YEARLING MARKET?

[dbaygirl]

I'm having to make a difficult decision to sell one of my horses. He is a yearling. How are breeders finding the market these days? I realize the market overall is soft, however, I do feel that there are always people who have resources and are looking for quality horses, no matter what the market is or the age they are interested in buying.

Do most breeders sell their stock as weanlings? What is your success rate in selling yearlings and how much does the pricing differ between the same horse as a weanling or as a yearling? Also, which advertising sites have worked best for you? Thank you.

[Hillside H Ranch]

In my personal experience I have had excellent success selling in-utero foals and weanlings. I find that yearlings and even two year olds are a more difficult sell, but things start to pick up when they are around three years old. I think the biggest problem for a yearling is that they are often awkward, and it is hard to get good video and photos. Many buyers are not educated as to what is "normal" for a yearling and can't look past the fulgy stage!
As far as advertising, I have my best luck with email sales lists to all contacts that I have. After that warmbloods-for-sale has been my best bet, followed by Equine.com (but not so much on dreamhorse).

Good luck!

[Dressage-ryder]

The past two weeks things have picked up for us. We have had two inutero inquiries and 3 offers on a weanling. We had someone "serious" about a 2.5 year old but then she vanished.

I have had the best luck with Warmbloods for sale and Dreamhorse.


Good luck!

[dbaygirl]

Thank you for your input. I realize that yearlings do have their drawbacks due to growth stage, however, this guy is gorgeous no matter what stage he is at. The worst stage for his mother's foals is around 8 months of age when their necks are very long. :-) I will try the links that you gave. Thanks very much for your help.

[okggo]

I have two on the market, one I'm advertising a little more aggressively (aka paying for sites, vs free sites) - I get about 1 inquiry a month. Tends to be a one line e-mail and never hear back. We had someone out last weekend to see one, and I hope it works out. We have someone else coming to see the other this weekend - so again my fingers are crossed. My point being - there is a market, it's just not huge.

[Signature]

We just started advertising a yearling actually and have had several hits recently. I agree with others that say it does seem to be picking up lately. And there are just some yearlings that are so awkward/gawky that they aren't marketable as yearlings, but some who are nicely developed can be. As someone said, there is a market, just not a huge one.

You definitely have to put paid ads on sites like Equine.com, Dreamhorse.com, Warmbloods-for-sale.com, and so forth with a GOOD picture and a GOOD video, and you'll ge responses. If you do text ads on free sites, you probably won't get much - you get what you pay for usually. :)

As far as price, it's ALWAYS best to sell them as weanlings. We usually get $8k-$10k and then it's a weird phenomenon - people won't pay much more for a yearling or 2 yo, until they are started at 3 and then you're looking at maybe $15k or 18k if you're lucky. We have nice horses going under saddle that people balk at $12k, but then people will pay $10k for a foal. Bizarre!!! But anyway, we are always happiest to sell them as weanlings, best profit margin, and then they are off your bill and your to-do list. :)

[VolteVT]

We do well selling yearlings - started the year with 15 and will have 4 or less by the end of the year. Most folks buy our horses as weanlings or yearlings. This has actually been one of the best years we've had selling yearlings, so I would say the market is good!

We do not really advertise but instead most of our clients come to us via word of mouth or as repeat customers, and we have the benefit of being a large breeder, so there are many (20-40) young horses for folks to see when they come to the farm. I will say that you have to have a good website with good photos and regular updates! That is our single best marketing tool. We also take the best youngsters to the breed shows and generate interest that way, although the main goal is teaching our students, not selling our horses! We've also worked to establish good relationships with top-notch trainers and refer clients to them if they are looking for horses already started under saddle (we sell by age 2, unbacked) and in turn they refer clients looking for youngsters to us.

Historically we have had a fall production sale in October, but we are transitioning away from this model as we prefer private sales. This October we will host our final auction.

[Waterwitch]

I am in a bit of a niche market - Irish Draught breeding stock - but have had no problem selling weanlings when we offer them at this age.

I have also resold yearlings that I purchased as foals (2 last year) - but these were also breeding stock. Not sure what market you are aiming for.

[dmalbone]

Eh, I'm sure I'm not indicative of the whole market right now :) but I'm actually looking for a yearling or two year old right now and have found much more luck with yearlings, so I'm sure that's what I'll end up with.

[ljshorses]

I sell most as weanlings. I very rarely raise the price from their weanling price until under saddle. Since I usually only have a couple left over from weaning I am just as happy at that point to wait until under saddle because then I can ask more for them. I do advertise the yearlings and two year olds on my website and occassionally elsewhere but I just don't spend the money advertising them at that age even though I am willing to sell them at that age.

[dbaygirl]

Waterwitch, I am aiming for the jumper or eventing market. I want a really good show home for him. Speaking of which, do you sellers personally check out the homes your youngsters go to? I have not sold a horse since I was a lot younger and he got a very good home. If someone wants to buy him and they live in the US or provinces away, how do you ensure your horse is going to a good home?? I live in BC, Canada. Have you had any bad experiences?

[WWEB]

We have had great luck selling weanlings and yearlings by Coronado WW and Noble Houston.
We don't raise the price much from weanling to yearling - maybe just a tad if at all. If they are a 8-10K weanling there is really no reason why they should be more as yearlings unless they really show us something we didn't see as weanlings. The price goes up at 2 when they are getting a little bit of a start and again at 3 when they are under saddle.

08' we had 9 foals and currently only have the 3 left we wanted to retain. We are keeping all but one from our 09 crop as some were frozen babies meant to add to the breeding program later. That said we have had offers on all of them but decided to hang on to them for now. The offers are reasonable especially considering the "soft" market.

We check references on every horse sold and we do our best to put them in good show homes who are capable of taking them to the level we think they will be capable.

Good Luck finding your guy a great home :)