What horses sell for nowdays

Anyone wanting a nice middle of the road horse(and sometimes better) should absolutely go to their local Horse Rescue Org and then if nothing is suitable there, fan out to surrounding areas or even surrounding states. These facilities are FULL of abandoned horses and many of them are very nice equines. Ask the Vets too for tips on where to look.

You can pick up a lovely animal and it's worth it even if you have to trailer a few hours to get it home.

We are so full of abandoned horses here in OR that's its just a heart breaker.


LQ

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" Live in the Sunshine,
Swim the Sea,
Drink the Wild Air"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing." D. Duck

Melanie R with Toggs is kinda thinking about getting a couple more horses for hubby and kids- you might want to see if she interested.

Mexico & Canada are still slaughtering, and two of the goat slaughter buyers were there and filled a cattle truck each with horses. there is also a bit of a black market for meat for dogs on the raw diet, and at least one horse was going into the buyer's freezer. Just an FYI.

for people wondering about the fate of the Percheron, he was purchased by an old man (like 70+) who was wearing a custom satin jacket advertising a Suffolk Punch farm. I'm guessing that Percheron likes his new home.

I wish I could find a horse like that. Anyone got an extra, well broke horse they wish to practically give away in IL?

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

Around here you can find horses for free. People are giving them away!

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

Some of the prices listed on the auction site had an "H" after them and some had a "C" after them. I couldn't quite figure out what that meant as well as the actual price paid for some of the animals. It seemed they were selling slaughter hogs for the same price as feeder hogs?

There are a lot more horses being advertised here on Craig's List but so far most of them have been over the $1K mark. They don't seem to stay listed for long so one assumes they are being sold. I'm seeing more horses being ridden than before, that is - ridden for other than stock work, the cowpeople are still out gathering up cows with horses.

Its not just horses that are going cheap either. I was at the stock yards on Monday and saw 2 goats go for 5 cents/lb. 10 other goats went for 10cents/lb, and about 30 or so went between $0.20-0.50/lb, and they were nice good looking goats of various breeds and varieties. Even saw a preggers pygmy that looked like she'd give in less then a month go for $30. Just crazy! no money to be made in goats, thats for sure

Horses are generally a dead expense and quick to go in tough times. Around here they're giving some away and turning some loose when it gets too dry for their tiny pasture and the dream is over. With no animal control what do you do with large wandering livestock(pets) that nobody wants or needs?

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
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maybe i should go to the stock yard 5-10 cents a pound is good for meat when you cut it yourself

never tried goat , i suppse it isn't much different than their cusins deer.

I was thinking the same thing. Trouble is that anything from the stockyard I would want to give 2 weeks or so before butchering. To get out any antibiotics, hormones, wormers, etc that the goat might have gotten prior to going to auction. Which wouldn't be a problem except that I don't have any free pasture that I can "quarentine" until the animal is ready to butcher.

Quarentining being necessary since I wouldn't put an auction animal in with my normal herd until i knew they were free of CL, pink eye, or whatever else...

very young beef cows are going for about 80 cents a pound at auction here. Both part Angus.
My neighbor bought 2. One to be slaughtered this fall, the younger later. Both on pasture now.

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Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible

Joshie they are a dime a dozen in Illinois! We are located in central part and get calls all the time asking us to take in one free. We have large pastures and put up hay so I think we are on the top of the call list. Our equine only vet was out for spring shots and pulled out 2 note pages of free or very cheap horses from his clients looking for homes. Most were well taken care of, broke, and easy to handle.

I think it is happening more and more now. We had a lot of layoffs in this area and the bank repo rate on cars and houses is through the roof. Even our church summer camp which has always had a waiting list months before school was out has 30% of spots open still. Keep looking or PM what you are looking for and I will send some calls your way. Just this weekend we were offered a 2 year old paint filly - started under saddle and registered very nice. Also a retired pacer sound and sane. Easy to finish under saddle.

I know this may sound cruel, but I have a couple of horses here on the farm that I may very well put in the freezer. They either have conformational issues or lost total trust in humanity due to inhumane treatment by a trainer. I don't think I would have a problem eating them. Personally, I believe we need to look at the horse as potential food for the table and stop looking at them as a pet and placing them on a pedistal. They're livestock, just like cows, pigs, chickens, etc.

It woould definitely help with the population control and fewer would be found starving on dry lots.

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Joy at Secretplace Farm

Was just talking with the Brand Inspector here this morning and he's fixin' to send his horse South for a bit to someone that wants to use him for roping. He told us that it's costing him about $120 per month to feed because he has to buy all the grain and hay. He said even here he's seeing horses go cheap, but it's not the working horses owned by the ranchers and cowboys. It's the horses people bought because they thought it'd be fun to own a horse. Then they found out how expensive their "pet" could be.

Just send about 4 of those horses my way, I'll take em so long as they're rideable.

SE OK

The "H" stands for "head". So animals sold for, say, $80.00/h would be $80.00 for the whole animal.

The "C" stands for "CWT" which is short for "per hundred pounds". You'll notice that there is a weight listed for the "C" stock. So if you buy a 800 lb steer at $90.00 C, he actually cost $720.00 total. Market slaughter prices are given in cents per pound so anything that is around slaughter weight is usually sold per cwt and not per head.

There were a couple of horses at that sale that I hope went into someone's freezer. One was a black tobiano 3 year old filly who was so weak-loined she was swaybacked and so long/weak pasterned her pasterns were almost on the ground- and she'd not even been halter broke. She was so terrified she was visibly shaking and was striking and kicking at the ring men. But she was a pretty color, and had papers, so she probably went for a broodmare.

Last winter, a lot of people around here bought those unbroke $20 QHs and put them in the freezer. 400 lbs of burger for $20 is a super deal if you are out of work.

On the other hand, I have a big issue with people like Mr. Tired-Of-Feeding-Him. That pony had served his family kindly for 22 years and instead of a comfortable retirement, they fired him from his job and let him sell for kill price.

That's pretty much what we're seeing here, too. Good working horses are cheaper than they were a few years ago, but they sure aren't the ones bringing a few hundred dollars.
In fact, we just paid $1000 for a good, kid broke horse. We've never paid more than a couple hundred for a horse and in this depressed market we paid through the nose! lol

Ah well. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
She's worth it and then some.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

I honestly can't imagine buying a horse at an auction. Theres too many things that can be wrong, and them be full up on bute and acting peachy fine, or a million other things. I just can't quite imagine doing that. Not to say that you can't get ripped off buying a horse from an individual but you have more time to look, get a vet check, etc. Honestly, most horses IME that are sold at an auction there *IS* something wrong with them - ie, theres a reason they couldn't be sold by the individual.

All that said... I just poked around on farmanddiary at horse prices, and while they're definetly low, they aren't as bad as that. Of course, we still have the sugarcreek auction around here AFAIK, and are close enough to canada that horses can still get shipped up there for slaughter, which helps keep prices up (vs being down in kentucky/virginia/florida/etc where you just don't have that option).

We bought our daughter an Arabian show pony ( pony club horse). Cost us $2,000 and I think that was a bargain. Well trained horses are definitely still pricey and probably always will be.