You want a kid broke horse for how much?!

Found this on Facebook, and thought I'd share it here.
Its the same idea for any other training also, but I always see people looking for a kid broke horse for close to nothing. Or emailing people with kid broke horses for sale, and asking them to lower their price more then $1000... its like are you kidding me right now?! You want quality, but aren't willing to pay for it? Makes no sense.

Your cost has nothing to do with market value. My wife's 2004 Ford Explorer cost us far more than it is worth now. If you spend $600/month training your horse for a year, you'd better hope he has the performance record to back up his value - or you will take a huge loss.

While I sympathize with the sentiment, there's simply no evidence for a dollars in = value out equation.

And it's a delusion that pervades a lot of the horse industry.

The only time, IME, that value added exceeds dollars in to produce that value is in finishing a horse in a discipline. You don't get it buying a yearling or two year old and waiting it for it to mature, and you don't get it by buying a three year old and green breaking it, because there are lots of competent horsepeople that can do those things. Taking a green broke 4 year old with potential and turning it into a finished horse? Yup, there's money to be made there, because it's a much smaller pool of people capable of doing it.

Truly child safe horses have usually returned part of their value equation to their owners and trainers long before a market price is set. That said, there should be a minimum price point set on any horse that truly has enough good mileage to be considered child safe. However, that minimum price STILL has nothing to do with dollars in.

People who try to negotiate the price on a child safe horse usually end up negotiating the child's safety.

Agreed with the above statements

But I do see people wanting a kid-broke horse that grandma can ride, dad can rope on, etc. And they don't want to pay more than 400. Oh, and the horse can't be over 6 yrs. Old

When I was looking for my first horse, I wanted a supposed childbroke horse. I'm not unwilling to pay for it, but what I discovered was people put that on their ads and then you get there and the horse is nowhere near that. If people were more willing to list a horses faults so that the person could make their minds up with all the information then paying a fair price wouldn't be so hard.
I have so many people call about my gelding and they always want to know if a beginner or younger child could ride, I always say no. It's not because he isn't well mannered or trained it's because it will take a lot more miles before he can attain that been there done that status. I'm not going to raise his price as he ages and gets more experienced, he is what he is a horse. He isn't registered, I didn't pay a lot for him, he is a gelding for a reason. When he leaves my home I want him to go to a home that can get a lot enjoyment out of him. I'd be feeding him regardless so don't see why food bill is added in there.
When people start talking about making money off horses I always get a little twitchy, there is no real money to be made by the average horse person.
This is just my opinion.

Totally agree there. Once upon a time I set out to make a bit of a profit on horses. But I learned long ago that truly, you can't expect to make anything off what you do unless you devote your entire life to the /profit/. And I wasn't willing to sacrifice time with my horses to make money off someone else's.

I have mixed feelings on people looking for cheap kid-friendly horses. I have one now that didn't cost me a cent and in the past I've paid heavily for something of the same quality. All depends on the time and the market. There are situations where people get bored of the kid friendly ones and want something younger and faster. And then there are people that just lose interest.

If you know what to look for and you are out for the right reason you can usually find a good deal but it takes wading through a whole lot of crap to get one. And that is truly not worth it. Just pay what the horse is worth and be smart about what you look for. That is my opinion on it.

Thirteenacres I couldn't have said it better The real problem is when you first start off your as green as the horse your looking for, I know I was. My first horse was dirt cheap, I even bought it from a friend. I actually thought that when he said he would come and break it for me that their was going to be a bronc ride and bam I would be riding the next day lmao I had only rode my grandmothers childbroke ponies growing up. Three years later I have finally deciphered the horse ads lol Childbroke horses in my opinion are usually slightly dull to what goes on around them, and they have to be that way to put up with the pulling the tugging, the super cinchers out there the unbalanced way we ride when we first start off. And of course once you have mastered them your usually going to want something with more spunk.

The way this is normally put :

It is not the initial investment, its the up-keep.

With the hay prices the way they are now, I wish it actually was 'investment= value'... I would have gotten a heck of a lot more for the two horses we sold (CHEAP) recently, lol. Well, a good home for them is enough...

Many people don't realize how much time and work it often takes to produce a horse that is suitable for a child or beginner to confidently ride. For some reason, non-horsey people believe that horses are born broke and require no actual training to be suitable for kids/grandparents/beginners/husbands/etc.

They don't consider that the type of horse they really need has been under saddle for no less than 5-10 years. That's 5-10 years of feed, training, care, work, etc, that have already gone into it. Not to mention that not every horse will make a good child/beginner mount. Of the 14 horses on my property, many of whom have been with my family since birth or a very young age, do you know how many will safely pack a beginner or child? 1. I have a couple others that would be suitable for just about anyone...if they got 30-60 days with a good trainer as a refresher course. But, around here that would add $600-$1200 to their price just for a month or two of training.

Non-horsey people think of horses more along the lines of cars; being flashy and pretty and young = more money. He's ugly and older? He's bottom of the line and should be cheap.