Viewing a horse that’s overpriced

[bumblebeepen]

Been looking for a horse for sometime and have seen a couple of ads for some great ones. Recently I’ve seen quite a lot of ads of some golden oldies. I’m not against getting something a bit older 16-18 mark, but I’m at shocked by the high prices, and my worry is that by spending so much on purchasing something older, that money would be better put away for illness - especially as it’s difficult to insure them past a certain age.

so my question is, if an older horse is advertised for 7k for example, how would you bridge this? Would you visit horse and see how you get on and talk about the home that you could provide? Or have a chat beforehand? A horse is being advertised fairly local to us. Horse is a happy hacker, but is being advertised as has the potential to do more… What would you do?

To add, when I bought my previous horse he was advertised for 6k and i paid 3k. I took a friend who haggled on my behalf, but I no longer speak to that friend so can’t really ask her advice/send the ad etc

7k for a 16 year old safe hack with no health issues is a bargain. I'd be offended if I had one for sale like this and you haggled.

At least tell them you only want to pay 4k and ask them if it's worth coming to view.

I think you can offer below the asking price like with anything, but a healthy sound horse that is safe and competed up to BE 100 for example, good in traffic, box, clip etc etc could easily go for 7k in my experience .

There will probably be a bit of wriggle room in the price but if the horse is sound, has a good temperament and is already doing the job you want them to do, then I’d have thought the asking price is reasonable. When did you buy your last horse? Prices shot up during Covid and haven’t really come back down. Pretty much the only horses that are still ‘cheap’ are thoroughbreds straight out of racing

I think £7k is more than fair for a safe 16 year old all rounder in this market. 6 years younger and the price would double.
It may be that you need to adjust your expectations in line with the market somewhat

I paid £6k for a 20 year old schoolmaster 6 months ago. Several people told me we were paying over the odds. Without a shadow of a doubt he is the best horse I have ever owned (we have 3 currently and had horses for over 15 years).
He is incredibly well schooled, has evented and competed to medium. To me he is worth his weight in gold. We might have a good few years with him but we might not, he will always have a home with us regardless. It is a risk with an older horse but you could say the same with a youngster. We paid £13k 2 years ago for a well bred 4 year old and have had significant issues with lameness. It's cost £1000s and he has so many exclusions it's now not worth insuring him. My point being any horse is somewhat of a lottery. Youngster flew a 5 stage vetting.
I would now have an older horse again (providing the usual diligence can be done). Sorry long answer! Short answer these older horses might not be over priced!

Well done for managing to buy a horse for half the asking price. I had someone try that on with me once and I told them to go and buy a different horse if their budget was half my price!

Seriously, you cannot price all horses of a particular age the same way. A nicely mannered, well bred 16 yo with clean bill of health and a list of wins as long as your arm is going to be an absolute steal at 7k. A 16 yo of no particular breeding with poor conformation and a long history of injuries, bad temper and no known competition experience is going to be a liability at 1k. You can’t just go out and say ‘that’s too much, I will offer you less.’ Look at horses within your budget.

I haven’t got a horse for half price?

if be more than happy to pay the advertised price if the horse had done a lot, however as per my original post, horse has only been used for hacking but is being sold as could do more, which is only a guess on the sellers part really. But, anyway, since my original post I’ve decided against this particular horse as I do feel it is overpriced.

when I bought my previous horse he was advertised for 6k and i paid 3k.

Either you haggled it down to half the asking price, or you can’t do the sums. But since you’ve decided not to buy this one, at least you won’t have to insult the owner with a low offer. I must confess selling horses is a testing process - everyone thinks your horse is overpriced. 🙄🙄 Personally I would only go to see a horse if it was in the price range I wanted to pay for the animal being advertised. If you think it’s not worth the money, walk away.

Only fair if you ask the seller before viewing. Otherwise why waste their time?

But didn’t you say in your earlier post that you got a £6k horse for £3k?

Apologies yes our previous one. They were desperate to sell as they didn’t have room as their new pony had arrived. However we didn’t take the tack or rugs etc that were originally included.

As said prices shot up in COVID and don't seem to have come down though the market is very slow (almost dead) at the moment. If you find someone desperate to offload before the winter or it fails the vetting you may get a bargain.
If it's a happy hacker then £7k seems quite steep and you might find something for £4k. But if you're expecting all whistles and bells then you are looking at more than £12k.

It depends how safe the 'happy hacker' is. If it's bombproof, and you're not a very confident rider, then an older horse that is very safe has seen the world, and you're paying for the years of exposing the horse to these things, and it's easy riding.

I wouldn't buy an 18 year old horse that 'could do more' - if I wanted one with real potential then I'd go for a few years younger. I would buy a 16 (maybe at an absolute push 17 year old) that was super safe, had been exposed to lots of things and wasn't phased, and I would happily pay 7k for that. If I wanted a horse with more potential, lets be honest, realistically you're looking at quite a bit more than 7k.

I wouldn't buy an 18 year old though. More because I want more years ideally - losing them is just too heartbreaking.

What you're describing is the easiest horse in the world to sell right now, especially at that price. I get asked all the time for this type of horse and this would be the lower end of the budget.