How much would you pay for loan pony?

[Indoorvoicesbluey]

been full Loaning said pony for 2 years.

shes 13 years old and 14.2hh. My 16 year old has been riding her, and her younger sister has started lessons on her. When we got her she had barely been sat on let alone knew anything. We’ve spent a lot of money bringing her on and absolutely loving her. Shes a darling but still very green as in couldn’t go round a course of jumps yet but has started doing 30-60cm on there own. Typical cob that she struggles to hold a canter.

shes not got a bad bone in her body, but we suspect ulcers and she’s on acid ease which is making a difference.

we’ve had to buy saddle, rugs, everything.

owner wants to sell said pony. What would you pay?

Is she safe, good in traffic and any vices? Good confirmation and movement? What colour? Good to shoe/clip/catch/ load?
Steady cobs are worth good money, irrespective of if they can hold canter round a course of jumps, and tbh with a more experienced rider you may find she is a bit more together. I'm not saying your girls aren't good jockeys, but they are still young and schooling can be developed.
If she is steady with no faults you'd be looking at a fair few thousand tbh.

She’s being bought on by my daughters trainer too. My oldest is a very good rider tbh and has done amazing with her.

she is good in traffic etc. not keen on hacking alone but we are working on that.

she definitely takes her confidence from the rider so wouldn’t be suited to a novice or someone who isn’t confident.

whats a fair few thousand?

Plus so I get her fully vetted?

I would say she is worth at least £4k, potentially quite a bit more if she is super safe. If you want to insure her you will probably have to get her vetted.

Has the owner asked you for a figure or do they have one in mind?

I would probably start at £2k and go from there. Tell them she is difficult to price as you have had her so long and put in so much work. Have a look what she would cost to replace too and offer slightly below that?

I would vet for peace of mind, below £5k I don't think insurance requires a vetting.

In the current market about £7.5k

Unless you had an agreement what you have spent is irrelevant to market value.

You'll need to get her vetted to insure her over a certain amount (used to be about 2k). I'd say if she is a nice stamp and moves well then in the region of 5/6k. It depends a huge amount on things we can't judge without pics/vid etc - confirmation and movement really does make a difference. How much does the owner want?

She wants 6k min

To be honest that sounds about right if the pony is a good one.

That is quite a lot for a green 16 year old. I’m guessing she wants to sell to avoid looking after her on her old age?

The pony is 13 @GildedAge - the 16 year old is the DD, I don't think the OP wants to sell her! 😂

I agree with the PP that said £6k min - the current market is very competitive and while it would be nice for the owner to take off some of the amount to account for the work you've put into the pony, they don't have to do that.

Your title is misleading. I thought you were asking how much someone would pay to loan a pony. You want to buy a pony and for that you pay market value.

Oops, 13 is a bit better, but still that age people sell a horse if they don’t want to be responsible for retirement costs.

Difficult to solo hack, not great at cantering (this would be a red flag to me) and only jumping 30-60cm, not worth £6k IMO

She sounds as if she would be nearer this mark:
https://www.whickr.com/marketplace/horses/happy-hacker-hunter-1

Well the loan pony does not compare well to the above in the advert apart of course from knowing your pony is as you describe. The advertised pony can apparently hack alone and jump hedges out hunting. Food for thought and might be worth finding a few adverts to give weight to a lower offer.

If you don’t want to pay what the owner wants it may be worth seeing if they will purchase the tack , rugs etc off you . At 13 and unable to jump round even a small course or hold a canter for long I think you’d be better off buying something else for your children as it sounds like they need more of a schoolmaster type .

Horse prices are still absolutely ridiculous- people are paying £10-15k for very average ponies. You can barely buy anything sound for under £5k in most areas.
I wouldn’t buy her personally- not based on the description, but safe cobs still fetch a fair bit.

Because of the issue cantering I would want the pony vetted too, that would be a red flag that something was wrong.

Sorry should have said, we’ve had work done with vet. Nothing physically wrong. We had flex tests done, back and teeth etc done. It is literally she has to build her fitness up. She was just in a field for her life before we got her.

You've been full loaning her for two years, though, and from your original post, putting money into training. At this point not being able to hold a canter should not be a fitness issue, and being "cobby" isn't an excuse.

Flexions are fine, but not a chance I'd consider buying without full x-rays and possibly a flexion with a nerve block.

The problem is with loaning that if you put time and effort into improving the horse you rarely see any reward for it - you may well have added thousands onto her value but I'll be a flying pig if that does you any good when it comes to buying her. Unfortunately her market value will be what they want, no consideration to the effort you gave put in. It's a mercenary world out there.

we’ve had blood tests done to make sure she hasn’t got a deficiency or anything wrong and they were perfect.

out hacking she can hold a canter perfectly, and actually is super fast! Over taking some of the bigger horses at the yard, she struggles in our school because it isn’t that big I think.

we are taking her to arena hire next month so we shall see how it goes!