# Why is the price of horses so high right now?



## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

Although I’m not in the market and certainly not selling my horses, I do enjoy perusing horse ads, and have noticed not only how high the prices on them are right now, but have also noticed the people talking about how high the prices are. What’s driving the prices up? Seems like the price of everything has gone up. Lumber, notably, has went up insanely much too, but that’s a different subject. What’s driving the price of horses up so much?


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

I haven't noticed this in my area. A bad year for hay lead to prices staying fairly low in the horse market here (eastern Canada). Not dirt cheap, but no big surge in prices either. Is the increase country-wide or just in your state?

Maybe more people staying home due to the pandemic is leading to more backyard hobbies in the US? That's why lumber costs are so high - people are doing a lot more "nesting" since travel is still difficult. My husband bought himself an Alaskan sawmill (basically a way to run your chainsaw horizontally and cut boards from logs) and milled a whole bunch of lumber from fallen trees on our property (we have 13 acres + a large woodlot that we haven't even touched yet). Buying lumber right now is crazy expensive.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

A year ago I thought the price of horses would drop drastically as people would be out of work, shortened hours because of the pandemic but just the opposite is the case, It is hard to find a good horse in this area, not so many for sale and the prices are high.
This just doesn't apply to horses, home are selling for fantastic prices, and puppies where they used to be about 4 to 5 hundred for a nice puppy, you can expect to pay from 15 to 35 hundred.
I guess people have money, I don't know if this is partly from working from home for some and they find they are saving from not going out each day to work, or because they are home they have more time for horses, puppies and relocating.
Perhaps after things return to more normal and folks are back working away from home they won't have as much time for hobbies etc and some horses will be looking for new homes.


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## Palfrey (May 29, 2020)

Prices look normal to me. You'll find a few that are way off the mark, but would consider that the exception rather than the rule. Of course, I look at a specific type of horse--it may be different across the disciplines.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Things are trending high here, and from all I've heard both locally and nationally, it's pandemic-driven. Working from home means more time and savings on food, clothes, commuting. For those with children, riding lessons and horse shows are some of the few activities that have continued mostly uninterrupted and get kids out of the house during fully virtually school.

We had to do some logging aligned with our current use plan last fall, and it was a fabulous time to have timber to sell! Even firewood quality trees sold well because so many people from out of state were here for long stretches during the winter.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

People with time off and money on their hands I'd say. There are those taking advantage. Cost for purebred dogs and cats is up along with more people than I have ever seen advertising their pure or fad cross animals.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

egrogan said:


> For those with children, riding lessons and horse shows are some of the few activities that have continued mostly uninterrupted and get kids out of the house during fully virtually school.


Now THIS we have noticed! Many coaches I am talking to say they have to turn away a lot of beginner children who want to take riding lessons because they just don't have time/enough horses. Parents are desperate to sign their kids up for something, and other sports are shut down or very limited.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

We've seen that here as well. The barns were technically closed but established students continued. No new riders. Then when things first loosened up the barns were the first to have activity and lessons filled up fast.


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## trailscout (Nov 23, 2020)

Good question, for m at least. Prices are way up in my area but that began prior to the pandemic. Hay prices are around $16 for a three string bale which before the increase in horse prices was often $25 per bale. I've wondered if that had an effect but the increase in horse prices seems to outpace the hay price.

I check out Craig's a lot, mostly for pickup truck prices and other stuff and have noticed that where there is usually an abundance of "work trucks" for sale at low prices there are hardly ever even one for sale now and when there is one, price is sky high.

I've wondered if people that have stuff to sell just don't want a bunch of unknown people visiting. So I wonder if places like equinenow also have a decline in people seeking to sell horses.

101 economics says scarcity is at the root of many price increases so if there's fewer sellers that would do it.

The other thing that just hit my foggy brain is DEMAND. With so many people moving to the country during the pandemic, certainly at least some would want animals and some would want one of them to be a horse.

That is the most compelling reason that has hit my mind. That would also impact the price of lumber. I recently purchased a place in the country and getting it set up properly for horses is requiring the purchase of a lot of building materials, $$$$. And who that lives in the country has no use for an extra old "ranch truck" sitting around? Demand again.

Demographic shift. That's my morning offering.


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Prices are way up here including horses. Lumber is way expensive also hay is about the same depending on where you buy it.

But a good broke western horse who's got a good handle on it. Like spins slide stop ,side passes, backs up good. Soft in the bridle. Registered in a recognized breed association brings from 2,500 to 5000 or more.

Hard to find well trained horses under 2,500$. Even young untrained horses are 1,500 and up. If it's gaited you pay even more. 

Hay prices are up also depending on where you buy. Feed is up 2 to 3 dollars per bag. Bagged bedding is the same price as last year,just bought 15 bags. 

Seems everything is going up in price gasoline here is 2.79 per gallon,diesel is 3.05 per gallon. There again depends on where you fill up ,on price it can be 10 cents cheaper in different towns. Back in October 2020 gas was at 2.00 or under.


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## marymane (Feb 2, 2020)

Noticed feed has gone up as well and trailers too. I don't know about horse prices in other areas but I think it's mostly the trail/pleasure type mounts that are going up in price because that's what everyone who decided they all want one now are going for. Just my guess. Don't know anything about show ponies though.

I've seen horses in their 20s, probably ready for retirement rather than more trails, and with nothing special about them being sold for 3k and up when before they would've been advertised as light riding/pasture pals....


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

rambo99 said:


> But a good broke western horse who's got a good handle on it. Like spins slide stop ,side passes, backs up good. Soft in the bridle. Registered in a recognized breed association brings from 2,500 to 5000 or more.


Ha. Not in my area. You'll pay closer to $7,000 to $10,000 for that.

Prices are absolutely UP in my area. And there are not many horses for sale. I have no idea why these things are. Even a recent spring horse sale we have every year, well-started registered green prospects were going $10,000+ and the number of horses being sold was less. It's nuts.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

Gas here is $1.26 litre which as about $4.78 gal This morning I saw an add for a Bernadoddle pup $3,750 crikey!! I can remember when mixed breed puppies were free.
A good horse here not especially trained for anything just a nice horse that can w t c runs around $7,500 to 10,000. and not a lot of them available.
Lumber is very expensive Sis wants to do some repairs etc. to fences, luckily we have some lumber and posts stored here and she can have it.
I often see on TV about families or businesses that are struggling to survive during this pandemic , makes me wonder how some have so much extra money and can spend it on pets etc.
We are retired so we are not as affected as many working families are,


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## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

I have heard a few people say cutting bred horses price are exceptionally high right now too. Not sure where they lived but someone was saying in their area that you couldn’t get a horse who is actually trained for cutting for under $30k in their area.


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Out of curiosity I looked on craigslist 3 different areas. Saw 4 horses for sale prices ranged from 1,500 to 4000. A few years ago craigslist this time a year had a lot of horses for sale.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

More people working from home, less competing activities , parties, movies, etc. People are discovering, rediscovering how awesome horses and riding is! Because of less demand for horses in the last decade or so, less were bred. Now more demand than supply. About the only kind of horse I could afford for my needs, well bred, show quality, is a foal or very lucky me, yearling. Grown & trained, I would be looking at $25,000 or more, gulp!


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## bayleysours (Apr 1, 2019)

Where I'm at (central IL) horse prices are crazy high right now. I keep 2 personal horses and usually buy and sell a couple projects too. I use to be able to get a young started project for $1,000-2,000 where right now I just messaged a girl about an unbroke 5 year old registered mare yesterday and she wants $5,000 for her.


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## ksbowman (Oct 30, 2018)

@trailscout , The pickup prices here have gone crazy. Especially diesel trucks. I could sell mine now for more than I paid for it 8 years ago. Horse, feed, hay are all up and lumber is crazy high. I'm afraid inflation is going to be crazy unless the government pulls in spending. All that said we're shopping for a another horse trailer. Wife says we can't take money with us so may as well get what we want. Who knows it may be higher later anyway.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

LilyandPistol said:


> I have heard a few people say cutting bred horses price are exceptionally high right now too. Not sure where they lived but someone was saying in their area that you couldn’t get a horse who is actually trained for cutting for under $30k in their area.



This is true. Cutting horse market is hot right now. Try to find a weekend, club cutter for under $25k..you can't, doesn't matter where you live.

The horse market in general is excellent, for now. I think it'll go down some due to high oil prices. Oil prices effect everything as we are seeing in the price of fuel, food, lumber, hay. It takes a bit for it to trickle down.

Because the market is so good a lot of people who haven't been breeding are breeding now and once again the market will feel the effects of too many prospects for sale. We seem to see this fluctuation once a decade.


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## StarfireSparrow (Jan 19, 2009)

I noticed that it seems like a lot of people are making up prices out of thin air rather than prices being commiserate with a determinable value. I bought my girl in January and while I was delighted to pay $2700 for a part-bred Cleveland Bay filly, I also felt like that was the closest to the mark that I saw in my searching. Rare breeds, babies out of proven performers or proven producers, and well trained horses are where I would expect them to be on the whole. However, I felt like I saw a lot of horses that were barely or poorly trained, badly conformed, or out of unproven lines that the owners wanted a mint for. My budget was $3500 max and I wanted something with good bone, draft cross being my first choice. I felt like this should have been sufficient for me to get a decent amateur level capable horse that was either not started or green. Boy was I wrong!

It seemed like these horses were available at decent prices in the Midwest, but they doubled or even tripled in price when you got east of the Mississippi.


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## COWCHICK77 (Jun 21, 2010)

StarfireSparrow said:


> I noticed that it seems like a lot of people are making up prices out of thin air rather than prices being commiserate with a determinable value.





StarfireSparrow said:


> I felt like I saw a lot of horses that were barely or poorly trained, badly conformed, or out of unproven lines that the owners wanted a mint for.


I saw this a lot in the late 90's when the horse market was as hot as is it is now.
People who weren't in the horse business thought they were going to jump in and take advantage of the high prices. They were buying up every sunken in butthole nag they could find and slapping a big price tag on it thinking they were going to make big money.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

I wonder if it has anything to do with the trillions of dollars the US printed and distributed this last year - from both parties, so this isn't a political comment. I'm retired and my income was unaffected by COVID, so just why did I get "stimulus" payments? When a lot of $$$$ gets printed without relation to economic growth, the extra $$$ doesn't just evaporate. So....too much printed money chasing too few goods?


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## addctd2horses (Jul 10, 2020)

I've noticed there aren't as many available, except at the kill pen. Bowie's horses in Texas are priced just as fairly as they've always priced, if not a little bit lower. Maybe the price of horse meat has gone down in Mexico? I watch Craigslist for fun and because of the breeds I like, and Bowie and Bowie has a better selection of horses every week. Many, if not most are under $1000 and he picks the best souls to try to get a family. I always marvel at how a short Irish guy can spring up bareback on every horse LOL The horses instantly know he likes them though, you can see the trust in their eyes.


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## Robert Atwood (Apr 27, 2021)

LilyandPistol said:


> Although I’m not in the market and certainly not selling my horses, I do enjoy perusing horse ads, and have noticed not only how high the prices on them are right now, but have also noticed the people talking about how high the prices are. What’s driving the prices up? Seems like the price of everything has gone up. Lumber, notably, has went up insanely much too, but that’s a different subject. What’s driving the price of horses up so much?


My Grandad was a horse dealer and gave me my first pony (registered Shetland) when I was four years old in 1948. From that year until 1959 that pony mare was worth $3,000.00. The recession of 1959 wiped out most of the value of the average pony or horse and after the economic recession the pony was worth $25.00. the values of horses and ponies are subject to a rolly coaster effect from the economics of the area and or the nation. like any market it is impossible to be able to time the upswings and downtrends every time. In 1971 I bought a farm and started raising Belgians which I could buy full sisters, registered 2 and 3 years old for $300.00 each 3 years later they were worth $5000.00 each and raising colts worth $7500.00 each, then the recession of 1981 came along and overnite they were worth $300.00 each...


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## Doobie (Apr 15, 2021)

addctd2horses said:


> I've noticed there aren't as many available, except at the kill pen. Bowie's horses in Texas are priced just as fairly as they've always priced, if not a little bit lower. Maybe the price of horse meat has gone down in Mexico? I watch Craigslist for fun and because of the breeds I like, and Bowie and Bowie has a better selection of horses every week. Many, if not most are under $1000 and he picks the best souls to try to get a family. I always marvel at how a short Irish guy can spring up bareback on every horse LOL The horses instantly know he likes them though, you can see the trust in their eyes.


I'm new here and mostly a lurker but since I'm near Bowie, I just had to respond about the little irish dude. The guy has springs in his legs to be able to jump up on those 17+ drafts from Amish country.


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## BethR (Feb 17, 2021)

Woodhaven said:


> Gas here is $1.26 litre which as about $4.78 gal This morning I saw an add for a Bernadoddle pup $3,750 crikey!! I can remember when mixed breed puppies were free.
> A good horse here not especially trained for anything just a nice horse that can w t c runs around $7,500 to 10,000. and not a lot of them available.
> Lumber is very expensive Sis wants to do some repairs etc. to fences, luckily we have some lumber and posts stored here and she can have it.
> I often see on TV about families or businesses that are struggling to survive during this pandemic , makes me wonder how some have so much extra money and can spend it on pets etc.
> We are retired so we are not as affected as many working families are,


My goodness! Woodhaven! We’ve been complaining about gas costing $2.79 a gallon .
The price of everything has gone up. No one can afford a new vehicle so the price of used ones have skyrocketed. Heck, maybe we’ll all need to shell out for a pricey horse, they’re still cheaper than cars 😐


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## addctd2horses (Jul 10, 2020)

Doobie said:


> I'm new here and mostly a lurker but since I'm near Bowie, I just had to respond about the little irish dude. The guy has springs in his legs to be able to jump up on those 17+ drafts from Amish country.


With the accent and how he jumps around, he makes me think of a Leprechaun! ROTFLOL

Now let me ask the view of the locals...What do they think of the place? As somebody who helps dog rescues and is aware of the good and bad rescues, I feel like he is even handed and fair in his evaluations and the variety and ages of horses he picks. Am I just wishful or is there somebody who actually tries to be fair? I know there's no way he can guess all the history of the horse. And certainly a starved horse is going to act much differently when feeling better, but as a horse person, it seems like he calls what he sees.


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## addctd2horses (Jul 10, 2020)

trailscout said:


> I check out Craig's a lot, mostly for pickup truck prices and other stuff and have noticed that where there is usually an abundance of "work trucks" for sale at low prices there are hardly ever even one for sale now and when there is one, price is sky high.


I'm not sure I'm right, but the last time I glanced at trucks, I thought they were no longer offering the dually in Ford or Chevy crew cab in the work truck model??? I remember saying that we'd keep our 2011 diesel work truck with 40,000 miles on it till it dies then. I know there's no possible way I'll pay 80K for a truck LMBO I LOVE LOVE LOVE that $37,000 Chevy truck  Maybe they just took it off their website. They did everything they could to convince us NOT to buy that truck LOL


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## BethR (Feb 17, 2021)

bsms said:


> I wonder if it has anything to do with the trillions of dollars the US printed and distributed this last year - from both parties, so this isn't a political comment. I'm retired and my income was unaffected by COVID, so just why did I get "stimulus" payments? When a lot of $$$$ gets printed without relation to economic growth, the extra $$$ doesn't just evaporate. So....too much printed money chasing too few goods?


Too much printed money always results in inflation. But prices are ridiculous...everyone seems to be blaming the pandemic. And there are still shortages among many items too, so maybe that’s a factor.
Agree about the stimulus payments. A couple making 150k a year dont need an extra $2800.


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## Lisa's Montana (Aug 7, 2021)

LilyandPistol said:


> Although I’m not in the market and certainly not selling my horses, I do enjoy perusing horse ads, and have noticed not only how high the prices on them are right now, but have also noticed the people talking about how high the prices are. What’s driving the prices up? Seems like the price of everything has gone up. Lumber, notably, has went up insanely much too, but that’s a different subject. What’s driving the price of horses up so much?


I can not figure it out. Horses are not only expensive it is almost as if they have disappeared just as dogs have become so expensive and yes scarce. How this happened is beyond me. Clothing I kind of get due to changes in trade but animals? Strange.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

ksbowman said:


> @trailscout , The pickup prices here have gone crazy. Especially diesel trucks. I could sell mine now for more than I paid for it 8 years ago. Horse, feed, hay are all up and lumber is crazy high. I'm afraid inflation is going to be crazy unless the government pulls in spending. All that said we're shopping for a another horse trailer. Wife says we can't take money with us so may as well get what we want. Who knows it may be higher later anyway.


I was listening to some discussion on the Fed, and inflation and the "taper tantrum' that happened when the Fed stopped pumping money into the market in 2011 (I think ). . . Inflation now is trickier becuase while it's impacted by gov printing money, it's also being jerked around by distribution and supply issues, worldwide. Complicated.
Some of it is hard for me , a layman, to comprehend. I guess the lumber prices are a distribution issue. we get a lot of lumber in the US from Canada. But, what's the snafu?

The truck/ car thing has to do with manufacturers not getting chips (electronic chip) from China in time. Makes me even more happy to have a car from 1999, . . . very few electronic chips! I bet I could sell my wee little Accord for more than I paid, too.
It will go back to normal-ish, soon.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

heck, an older 20 yr old horse here will sell for 2500 . Hard to find a nice little rail horse for less then 5 grand.


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