# can you make money out of buying and selling horses?



## skye123 (27 October 2008)

meaning ponies from the welsh sales or private adverts etc for cheap e.g £200 or less and keeping them on rented fields etc? Friend has suddenly got this idea to do this so just wondered if it would work or would be a complete disaster


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## Starbucks (27 October 2008)

Maybe could be a disaster!!

I think you can make a bit of money if you do it as a hobby, i.e. buy a baby, have some fun and sell it for a profit.

My friend thought a bit like yours, she had some well dodgy ponies, she lost lots of money!


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## zobambo (27 October 2008)

Yes you can if you have the knowledge / experience. Renting a field though - if you are charged per horse / pony then you may find any profit gone.

It is not an easy way to make a profit, but as said above if it is a hobby, it is fun / rewarding bringing on horses &amp; finding good homes.


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## luckilotti (27 October 2008)

i had that idea, but i'ma keeper and one is still with me 11 years later !  the foal i bought who was to be a 'project' is now 5.....  i think you have to have a set time frame in mind, i know that with my youngster, it was a matter that i would get her to a set stage and sell her, then i decided to wait until she was back, then backed and ridden away etc..
as Zobambo said, if she is paying rent per horse, i would say she is wasting her money TBH.


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## skye123 (27 October 2008)

she already has the fields as she keeps her horses on there and it is pretty cheap and doesnt matter how many horses she has on it (think she said it costs her less than £150 a month or something) so that isnt an issue for her 
	
	
		
		
	


	





shes just rang me saying shes found a welsh pony for £75 so think shes going to see that. This may be interesting


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## PopStrop (27 October 2008)

I bought a small TB mare for £650 from a dealer a few years ago - one of those lorry loads of horses from ireland all lined up to sell. She just needed a couple of weeks of good grub n grass, her feet sorting and a couple of weeks of schooling. She sold 3 weeks after she arrived, for £2000.
We were lucky with her, the next one I bought was a TB mare for £900, who turned out to have a lot of issues and was far from a novice ride, which proved difficult in selling her. She eventually left a happy, healthy horse (after 12 months) for £1500 to a teenage girl who fell in love with her and suited her down to the ground. 
But after 12 months there was no profit! 
It depends how much you pay, what the pony/horse can do, how much work it needs/length of time, your running costs and how much it sells for.
Remember if you're buying cheap you probably won't be vetting but when it's time to sell prospective buyers might do so and uncover all sorts of hidden horrors like heart murmurs!

In the economy as it is at the minute, I certainly wouldn't be buying to sell with a view to profit.


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## Tia (27 October 2008)

She won't make huge profits so her turnarounds will have to be reasonably quick in order to reap the profits early.

I make large profits on my seller-ons, however my turnarounds are far slower, in that I keep my seller-ons for usually a couple of years before placing them on the market.


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## Tonks (10 November 2008)

Several things to think about here and you NEED to get a calculator out! To make any kind of money you need to recon: 
buying price minus how long it's kept for (expenditure whilst keeping it - rent will come out of this) equals selling price. 
Obvious stuff, I know! But, you need to think about the cost of buying the horse, then work out how much money you're going to spend on it before it's sold [not to mention your personal time as 'time is money'] and THEN work out the selling price [to cover these costs] and make a profit. I think you'll be surprised to learn that it has to be sold for a phenomenal amount to cover costs [and your time] and make a profit!!! Also, you need to think about:
*Are you experienced at spotting psychological or physiological problems in the horse - all of which could mean you keep it for far longer than intended (costs go up) or you can't sell it at all? 
*Are you experienced at improving these horses in some way to make them more sellable?
*You didn't mention acreage of the feilds - there's only so much space! If you have too many horses you may need to start buying in hay/concentrates which will eat into any profits unless you've got some way of reducing them - eg, hay given for free, etc!
*If you're buying babies are you going to sell them as babies? Therefore, improvement will be limited, other than age, so profits will be lower? If they're going to be around for a few years they'll eat into profits as previous poster mentioned.
*What sort of horse are you going to sell on? Different types/abilities command different prices.
*this economic climate is bound to affect the market.
I bought a couple of babies and I'll sell them on early in the spring but after the cost of keeping them and the endless hours I've put in, there's not going to be much in the pot at the end of the day! It's for the love of it! Even professionals struggle to make any money! But, if you're doing it for fun and can afford to loose some money then give it ago!


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