Besides Free, what is the least you ever paid for a horse?

[Manes&Tails]

My cheapest horse was $175.00 back in 1973!

[4350833]

$1200 two years ago for a then 18 year old paint gelding with a... problem with the ladies. :lol:

Love him just the same, and have gotten a ton of confidence back by having him. I galloped in the field yesterday for just the first time! :D

[Manes&Tails]

$1200 two years ago for a then 18 year old paint gelding with a... problem with the ladies. :lol:

Love him just the same, and have gotten a ton of confidence back by having him. I galloped in the field yesterday for just the first time! :D

You must post a picture of him! So happy for you!:winkgrin:

[Simkie]

$300 for a 3 yo filly a couple years ago.

[Blue Yonder]

Plenty of free ones.

Cheapest price I paid? $450 for a Clyde/TB mare, back when meatman prices were a ton higher than today at auction.

[4350833]

You must post a picture of him! So happy for you!:winkgrin:

You know what, I only have one picture of him (from the day I brought him home). I will get some nice ones in a few weeks and post them up for everyone to see. We will be going to our first horse show together, probably his first all together, and my first in 10 years! WOO HOO! :D

[catknsn]

I paid $1 for 30-something toothless old Clover (the story was posted here a few years ago, can't find it now) just to "make it legal." I did get a new halter with her!

Of my current eight horses, four were free.

My latest rescue, Champagne Til Dawn, auctioned for $40 but we had to give the KB $250 for him. He's not mine though, he has an adopter.

My roommate got a sound, rideable, drop dead gorgeous, NOT OLD, winner-of-over $100K Alysheba daughter for $200 about two months ago. Crazy times.

[fourmares]

Someone paid ME $5K to take a mare! I think the least I've paid was $125.

[cu.at.x]

$700 for my first horse.

[cu.at.x]

Someone paid ME $5K to take a mare!

Please explain to me how that happened! :eek:

[catknsn]

Please explain to me how that happened! :eek:


Please offer a seminar on how you get people to pay you to take horses. I'd pay for that! :D

[CB/TB]

I paid $290 for my first horse( with a new set of shoes). I paid either (a) $75 for a hackney pony and a free goat, (b) $75 for a goat with a free pony, or, (c) free goat and pony -$75 delivery charge.

[BelladonnaLily]

I paid $250 to "rescue" a weanling colt from a trader type. He was ugly, wormy, and they said he was orphaned. We were guessing about 4-5 months old. We fed him and took care of him, had him gelded in the spring, and while he was still a bit ugly, he definitely bloomed. I sold him someone in the area who I believe still has him 13 years later. The last time I drove by his place, I saw him in the field.

And then there was the $800 I paid for the AQHA yearling filly who became one of the best horses I ever owned. She is now semi-retired in my field at 13, but she has deserved it.

[Melyni]

Just so I could say I bought it , it wasn't a 'loan'. I even made the seller sign a sales contract for the $1.00.
W

[Luckydonkey]

Lots of free ones over the years, but I think the cheapest one other than free was the $10 mule I bought at the auction.... best $10 I ever spent... next to the $400 I spent on my friesian/percheron cross...

[jeano]

I gave 500 bucks (his canner price back in the day) for the best schoolmaster pony that ever lived. He was burned out on being a lesson horse and needed a new job. Became a fabulous trail horse. This was in the early 90's. Two years ago I gave 750 dollars for a 6 year old TWH gelding. Idiot woman wanted him for a parade horse. He is a very smart, safe, willing, lets go out and see the world trail horse for me. Somebody put some dressage training on him. He can do many many things well and deserves a better rider.

[GettingBack]

$275 at an auction, because I couldn't let him go...

[HydroPHILE]

$150 about 6 years ago for a chestnut Arabian filly who was (at that time) unregistered, but rumored to have been royally bred. Come to find out, she WAS Arabian royalty and, with some DNA assistance, was shipped to a syndicate in France that owns her dam who were THRILLED to have her :)

[MardiGrasTimeStable]

$150 for a "devil" pony - a 5 year old P.O.A. (should have been a P-O-S) ungelded colt who wasn't even halter broke at the time.
Next from that was $200 each for 2 TB mares - lovely mares, still have both of them (and will for some time), 1 is competely unriddable and is strictly a broodmare, the other is quite the jumper if you have enough leg to ride her.

[Sdhaurmsmom]

$350 - in 1985, for my first horse (a neglect rescue)
$350 - in 2006, for my worth-his-weight-in-gold beginner's pony

Both great!:)

[FoxChaser]

$200 for my first horse in the '80s. I paid more for her saddle than paid for her :)

[chestnutmarebeware]

$275 in 2004 to a kill buyer at New Holland for Luna. Not tatooed, but we think she was a TB or TB/warmblood X.

I had her for way too short a time. Unfortunately, she passed away two years ago from an aneurysm. RIP Luna. I miss you.

http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/kmclaughlin21/?action=view&current=luna.jpg

[HydroPHILE]

Someone paid ME $5K to take a mare! I think the least I've paid was $125.

Someone paid me $1000 to give their guinea pig a home :)

[RU2U]

Back in 1987 we went to a reg. Quarter Horse (Troutman) auction. We came home with 3 horses: a colt for 110.00 a 6mon. old weanling filly for $95.00 and a 3 year old saddle broke mare for $800.oo. On the way home my boss at the time told me if I took care of the colt and trained him I could have him, at 18 when I proved I could afford him and could keep a roof over his head, she gave him to me. Turns out this was a whole planned thing and we actually went for my colt!

That's how I got my first horse. I was 16 couldn't drive, but I had a horse. Nancy was a tough boss. I cleaned 15+ stalls everyday that were prone to flood. We wheeled those wheel barrels 150 feet from the 45 stall barn. Had no tractor, but she had two gullable horse crazy girls.

RIP - Justa Vapor (Tober)
RIP - Nancy

[goldseeker]

The lease amount I paid for a horse was $50.00
I got her from the local livestock auction. She was a 12 y/o OTTB that had (minor) navicular. Turned out once I got her home and actually looked at her papers she had awesome bloodlines!

[strawberry roan]

$40 for a pony! :):)

[Sparky Boy]

$800.00 for an OTTB from some western people. Sold him a few years later for 10k ;) Bought him back a year later for $4,500. and now he's retired with a lovely family.

[Catalina]

negative $500.

I traded my horse for a weanling. My horse was more money, so we set up a payment plan. The buyer defaulted after making only one payment. According to the contract, if she defaulted, I got to keep the weanling, get my horse back and keep any money already paid.

[aspenlucas]

Tons of free ones. We got Frosty the Snowpony, now 40 years old in 1983 for $150. How much is that a year? $6? Great bargain there! She taught me everything I know. I paid $300 for my one superb broodmare, she is 3/4 percheron. I paid $450 for her sire, now a 13.0 hand gelding who is Perch/Welsh and the best lesson and jumper pony! My parents bought my now 23 year old paint gelding for me as a weanling for $250 back in 1986. I paid $300 for my dressage pony who is 14.2 and Paint/Morgan. I have gotten aLOT of good deals and they stay with me. I don't turn them over. But I also have a keen eye and good sense when picking animals. :)

[jengersnap]

Not a horse, but $200 for a mammoth donkey. What a cutie he was. Too bad he had issues with calves.

With horses, $500 for the best 25 year old standardbred I ever knew :sadsmile: Of course, they told me she was 15 and really underweight and wormy when I bought her, but there was no way they could have known that she was a decade older too. If any of us had suspected that, I may not have been riding her in her 32nd year, and she really did enjoy those rides.

We also "bought" Be, my current thoroughbred, for a gallop bill. I guess that's around the $500 mark as well.

Everything else has either been given to me or I inherit after their racing careers. I get grief from the other half if I try to outright "buy" horses. To actually buy the standardbred, I had to sell a thoroughbred and use the profit from that to buy her and outfit her. ;)

[JohnDeere]

[QUOTE=aspenlucas;3800824]I paid $300 for my one superb broodmare, she is 3/4 percheron. I paid $450 for her sire, now a 13.0 hand gelding who is Perch/Welsh and the best lesson and jumper pony! [QUOTE]

Totally OT but how did this broodmare come about?

13 hand stud. Full Perch mare. The mental images are priceless...:D

[TinkerBells]

$10 for a 3-month-old filly at an auction. Once she put on some weight and was wormed she was beautiful! Have no idea what happened to her dam, though. Never could find out :cry:

[pines4equines]

$1.00

[LexusBoBexus]

$500 in 1994 for a mare & foal; also included nice western saddle & bridle and sleigh/cart (had wheel attachments too) with harness; very sweet mare and filly from a man who was trying to get out of the horse scene

[Mtn trails]

$125 for my BLM mustang, Zephyr. I got her as a long yearling and she just turned 6 and is probably my best friend. She loves to jump so we've been showing in the hunters and jumpers the last 2 years, but we also do tons of trail riding. She looks adorable in the show ring with all the $$$$ horses towering over her (she's 14.2) and regularly beats the pants off them.

[aspenlucas]

[QUOTE=aspenlucas;3800824]I paid $300 for my one superb broodmare, she is 3/4 percheron. I paid $450 for her sire, now a 13.0 hand gelding who is Perch/Welsh and the best lesson and jumper pony! [QUOTE]

Totally OT but how did this broodmare come about?

13 hand stud. Full Perch mare. The mental images are priceless...:D

They said they used a ditch! I bought the pony as a three year old gelding. He was out of a small welsh mare and by a percheron stallion. They then bred him to their full perch mare before gelding him. They said they put her in a ditch and he climbed aboard. The mare was only about 16.1 though. :) Those two are some of the best horses I've had. The pony is priceless! Worth his weight, literally, in gold!

[Little Valkyrie]

$400 for my first mare who was worth her weight in gold, platinum, and every other precious metal out there. The other most amazing horse in my life was free. Proving you don't have to pay lots for a talented, well mannered, excellent horse!

[War Admiral]

$40 for a Hackney pony; $100 for an unreg. QH mare. Both at the feedlot auction.

Loads of freebies though, including New Boy!

[CanterQueen]

$1200 last year for a blue papered TWH with two world champions in his lineage. He's a nutball, but he's turned into a great trail horse.

[BEARCAT]

$125 for my BLM Mustang.
He is a great horse - took him Xcountry schooling this week end and he did super!

[Penthilisea]

I'm sure by now many of you are TIRED of hearing about my $100 QH. That included shipping and a nice extra tight halter! And I'm talking about 2 years ago, not 20, either! Of course, since he was moving in with yee famous $700 pony, it seemed only appropriate...
Anyway, Injin is 15 something, built like a TANK (or a loch ness monster, depending on your perspective) aged 28 or so, and the sweetest beastie you ever met. Bombproof, fairly sound, and loves to go on trail rides and eats ANYTHING. Loffs his blankets, and soupy mash and his friends, and being groomed and and and... everything! Never spent a better $100 in my life!

[mht]

$200. Cdn, and a two-four of beer, for a very nicely bred mare off the track!

[MSP]

When I was a kid I bought a very thin 16 hand QH for $25. Took my bridle to school and rode the school bus to where the horse was and rode him home.

one free STB 6 years old with harness and cart, still have him he is 35 now.

14 year old foundered pony $150, kids safe rides and drives!

All other horses I have or had were under $1000.

And I had someone offer me $5k to take three horses and keep them for life. I said no thank you.

[Coop72]

In 1969 (I know I am dating myself) my Brother and I went to a horse auction with $80.00 in our pocket to by "a star". We came home with a $23.00, one month old foal , that actually sold in the ring for $19.00. My Brother went up to the woman who had purchased the foal and he told her he would give her $23.00 for the colt, she said " sure, he'll probably die anyway". He did not die ( He passed at 20yrs.old, sound) and turned out to be the best amateur horse I ever had. He showed in good company at A shows and held his own over fences and under saddle, not bad for an overo paint from humble beginnings.

[Tiffany01]

15oo$

[partlycloudy]

800.00 (+gst) for a lovely hanovarian/tb gelding. pinch myself everyday!

[Halcyon Days]

well, 4 months ago there was a public auction for 11 abandoned horses found running loose, they were in horrible thin, neglected condition and absolutely wild as march hares. I took a 2 yr old filly home for $7.50, she's now doing well and coming along with her halter training. Today I got a call that a friend of a friend needed someone to pick up a nice Wap Spotted son that has pigeon fever, she moved to CA and can't get a health certificate with him being sick. He's 7 yrs old I think and not broke, but well handled. I paid $1 for him.

[fourmares]

Wow, I think getting paid $1,000 to take a guinne pig has me beat... it's a long story on the mare... she was a fruitloop... but absolutely beautiful.

[PaulaK]

$50.00 in 1970 for large pony and that included a bridle and delivery (in the back of a pickup) to the local boarding stable. I was a very "young" 16 yrs old, didn't drive yet and took a BUS to the seller's house.

[blakesbunch]

$250 in 2007 for a TB gelding. Owner was downsizing her barn. This horse will jump the moon if asked.

GB

[Watermark Farm]

I paid $1 for a draft cross yearling eight years ago.

Three months later, I paid $1,000 for castration and resulting infection.
Six months after that, I paid $7,000 for colic surgery and vet care.
Two years after that, I paid $3,000 for training because he kept bolting when I led him.
Two years after that, I paid $3,000 for a handful of lameness evaluations and xrays at a lameness clinic four hours away because he was horribly lame.
And then I paid for a lot of corrective shoeing.
And then I paid $1600 for a double neurectomy.
And now I pay to keep a 7-year-old pasture ornament happy at home.

My husband calls this my "$15,000 free horse." Ha ha ha!

[baylady7]

My guy cost $1 as a yearling- he was an unregistered lightly handled stud colt (and thus poorly mannered). You can see him now 20+ years later in my profile. He was quite the bargain.

Last year I bought an abandoned (by owners) 35 y.o., lame, retired event gelding at public auction for $10. We humanely euthanized him a week later and he is buried on the farm where he was living.

My Bengal cat on the other hand, cost a pretty penny, but he is a hoot!!! His step sisters are free barn kitty/rescues, and cool in their own ways.

[Iron Horse Farm]

When I was 19, I was shopping for my future hunter. I ended up with a starved Reg Arab mare in foal with a yearling at her side for $750. Quite possibly the best money that I ever spent.

[Sandy M]

Ah, inflation (and the changing market)

1st horse - 5 year old Appendix mare (7/8 TB, great-granddaughter of Count Fleet), about 15.3 - $650 (1969). In those days, a nice TB eq horse was about $6,500 (What's a WB?).

2nd horse - 4 year old green broke TB mare (unraced), grey, about 16.1 - $1,500. (1975)

3rd horse - 14 year old Foundation Appy gelding, 15.3 +h.h.Intermediate eventer but he'd been in pasture for three years, looked like a blimp, seller was desperate for money. Asked $2,200, I offered $1,200 - she took it. (1977)

4th horse - 9 year old 16.3 Foundation bred Appy gelding, Novice/Training Level Eventer, $3,500 (1980)

5th horse - 4.5 year old 2nd gen. App/TB, green broke, "pretty" - $2,200. Matured to 16.2. Sweet horse. (1991) He's the one in my profile, now retired.

Newbie, current mount - currently 4.5, about 16.2 and still growing, Foundation App/Arab, fancy mover, purchased as unstarted 2.5. year old. Let's just say, over $5K and under 10K. (2006)

Considering the prices I see advertised, I think ALL my horses are/were still in the lower end of the price spectrum. LOL

[Daatje]

$1.00 (yes, one dollar....bill of sale and everything) for an OTTB gelding, 14 yrs old. :)

$50.00 for my old Lady mare that I purchased as a teenager with my babysitting money. :)

[olympicprincess]

$500 for a sweet sound 5yr TB from OSU in 2005.... another COTHer has him now. :)

[Carnelian]

I paid $1500 for my second horse--my own money at 14. My father had originally purchased the horse for resale. Well, he "re-sold" the horse to me after marking him up $500 over what he paid for him (didn't know about it until a couple of years later). At least since I bought the horse I got to keep the $15,000 I sold him for 6 years later.

Can you tell I'm only slightly emotionally scarred 25 years later :mad:

[FatPalomino]

$2.50 for a weanling in rough shape at the auction, named Ollie for Oliver Twist.

$55 for an amazing weanling at the auction (2 .5 years old now and *amazing*)

$200 for the BLM mustang. He was an extra $75 because he was halter-broke. It was the best $75 we spent when, at the end of the day, we haltered him and loaded him up to go home rather than running him into a chute to load. ;)

$280 for a branded mare whose papers were gone (who rode like a seasoned reiner) and an injured appy foal at her side. Their adopter just raves about them, esp. the filly.

$500 for the imported, stakes winning (recently foundered) TB

$500 for the skinny old dude ranch gelding, who is as kid safe as they come and had been used for team penning and reining in the past.

The list just goes on and on....

And the Fat Palomino was given to me as a yearling.

[thatmoody]

$75 for an abused colt at a garage sale. My mother wouldn't leave without him, and he ended up winning a bit of $$ for me barrel racing. I had him till he died at 23.

[SuperSTB]

Besides the free ones...

$1.15 cents at an auction... then someone gave me $10 for a bale of hay to feed it :P

I also paid $300 at an auction for a grey mare. Paint pony was maybe $450.

[zooksuitriot]

$750 For My one and Only Zook . 2 1/2 year old Mustang Cross. Super intelligent and sweet. Love of my life. And I have gotten double digit thousand offers for him. Nope, never leaving me. http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/zook/DecemberJustaBitOfHeavenFarms033.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/zook/DecemberJustaBitOfHeavenFarms014.jpg

$500 for my little Overo filly APHA registered with a BIG name on her papers. Beautiful little mover, and the best of all the disciplines. And so gentle and willing. She is in her halter training. She will be 6 months on the 26th.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Paint%20Filly/DSC00031.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Paint%20Filly/DSC00041.jpg

$150 for a Ten Year old Mare AQHA wonderful mare, tons of sweet personality. Bloodlines that I have personally been around and worked with. I know people who bred her, and ridden with them for years. And actually knew her, when she was younger. She is still green.... but so willing and the pictures don't do her justice. With her bloodlines alone I should be taken in for Felony theft. !
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/stretch.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/stretch-1.jpg

Finally $60 for my Skinny Vinny. My TB Man who really had lived up to his name. Registered and the straight grandson of the famed Alydar.
He is a 16.1 chestnut boy, with the sweetest face alive, and the will to live.
He came to me at a skinny deathly 925lbs.

These pictures are first day, one week later, and two months later.
And still he is gaining.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Vinny.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Vinny1.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Vinnyface.jpg
One week Later
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/CIMG0382.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/CIMG0388.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/CIMG0389.jpg

And two months Later.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Justa%20Bit%20of%20Heaven%20Farms/DSC00114.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Justa%20Bit%20of%20Heaven%20Farms/DSC00104.jpg
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj189/JUSTAFAZERANCH/Justa%20Bit%20of%20Heaven%20Farms/DSC00121.jpg

And a Miniature I got just for boarding two other ones for a few days.

I lucked out.. I know. No matter what others think. I love my misfits. :D

[JohnDeere]

6 ben franklins for a skinny, ugly, unpapered, kidbroke chesnut gelding. "for the kids". Hahaha.

He gained weight and lost ugliness. Best teacher and friend and investment. Hes now packing beginner adult butts around the indoor several times a week!

[MSP]

I paid $1 for a draft cross yearling eight years ago.

Three months later, I paid $1,000 for castration and resulting infection.
Six months after that, I paid $7,000 for colic surgery and vet care.
Two years after that, I paid $3,000 for training because he kept bolting when I led him.
Two years after that, I paid $3,000 for a handful of lameness evaluations and xrays at a lameness clinic four hours away because he was horribly lame.
And then I paid for a lot of corrective shoeing.
And then I paid $1600 for a double neurectomy.
And now I pay to keep a 7-year-old pasture ornament happy at home.

My husband calls this my "$15,000 free horse." Ha ha ha!

It could have been worse! You could have paid 10k for him and then he would be a $25k pasture ornament! And if that isn't enough to cheer you up...

Think of The Green Monkey! The most ever paid at a public TB auction at 16 Million and he is being retired to stud with a total lifetime earnings of around 10K. :lol::eek:

I'll take a cheap horse any day! ;)

[affirmed]

I bought my first horse 20 years ago for $800....he was a 15.2 buckskin QH--grandson of Two Eyed Jack, and very green--had 30 days on him and THAT'S IT. Not a good match for a green rider, but he did teach me all about spooking, so there was that particular benefit.....I wanted a horse so badly I just kinda overlooked suitability. I think I did almost everything wrong with that horse....
Fast forward to April 2006, when we bought the fabulous Crabbet-bred Arabian mare Jodilee for a mere $1200, tack, equipment, tack trunk, et al included. She is 13.3, a beautiful bright bay, 2 socks and a star 14 year old, and the pride and joy of my 13 year old daughter's life. They are 4-H partners, and are truly becoming a team, took their first "first" last season....aiming for open shows this year as well, but my daughter's dream is to show Jodi in Arab shows one day. Maybe this year?? Does whatever you ask of her, can put ANYONE on her, sound, sane and wise, calm and steady (most of the time, lol-she's had a moment or two, like they all do). She is the "little" horse at the 4-H shows here in QH/Paint land, and everyone loves her. She is a GREAT walking representative for Arabian horse ownership. :) HUS, EQ, saddleseat, tried western last year, as well as dressage (and will continue that)--and my daughter wants to try jumping now. LOL! Worth every cent of 1200, now worth millions, and will always be a member of our family. When my daughter outgrows her (and she will--she is already 5'4", not to mention ability-wise), I won't, thankfully.....I am all of 5'2". Plus, my ability is probably going to stay about the same. LOL! :)

We will not mention here what I paid for MY Arabian mare.....also worth every cent--MY pride and joy, my dream come true....