10/28/2024
An Amazing Deal?
The horse market is in a weird place right now, going into winter and with an election looming, but there seems to be more buyers out there than ever. First timers, longtime horse people looking to add to their herds, horse-lovers that have yet to become horse-havers... All looking for an amazing deal. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know a good deal from a low price tag. And don't know how to tell if the horse they're looking at is one or the other.
The first, hard truth of the matter is that a lot of people won't get offered the deal of a lifetime when it comes to horses. There's almost always an angle. And some of those angles are easy to shoulder when you are both informed, and knowledgeable about navigating them! Needs some maintenance? Okay, that's fine for your poke around horse! Needs some training? Well, you just so happen to be skilled in that. Going to cost extra to register because someone let it go too long? That's alright, once that paperwork is filed, it'll be worth it! Maybe it's a high value horse that has been injured, or needs accessible-but-expensive vet care that is beyond what the current owner can afford. Those are all things you can sort of quantify when it comes to bringing that horse home, eyes wide open and being honest about the risks associated. At the end of the day, you might even break even.
We've made plenty of these types of "deals" over the decades, bringing home a horse with a lot of potential, but needed some work to go from being a project to an asset. People with decades of education in care, conformation, bloodlines, and training can do that. People that are just getting into horses, or who have been in horses a long time but haven't bothered to really deepen their education, can wind up getting exactly what they paid for, which is a headache.
So, what are you buying?
Are you buying from the horse's breeder? What can they tell you about the pre and post natal care of that horse? Lack of proper nutrition during pregnancy can cause issues later in life. Lack of proper handling as a foal can create a horse that isn't as well-rounded. Lack of knowledge about pedigrees, breed history, genetic disorders, color-related health issues or other breed or bloodline specific problems (or purposeful withholding of that information) can set buyers up for embarrassment at best, and expensive and/or devastating health issues at worst.
If you're buying from someone else besides the breeder, how much information are they willing to share? How much do they even have? Three owners ago, that horse could have had a catastrophic illness or injury that you'll pay the price on eventually. There are plenty of horses dumped at auction that had papers at one time, but popped up with a health issue- something that can be covered up with enough high fat feed or time off from work. These kinds of purchases are a gamble, not a deal. Sometimes, you win, a lot of the time you do not. Does your horse match the registration papers? Does it have the training advertised? Was it drugged when you went to look? Always better to take an expert with no skin in the game (as in, no horse of their own or their friends' or clients' own to sell you instead) to look over that potential purchase for any issues.
It's easy to fall into the mindset of "oh, it's JUST a trail horse!" when you are buying. Just a pet. Just a kids' horse. "I'm not going to compete," you say to yourself. How expensive is the vet? How expensive is the hospital? Unsuitable horses tend to require visits to one of those two places. Leaving a horse to suffer, even if it's not what you thought you were buying, isn't really an ethical thing to do, either. Many buyers get stuck with their three figure craigslist rescue, unable to afford a good useable horse after all the care their first purchase needs. And some folks kick the can down the road, letting that horse move to the next sucker or trader.
And that isn't to say that sometimes, there aren't flukes. Sometimes, there's a fire sale. Sometimes, there's a divorce. Sometimes, someone dies and their family doesn't know enough, or care enough, to find out what their horses are worth before they sell them off. Sometimes there's a sudden illness, a lifestyle change, a natural disaster. Sometimes, you're friends with someone who knows someone and they have horse they want to see in a good home above all else. But that's not the open market any more than you picking up something at Goodwill is. If I give my good friend a diamond necklace at half value to be nice, that doesn't tank the entire market for diamond necklaces.
The truth is, most actual good deals are never offered to the open market. They happen between friends, business partners, to people with industry reputations and so on. If no one knows you and what you're about, your chances of being offered an amazing deal aren't very high. And if someone is advertising to the void, that amazing deal probably is less amazing and more an inflated asking price being brought back down to reality. Someone offering to give us a mare that they otherwise wouldn't even sell is an amazing deal. Someone offering a fluffy dingy colored crossbreed born out in a pasture that has never known the touch of a human is not.
"I can get it cheaper somewhere else," isn't the truth in a lot of places, if you're actually looking for quality. Get what cheaper? The same breed? The same color? Maybe. The same care protocols? The same handling? The same conformation, bloodlines, testing? Probably not. Even the same sire bred to two different quality mares can produce a diamond and a turd. We've noticed a number of our most prolific tire kickers have been kicking tires for over a decade. Long enough that the horses they wanted foals from have retired out of our program or passed on. The cost to make and care for those foals hasn't stayed the same, but their budgets have. And looking for it cheaper hasn't netted any satisfying results or they wouldn't still be kicking our tires.
If you want Goodwill prices, you have to live the Goodwill hustle. That means going to the bargain bin (auctions), wrestling with all the other pickers (horse traders and "rescues"), and having the expertise to know exactly what you're looking at when that horse is dirty, drugged, sick, injured, scared, or otherwise advertised incorrectly or downright dishonestly. You might get lucky and find solid gold in a box of costume jewelry. But, a reputable jeweler is going to keep you from guessing. And, by the time you get done rooting through all those grab bags for your one random quality piece, you've probably spent more than if you'd just gone to that jewelry store and bought exactly what you wanted on a plan.
At the end of the day, unless you are blessed with the most profound of luck, you aren't just going to slip and fall into an amazing deal. Unlike a priceless vase forgotten in your grandma's closet for fifty years, horses are an ongoing expense. It costs money to feed, stable, farrier, vet, breed, train, show, and otherwise grow them up. And it costs regardless of the quality of that horse. Plenty of breeders put the kind of money into their programs that we do and have less to show for it, because they aren't investing in health, or hardiness, or handling, or they just plumb have bad luck or ugly/unmarketable horses (or both).
We offer all of our clients a good deal in the sense that, for their money, they're getting a horse worth that price. We're not out to bamboozle anyone with flashy marketing language or instagram filters. We have repeat clients for a reason, and more than a few of our clients have taken foals from our program right into the show ring at the championship level. They've become integral parts of breeding programs, of show strings, and of peoples' families. And every one of those foals is sold with the knowledge that, if there ever comes a time when that foal might need to find another home, we will do whatever we can to help, whether it's promoting them to our existing clients and followers or even bringing them home ourselves. And that includes foals we didn't breed, but are by our stallions. We've trained several of our sold on foals to ride, taught them to collect, showed and managed them, found them new buyers who we've done all of that for again. If you get a foal from us, you aren't just another check to cash, and then we don't want to hear from you again.
We want our foals to succeed. That means we want YOU to succeed when you take one home or breed your mare to one of our boys. We want to have that relationship with the people we buy from and breed to their stallions, as well. Find a deal like that, and that's the amazing part.
