Dave
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Haven't bought a horse lately have you?
The joy was short-lived
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Travlr
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Nope... but I'd bet I could buy a good ranch horse for less than an atv without much effort.
The one I bought for $450 had some high powered breeding. Nice little yearling from a guy that normally sold his yearlings as soon as they were born for $4500. When was that year that horses went in the toilet... '07? He had two big ranches buying everything and they both opted out of their deal that year. The yearlings ended up going through a sale barn. The high he got through the auction was $850. One of the yearlings went for $150. In SD you couldn't give a horse away. There were all kinds of abandoned horses, and I saw one in a ditch that had been shot, one in the foothills off a dirt road, and another in a parking lot for a hiking trail. I shoulda bought them all.
Dave
Well-known member
Well this isn't 2007. I know it was a shock to me too. That yearling didn't become a solid experienced ranch horse that you could rope off of, ride anywhere, and do all the things you need a solid ranch horse to be able to do over night. That takes 6 years or so. You fed it and spent a lot of hours working on it to get it there. A family who raise good solid ranch horse prospect near here sells their green broke 2 year olds at a local bull sale. This year the geldings averaged over $12,000 and the mare just under $10,000. My neighbor has half a dozen mares. He sells the broke but not finished horses for $8,000-$10,000. The 2 cow sale I go to will run in a few loose horses nearly every week. Any thing they "claim" to be broke to ride that looks to be sound will bring $1,500-$2,000. Unsound horses that have any size and flesh to them bring around $500-$600
That's some pretty creative accounting.
IMHO saying you bought a riding horse for the cost you paid for a unbroken yearling is the same creative accounting that some use to say they only have the same cost in the cow as what they paid for it at weaning.
Or their house only cost what the kit cost.
How many hours were spent breaking It? How much money could you have made if you used that time elsewhere?
How much feed cost did you have from the time you bought it until you could ride it?
Travlr
Well-known member
Yeah... I know people that buy horses for thousands too. They don't even blink. They also buy high priced bulls and some have white fences going up the drive and they owe on a lot of loans even though they make a lot of money... not by raising cattle. I also know other guys, one that raises high priced horses and lives in a manufactured home and is a plumber by profession. I've been offered decent horses for free, and turned them down. I've also been offered horses for lots of denaro, and turned them down. I'm not saying I can walk over to the neighbors and buy a horse for nothing... but if I hang out in the right spot at the right time, like I have in the past, I can get lucky. Some of the best deals I've gotten have been on stuff I wasn't interested in buying... until the price became attractive.
Managed luck is something I do, just like you have things you do well.
Good ranch horses are expensive, depending on what you think is a good horse. SxS's, atv's, and horses all have their place on a ranch, I've never heard someone say they wish they hadn't bought a SxS because they never use it. Once you get one you'll wonder how you ever made it without one.
Named'em Tamed'em
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He hasn't been to Red Bluff Bull & Gelding sale. Dogs are 3k plus.
50/50Farms
Well-known member
Best horse I ever had run me $1,100 when I was 13 years old. My sister got one for $6,000 a few years ago and it was truly a steal for where he came from. My great uncle bought one at auction about eight years ago for well less than a thousand, sold him for I think $1,800 or maybe 2k after he got some condition on him and a little work on him and then he saw that same horse turn up at a cutting horse deal in Oklahoma where somebody gave about twice that again thereafter. A friend of mine had one last summer I'd have loved to buy off her that wasn't worth what she ended up selling her for most likely, and a girl my buddies pal around with is trying to get $25k out of her daddy for another barrel horse since the last one that cost her $32k didn't work out.
Horses are like anything else, there's a difference between value and worth.
Horses are like anything else, there's a difference between value and worth.
Dave
Well-known member
Last year a dog sold there for $45,000. That dog was here on my place with her owner about 3 years ago. She was a young dog at that time and didn't know too much.
probably is and it has it's place, but there's too many things you can do on a horse in my situation that can't be done on an atv for me to think I can replace a horse with an atv
I could buy at least 5 to maybe 10 horses for the price of a new quad. Why are we talking about quads and horses?...all you really need is a "good loud horn" for 500 acres or less...train and provide treats....cows will come to you...and step right inside your big luxurious corral. Only Ted Turner, with hundred of thousands of acres... needs ATVs and range horses. I can hear the flax and opposition coming ....but you're not a real farmer. I use my body and/or my plated farm truck, 10 ply tires and drive out if i need to do projects farther way. Don't buy steel (toys) or useless animals (pets).
ATVs are for trailriders and horses are for Yellowstone want-to-be's. There I said it... let's do this. 
Travlr
Well-known member
There are people in the world that like to brag about how much money they spend. Some of them can afford big prices and some just get caught up in the frenzy.
No one that buys a Lamborghini intends to drive it at it's capability unless they are so rich that they own their own racetrack. People that buy high priced tennis shoes do it for bragging rights. Horses and dogs are the same. Is a $10K horse or dog really worth the price to chase cows around? Not to me. I pencil out the value of my cows, why not a horse or dog? Inputs are inputs.
One of the things I've learned in selling is that if you price something too low in order to sell it fast by giving someone a good deal... a lot of people will think there is something wrong with it. Sometimes the best thing to do is raise the price. You can always negotiate down but it's pretty difficult to negotiate up.
Dave
Well-known member
One of the things that always amazes me about this board is how small the world is some people live in and how they thing the rest of the world is just like theirs.
50/50Farms
Well-known member
That's uh, that's kind of ironic, Dave.
chevytaHOE5674
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Little Joe
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Best horse I've ever owned I bought for $400 saddle bridle and all, weighed around 800 when I bought her and when she filled out she weighed 1200. Bought her from a guy who bought her for his teenage daughter who was supposed to care for her, she was about starved and had rain rot when I got her. I took her home and hid her in the back pasture with plenty of grass, bathed her with iodine to kill the rain rot. Once she filled out she made a dandy, I could rope from her, work cows and halter break show calves with her. I was asked about selling her later and priced her at $2000 but wasn't serious. Her only down side was you couldn't hardly put her with other horses because she would bully them.
IMHO you have things bassackwards
I don't feed my dinner treats.
Only thing that get feed treats is pets.
If you are training them to come and reward them with treats that is a pet.
I would rather deal with an entire herd of head hunter cattle. Then deal with someone's pet cows.
To me the biggest threat to my health and safety is a pet cow how has zero respect of my personal space.
I can't hold my tongue ( fingers) )any longer. Whoever said they could buy 10 horses for the price of a new ATV? With prices for 4-seat side by sides approaching $20k, I can buy 80 cows that wean me $750 calves every year, But, you could not buy ONE of @Jeanne - Simme Valley 's cows, or Dan's Charolais, for that. A finished heading or calf roping horse that could take you to NFR is gonna be $100k plus. $80k plus for a heel horse of that calibre. 1D NFR barrel hose is gonna being $120,00 and up. A cutting horse that can compete in NCHA will be 7 figures. When you buy a working cow horse....barrel horses, roper, cutter, ranch gelding....90% of the price you are paying is for wet blankets...time in the saddle. Bloodline accounts for the extra money if you are talking mares or stallions. Last sale I went to, grade geldings brought these prices as much as registered did. The only papers that matters at these sales, is the recorded earnings in the respective competitions.
If you do NOT use horses in your operation, then your opinion means about as much as someone who has never owned or been around a cow's comments would be on one of the cattle threads.
If you do NOT use horses in your operation, then your opinion means about as much as someone who has never owned or been around a cow's comments would be on one of the cattle threads.
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Travlr
Well-known member
Well that's a little rough...
There's all kinds of experience here and some people have theirs with inexpensive horses that work just fine and others with nothing but the cream. I'm no chef but that doesn't mean I don't have a cultivated palate. The difference between an expensive horse and another, just as you say, may only be a matter of degrees and time in the saddle. That doesn't mean our cheap ponies don't earn their keep.
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