Do you think this pony is overpriced?

[couraggio]

12.2hh British Riding Pony mare, 17 years old, £10K.

She’s a very pretty mare who has shown in the past. Has a very good record at Pony Club and NSEA showjumping at 60cm and 70cm. Good x-country too. By all accounts is safe, sane and sensible. No known medical conditions.

She’s a lovely pony but £10K for a 17 year old seems a lot to me. Or is this what ponies like this are going for these days?

Can you look at loaning instead?

I’ve loaned similar twice, in our area lots of owners want horsey mums to do their little ponies and kids to ride them / pay their bills.

I don’t mind paying £10K if it’s as described, but I do mind paying it if it’s not. Thanks for advice re hock x-rays - just makes the vetting extremely expensive though doesn’t it? I want to get an insulin test done too as she looked a bit cresty to me, so that plus the x-rays would put the price of the vetting alone over £1K… But maybe it would be a false economy not to.

The other thing is that a friend’s 13.2hh 15-year old will be coming up for sale in the next 3-6 months and she’s promised me right of first refusal. It’s not quite as consistent at jumping as the other pony (sometimes looks at fillers) but is otherwise golden and I know it inside out. Also would be £3K cheaper. Maybe I should just wait for that one - would save me quite a bit of money and probably some sleepless nights too…

I definitely wouldn't skip at least hock x rays on a vetting of a 17 year old jumping pony. There is more than likely going to be some wear and tear and if you find the pony has started to refuse at jumps then pain would be a likely culprit.

From what you have just said I'd definitely wait for the bigger pony to become available. A known pony is always less of a risk!

Good luck. It's horrible pony shopping! I hate it!

Wait for your friends 13.2 to come available, that sounds a much better option.
If that 17yo pony club DC's pony was any good it would have been snapped up by someone in the branch who knew the pony. It's telling that that hasn't happened.

@CrotchetyQuaver Yes I did wonder about that myself, but put it down to there being not that many people prepared to stump up £10K for a 17 year old 12.2hh. There could be more to it than that though I guess.

@AbitSceptical We’d love a loan and have loaned before. There just aren’t that many loan ponies around (we’d want one to move to our yard where DD’s friends are). Maybe I’ll keep looking while waiting for my friend’s 13.2hh to become available.

This ^ 100%.

So much good advice here, as usual, and my instinct on this one would be very cautious, mostly because nobody at pony club has snapped it up, and the recent eliminations need more investigation. What I would add is that whatever you do pay at that age, you have to assume you won't be able to sell on, so it is money gone forever. We bought younger ponies for DD and were lucky to be able to increase the value of both and then use the sale of them to part fund the next one as she went up to the next level. Obviously you can never assume that as anything can happen and some have to be taken out of work early for health reasons, but at 17, you have to assume you won't get any of that money back. This might not be a consideration if you are a forever home regardless, but for many people it is.

@Deliaskis Thanks - I don’t mind not getting the money back IF the pony gives us an awesome 2 years. I just really don’t want to be in a position where we buy it and it doesn’t do the job for us that we want it to. I will definitely investigate the refusals further and ask for videos of those rounds.

Could be as innocent as the rider forgetting the course! But fair to ask I think.