The price of a horse all depends on what the marked demands and what you want to do with your horse. There are a number of things that will affect the price of a horse including age, size, colour, training level, bloodlines, personality, conformation, quality of gait, health… the list goes on.
There is a lot to think about when choosing a horse, and let’s face it, no horse is perfect. It is not often that you will find a horse that is exactly everything that what you want. Unless you have an unlimited expense account, you will likely have to compromise a bit to find a horse that will suit your needs. The reality is that the more perfect you want your horse to be, and the more extensive the training that your horse requires, the more you are going to have to pay. Horses are not free.
Let me explain the realities of the breeding business to you…
To create a quality foal a breeder has to buy a quality mare and breed it to a quality stallion. Neither the mare nor the stallion service is free to the breeder. Breeders pay good money for their breeding stock. Once the breeders have purchased their breeding stock they have to feed, maintain and care for those animals, as well as their facilities, and their equipment. The maintenance and care of any type of animal takes time and costs money. Sure there are always a few backyard breeders that turn a stallion out with a few mares, lets them live off the land and produce a few foals every year, but a dedicated breeding program involves a lot more than just buying a couple of horses at an auction and letting them have babies.
To figure out what a young horse should cost you have to add up the costs of everything involved in breeding and raising that horse. Let's say a breeder already own a good mare and they locate a good stallion to breed her to. Stud fees can start at $500 and go up to $3,500 if you're conservative. Let’s say our breeder finds a good stallion standing at a fee of $500.00. (The stallion that we are breeding to is young and he has great blood lines but he hasn't been shown due to an injury so his breeding fee is very reasonable.) Luckily the stallion we chose to breed to lives close to our mare owner so the only transportation cost involved in breeding our mare is $50.00 for gas to drive her to the breeding facility and back home. The mare care is $5.00 a day and the mare is typically at the breeding farm for about 30-40 days. the breeder is lucky, things go well. The mare is in heat when she arrives at the stallions stable, so they only have to keep her for 30 days. The total cost for mare care is $150.00. Our breeder now has $700.00 invested in this baby that he must wait for over 11 months to see. During that year the breeder has to feed the mare. That costs of feeding a horse is about $500.00 per year. Also our breeder has to pay for all the mare’s vet bills, farrier visits and any medical expenses. Don't forget about the cost of de-worming and immunizations, because the breeder wants the mare and foal to be as healthy as they can be. We can figure that all these extras expenses will cost the breeder about $250.00 if no serious vet bills are incurred. So the time has come at last and the mare finally has her foal. The day the baby hits the ground our breeder has already invested $1,450.00 in producing the foal.
After the foal is born the breeder has to spend the next three years feeding, caring for, and teaching ground manners to our baby. If we do not add the cost of our breeders time, (because most people some how think that a breeders time should be free) all we are looking at is the cost of feed, vet bills, farrier expenses, and any medicines incurred. At about $750 a year for feed and other incurred expenses, three years of care and maintenance for a young horse would cost $2250.00. When a breeder figures out the total cost to produce a three year old horse, they have to add the original breeding and mare care expenses of $1450.00. along with the expense of raising the youngster. OK, our breeder now has a horse that he can start putting under saddle and seriously training. At this point he $3700.00 invested in this baby. ($1450.00 to breed and keep the mare + $2250.00 to raise the foal)
If the breeder wants to professionally train his young horse, that expense has to be added to the horses value. The cost of training a young horse starts at about $650 per month. Reasonably a person can plan on three months of training to get a good start on a young horse. That costs $1950.00 plus money for gas to deliver the horse to the trainer and bring it home again. Luckily our breeder was able to find a good trainer that was fairly close to his home so the fuel for transporting the horse was only $50.00. At the end of three months the breeder will have spent a minimum of $2000.00 in training this horse.
Now the breeder has a three year-old horse, with three months of training. This horse is still is a bit spooky, he is not a bad horse but he needs some real life experience to make him a good calm trustworthy mount. At this point the breeder has at least $5700.00 cash invested in his young horse. (Note that this price does not reflect any money for the time that the breeder has spent handling the horse from the time it was born until it went to the trainers, nor have not we contributing any cash value towards the original purchase price of his brood mare.)
As you can see, by the above example, there are reasons that good horses, raised by quality breeders, are expensive! Horses are not free to the breed, to keep, or to train. Many people breed horses for the sheer love of the animal but breeders do have to bring in enough money to feed their breeding stock and pay their vet bills!
If you want to save some money when you buy a horse think about what is the most important thing that you need in a horse. What do you have to have, and what can you do without? How much time do you have? If you want to save some money on your purchase price, buy a younger horse and pay the feed and training costs yourself. That way you do not have to put a huge sum of cash at one time.
A good quality gaited foal should start at between $2,000.00 and $2,500.00. The prices go up from there. Top blood lines, unique color, and breeding quality will all add to the value of the horse. The more unique the horse is, the older it is, and the more training that you require… the more you can expect to pay. It is all a matter of what you want and what you need. If you want a horse with top bloodlines and fabulous show record that has won every ribbon in sight, then you had better have deep pockets, because it is going to cost you a bundle of money! If you are willing to get a yearling that has potential it is going to have a much more reasonable price.
If you want a safe trail horse, be aware that they are very hard to find and they are not cheep. Older horses that have "been there and done that" are always in high demand. Do not think that because you only want a gelding he will be a lot less expensive. It cost the same amount of money to raise a gelding as it does to raise a breeding animal, and geldings are the preferred mount of serious trail riders. Since demand is high and supply is low, you can reasonably expect to pay $5,500.00 to $7,500.00 for a well broke dependable gaited trail gelding.
Also be aware that color affects price. If you want a pinto, a dun, a palomino, a leopard or an unusual color, then be prepared to pay a bit more for those colors. These colors are in high demand and they are harder to produce. A breeding quality horse that is a guaranteed producer of unusual colors can be over double the price of an ordinary colored breeding horse. It costs a breeder big money to buy guaranteed colour producers, and understandably they have to make some of that money back on the foals that they produce!
If you are in the market for a quality gaited horse Sundown would be happy to help you out. We have been breeding smooth gaited horses for quite a few years. We know our mares and we know our stallions. We also know their personalities, and what they produce. Let us know what you are looking for in your next horse and we will try to point you in the right direction. At Sundown we try very hard to match the right horse with the right owner so that everyone, including the horse, wins.
Good luck with your search, and let us know if we can be of any assistance.
Rose Mary Axell
Sundown Smooth Gaited Horses
