What we've learned running an equestrian marketplace — on buying safely, breeding well, and the paperwork nobody explains.
30 articlesUpdated 5 Nov 2026
Buying7 min read
A pony can cost less than a horse to buy, but the quiet, experienced pony a child needs rarely does, and the farrier, vet and livery bills do not shrink with it. What published figures exist, the laminitis risk, outgrowing, and what welfare charities say about a pony as a present.
Breeding7 min read
Three base colours, two genes, and a passport that records what someone saw. What chestnut, bay, the dilutions, grey and white patterns mean for a buyer, and what a DNA test can tell a breeder.
Buying6 min read
Mares are moody, geldings are easy: that is what the yard says. What the studies found when they compared mares and geldings, what heat does and does not explain, what a gelding can still hide, and what sex does to the price.
Buying7 min read
15.2 hh is 157.48 cm, not fifteen point two. How the officials measure a horse, an exact hands-to-centimetres table, why a tape reads more than a stick, and where the pony line really sits.
Breeding7 min read
Everyone says 340 days. One study of 433 pregnancies found viable foals from 315 to 388. What moves the date, how to work out a foaling window, why 1 January matters, and when the scans fall.
Health & vetting7 min read
Call the vet at the first sign, including the quiet ones: eating less, fewer droppings, a dull horse. What the REACT research found, what to note before the vet arrives, and why a first winter raises the risk.
Buying7 min read
Nobody publishes saddle prices, so here are four makers' own lists, what a fitting and a re-flock cost at named saddlers, what to check on a used saddle, and who is actually qualified to fit one.
Health & vetting7 min read
A five can mean moderate or obese, depending on the scale. The Henneke and 0 to 5 systems, the cresty neck score, why a winter coat means scoring by hand, and what a score says about laminitis.
Buying7 min read
Breed lists name much the same handful every time. What the research says a breed predicts, what the breed societies themselves claim, and why age, training, size and a proper trial decide a first horse more than the label.
Health & vetting6 min read
Weighed on a weighbridge, UK riding horses averaged 545 kg and the weight tape read them 7–8% light. How to get a real number for a dose, a ration or a trailer, and how to track it through winter.
Buying7 min read
Everyone says 25 to 30 years. The studies that counted deaths found medians of 14 to 19. What a horse's age means for its working years, how far to trust the age you are given, and what you take on at the end.
Health & vetting7 min read
Mud fever is a pattern of scabs with several possible causes, from bacteria to leg mites to sun-sensitive white skin. What sits behind it, when the leg needs a vet, and how to prevent it without washing the legs raw.
Health & vetting7 min read
The worming calendar on the tack-room door may well be out of date. What the current guidelines say about egg counts, tapeworm and encysted redworm, who may sell you a wormer in your country, and what to ask your vet.
Health & vetting7 min read
About 2% of bodyweight a day, which is two tonnes of hay for a 500 kg horse over a six-month winter. The floor you should not feed below, what feeders waste, and what the published hay prices make the bill.
Health & vetting7 min read
A healthy, unclipped horse copes with far more cold than its owner. What the research and the welfare codes say about clipping, age, shelter, wet and wind, and why over-rugging is a risk of its own.
Health & vetting6 min read
A trim or a set of shoes, every few weeks, whether or not you rode. The only recent survey prices, what moves the bill, how often the farrier comes, and who may legally shoe a horse.
Buying5 min read
The number on the price list is rarely the price of riding. How schools price lessons, how to compare them per ridden hour, and how to tell a properly run school.
Buying6 min read
The monthly fee is only half of it. What full, part and self-care boarding include, the extras that turn up on the invoice, and what a boarding contract should say.
Transport & paperwork5 min read
The per-mile rate is the easy part. What a horse transport quote should include, what a transporter has to be licensed for, and who carries the risk if the horse arrives lame.
Buying5 min read
There is no average price for a horse, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What actually sets the number, how to read an asking price, and how to answer an offer well under it.
Buying5 min read
Livery, feed, farrier, vet, insurance and the invoices that arrive on their own timetable. What a horse costs every month, and which of those numbers you can actually move.
Breeding4 min read
Licensing and performance testing measure two different things, and neither measures what most people assume. What each one proves, what it does not, and why winter is when it gets decided.
Breeding5 min read
The stud fee is the number everyone quotes and the smallest part of the bill. Here is the shape of a whole covering season — vet, transport, keep and the contract terms that decide what happens if your mare does not hold.
Buying6 min read
A holding deposit is the one payment people send before anything is checked or written down. The order the paperwork and the payment are supposed to happen in.
Breeding7 min read
A stud fee is the smallest number in a breeding transaction and the only one most adverts mention. What the fee has to cover before you publish it.
Selling7 min read
Most adverts that get views and no enquiries are not overpriced — they are under-informative. What buyers screen for, in the order they ask.
Buying6 min read
Loaning a horse is the most common arrangement in equestrian life and the least often written down. What the agreement has to settle before the horse moves.
Health & vetting5 min read
A vetting is an opinion about risk, not a certificate of soundness. The five stages, what is excluded unless you ask, and how to read the report.
Transport & paperwork5 min read
The passport proves identity but does not authorise a movement. What each document is, who issues it, and the order it has to happen in.
