The hard sell

Is it really possible to make money selling horses or is it more a matter of breaking even while enjoying the lifestyle? Stephanie Bateman investigates

- Stephanie Bateman

WITH top-class horses selling for seven-figure sums, some people expect there’s plenty of money to be made from dealing in horses. But as mid-level horses are likely to go for thousands rather than millions, how prosperous is the reality?

Sport horse producer Tim Brown believes it is possible to make money from horses.

“Look at the Schockemöhle empire — they wouldn’t be as big as they are if they weren’t making money,” he says. “It’s like a car or a house — if the fundamentals are right, and you spend time and money investing to improve it, you can make a profit.”

Tim and his wife Antonia specialize in young sport horses, paying on average £15,000 to £25,000 for rising four-year-olds from the Netherlands, producing them for a year and selling them as five-year-olds with a competition record for £50,000 plus.

“We buy horses with the correct breeding, the correct conformation and correct mechanics,” says Tim. “It’s then the horse’s training that increases its value-producing it to perform at a higher level and make it rideable so anyone can ride it.”

The pair usually turn over 10 young horses a year, training and qualifying them for young horse championships before selling them to competitive riders to take up the levels.

“When you add up our costs to run a horse for a year, you are looking at £200 a week for its livery, plus £100 a week for training and competition costs, so you’re looking at upwards of £10,000 a year just to keep that horse,” explains Tim. “We aim to make around £10,000 in profit per horse for a year’s work.”

All of Tim’s horses are for sale from the moment they are purchased.