How much are you willing to pay for your saddle stock?

[RoperAB]

About bloodlines
Doesnt garantee a great horse but it is a heck of a good indication.
You know I dont like aged events. But in a way we all should be thankful for them.
Thanks to them we have the bloodlines out there that we have today.
The horses that cant physically or mentally hold up, DONT BREED!
Its the same deal with bad conformation on a well breed horse. No good to put time into a horse like that because it wont hold up.
Guess it all depends on what you are planning on doing with the colt. But there is no way I can make a go of it selling/training $2500 Ranch Horses. I pay that much for prospects that are not even started yet.
If your breeding average horses and selling your just helping the canners in a way.
But then again when I think QH, I think 14.2HH, not much for whithers, small boned and small feet so I guess the showing influence can be bad to.

 

[EJ]

JB, your deal with selling that horse,"that needed"trainin reminded me of a deal I made a few years ago. The horse was a good looking 5 yr old that was plumb broke. The guy couldn`t get along with him so I went and helped them move cows and I rode him. The new owner said I`ve been rideing horses for 40 yrs and never been on one like him before. I replied, "you`ve been rideing horses for 40yrs and have been on 3 of them." Kinda got the message into him that the horse knew more then he did. They get along fine now.

 

[IL Rancher]

I am not overly concerned about spending too much money on a horse or anyhting really if it is what I need for the job and if it isn't way to much animal/machine or whatever for me. I always think back to my youth. My grand dad used to raise horses but these were race horses not cattle horses and he ended up giving one to my dad that was just not goin to do anything on the course... The horse worked out for what my dad did with horses (We didn't have cows or any livestock when I grew up, this was a pleasure/english horse). Well my Dad, god bless him, is the kind of guy that if he has something he has to have the "best" and went out and bought a warm blood and started doing the whole jumping thing. In 1980 or so he spent 10 grand on this horse. The horse was a great horse, everyone who rode it who could handle him said so... My dad would even place in things and he was not a good rider... I don't know why the horse ended up where he did but my Dad ended up selling him to the Chicago Police department and he turned into a riot horse... Last I heard he was still going strong, my dad even ran into him at a Cubs game in the early 90's.

So when I think of that I always know that someone like me, who doesn't have a lot of horse skills would best be served in not buying the most preformance orienated horse because I would never be good enough to get out of him what he is capable of. At the same time, buying someones green broke horse would also be a mistake..

 

[RoperAB]

Im a pretty big guy. I feel silly on any horse thats smaller than 15.2HH. Because of this I have been buying for myself QHs <with track blood>that are crossed with Thoroughbreeds with race track blood to get the size/conformation that I want.
These horses are just wired different than regular QHs.
What they would do best is barrel raceing or make great heading horses in team roping.
Now you can do other things with them and I am doing other things with them but they are wired so hot that it would have been just so much easier to have started with regular QHs.
The problem with showing <reined cow horse>is that its not the same as what you would do on a ranch. For ranch work you want something that has a big stride. Something you can cover lots of ground with whether you are just walking someplace or if your roping a calf that has turned back. Calves with age on them can run about as fast as some QH ponies!
Same deal with pasture roping bigger animals. Lot of difference between that and team roping a skinny Texas Longhorn Steer!
RCH is so popular around here that its hard to get a QH thats bigger than 14.2HH. To much cutting influence.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Texas Dept of Criminal Justice - more commonly known and the Texas Prisons have gone to 1/4 Perchron 3/4 QH cross. Reason being, most of the bosses are bigger and these horses can stand up to long days in the saddle much better than a strait QH. And if you aint ever seen a cross like that....OH MAN they are gorgeous creatures. Few years ago we went to the Prison Horse Sale. They hadn't had a sale in years, but had about 300 head to sell, from broodmares to saddle stock. They never expected to sell any for over 5 or 6 hundred dollars........the first one that went thru the ring brought 3600.00 and it only got worse from then on out. Even the young ones that hadn't ever had anything done to em brought huge money. Needless to say we went home without buyin a horse. biggest majority of them were sold to outfitters from wyoming. They came in with semi's ready to haul.
I think alot of the hooplah on those horses is the Texas Star that's branded on their shoulder. But they do make some awesome mounts.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Alot of good stock horses up here have a bit of draft in them-there's nothing takes it out of a horse like riding inmuskkeg all day-those draft crosses are big-strong and they keep their wits about them. Some of them are like a big cat tiptoeing over that boggy ground-it's no fun getting a horse stuck and having to unsaddle him in loon crap halfway up to your waist. Up here the horses have to be able to go where the cows go and just about every pasture has some muskkeg to cross.

 

[alacowman]

for just a good using horse with no special talents wouldnt want too go much over 2000 or so. ive seen ropers buy a decent rope horse and them win half or more of what they payed for them on a weekends worth of roping.

 

[theHiredMansWife]

Alot of good stock horses up here have a bit of draft in them-t

My grandpa-in-law had a Percheron stud out with his mares for years because he wanted to end up with horses that would cover ground as well as work cows.
He gave me one of those colts as a wedding present. He's certainly not the cowiest thing I've ever been on, but he's steady and has a lot of heart.
(And stands 17hh... I use a ladder :lol

 

[RoperAB]

Warm Bloods are just way beyond my means
I have looked at a lot of PMU type draft crosses. The problem is that the ones I looked at just seem to, well there not what I want. Usually they are just to heavy or they well they seem to be a QH on one end and a Percheron on the other. They just seem to have the worst possible atributes of both breeds.
Outfitters use them because they are cheap. They can leave them behind way up in northern BC until next season and they stand the best chance of surviveing, wolves, deep snow, etc. Outfitters really only need a dude type horse and they dont want to have much money tied into these types of horses. Or if they do put money into stock they are going to buy mules and bring them home with them at the end of the season.
Sure would be nice to have the money to get into warmbloods though. We are going to Spruce Meadows next Thursday. LOLs I know im going to be drooling over the stock up there.

 

[RoperAB]

BTW The draft crosses I was looking at were breed by people whos main concern was getting pregnate mare urine to sell. I dont want to sound like im putting down all draft crosses that are out there