Re:Endurance Horse Prices

[Kathie_Duggan@dta.state.ma.us]

     I have a story on this subject of endurance horse prices. Fourteen 
     years ago I purchased an 8 month old Arab colt for $400.  I trained 
     him, put a lot of time into him and he turned out wonderful.  I did 
     many competitive/endurance rides and many miles with him and he never 
     got below a 3rd.  I got offered $10,000 for him once and turned it 
     down without blinking an eye, you can't put a price on friendship. 
     Three years ago I purchased a 5 yo Arab gelding that had been 
     abandoned. I paid $2,000 for a horse that everybody in the barn where 
     I bought him from was afraid of.  They said he was crazy. He was 
     actually scared and didn't trust anybody because he was abused and had 
     only been ridden 5 times and one of those times was 1/2 hour after he 
     had been gelded.  I've spent 3 years training this horse, who by the 
     way is the sweetest horse that I own and whom I have a special bond 
     with. He's turned into one heck of a competive horse and next year 
     when we do our first endurance ride I know he's going to do great.  
     I've experienced both situations, a young inexpensive horse that 
     nobody had messed up yet, and a more expensive horse that had been 
     badly abused and neglected, and I wouldn't trade either of them for 
     any amount of money.  Oh and by the way, I did some research on my 
     gelding that cost me $2,000 and found out from the breeder that the 
     owners before me who couldn't handle him paid $25,000 for him.  You 
     can only imagine what the response from the breeder was when I told 
     her that I was doing Competitive/Endurance riding with him!!  She told 
     me his parents had been Top Ten Halter horses at both Scottsdale and 
     the Nationals for a couple of years and that he had been a Regional 
     Halter Champion out in the Midwest.  I told her hopefully he can add 
     on an Endurance Championship onto his record....she wasn't amused.  
     
     
     Kathie Duggan
     Duxbury, MA