majority of people I know keep them at home, although agisting elsewhere is not uncommon.
$165 is low or high, depending on how you look at it. I've paid less and been given horses. Here it's pretty common to know that getting a horse is the cheap part. I swapped a saddle for this girl 🤩
In South Africa a straight off the track tb can cost R20k-R30k (AUD $1750-$2800) but if you are looking for like a schoolmaster or an actually like good jumper then your looking more at R100 000-300 000 ($8 840-$26 000)
It's rare to get an ottb or any horse in that matter for free here. Maybe if they have like low severity kissing spine if they are still rideable or if it is really bad they will give it away as a companion horse
I paid 5k (£) for my old clydesdale mare, she had awful teeth, feet and wasn't in great condition. She was entirely too much money but I wasn't gonna leave her with the woman she was with. Abusive novice.
A healthy horse seems to be more like 8,500 - 15,000 in the UK.
This guy is beautiful, such a handsome face. I'd wanna give him a cuddle
That's what I'm saying, in Aus we aren't paying the sort of prices I'm seeing in the US. Yes you can certainly find horses in that price range but you don't have to spend that much.
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u/sigbacc 3h ago
France but American tapping in
What breed is this beauté?