Imported Steeds Are Fast Track to Big Bucks for Horse Traders

Mary Garfield is proud of her American-bred horses, but she says she is adding rarer, foreign breeds because wealthy investors in search of a handsome steed and lucrative profits have turned up the heat in the horse business.

American Thoroughbreds are still the equestrian Rolls-Royces, attracting buyers from around the world, but the investment money being poured into the U.S. business has made the importing of foreign horses a lucrative line.

It is “the hottest thing going,” said Bobbie Lieberman, editor of Modern Horsebreeding and Professional Horseman.

A ‘Golden’ Investment

“People invest in horses in the same way that they invest in gold,” said Michael Nolan, administrative director for the American Horse Council. “Horses are an international commodity that is increasing in value. And they’re a little more exciting than a pile of gold sitting in a bank vault.”

Garfield, who for most of her 40 years has raised a standard mix of thoroughbreds, Arabians and quarterhorses, recently began investing in warmbloods--horses bred almost exclusively in Europe for Olympic-style competition.

“It’s not that I think it’s the only good horse. But I thought warmbloods were a good thing to get into,” she said. “I think there’s a market in this country for well-bred, healthy young performance stock.”

Big-boned and well-muscled warmbloods are bred mainly for jumping and dressage, a type of exhibition riding in which horses perform difficult steps and gaits on command of the rider. They include such breeds as Hanoverians, Trakehners and Holsteiners.

They appeal to people who would rather see their horse make it to the Olympics than stand in the winner’s circle at the race track.

In 1984, almost 5,000 horses were imported from overseas, about 25% more than the 3,923 horses brought over in 1981, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.

The numbers are relatively small compared to the rest of this country’s horse population--estimated at 8 million by the American Horse Council--but imported horses are commanding high prices.

“This is strictly for the wealthy,” said Lieberman. “We’re talking investments of $200,000 and up because this is very discretionary income. At the international level, it’s a pretty elite group of people.”

The total dollar value of the imports is unknown. The government does not keep figures because there is no duty on horses, Nolan said.

But he noted that U.S. horse exports, which numbered about 2,800 in 1984 or a little more than half the number imported, were valued at more than $200 million.

“People importing horses know what they’re doing and they’re in it to make some money,” Nolan said. “Nobody’s going to Europe to get a pleasure horse.”

Last summer, Garfield spent two weeks in Germany and Denmark looking for two young warmbloods to bring back to her farm in Saxonburg, a rural community where horses dot the landscape as abundantly as skyscrapers clamor for space about 35 miles south in Pittsburgh.

Garfield says there is “a little bit of snob appeal” in importing horses.

“There’s status involved with importing horses,” said Lieberman. “I’ve been told that having an asterisk before a horse’s name--which means a horse is imported--will add $10,000 to $15,000 to its value.”

Garfield already owned eight American-bred Trakehners before she traveled to Europe last summer. But she imported two 6-month-old warmbloods, anticipating that their foreign breeding will make them more attractive to buyers.

Not for Everyone

“If American breeders do successfully produce a good performance horse, they have to bring it to the attention of the people who have the big bucks to buy them,” she said. “But for now, they’re going to Germany and Sweden and spending their big bucks over there.”

Nolan warned, however, that importing “is not for everyone,” especially “not for someone who is new to the business.”

To a horse’s selling price--”$20,000 is probably the minimum value of the horses being imported,” he said--must be added shipping costs.

“You’re looking at $4,000 to $5,000 to get a horse from there to here. That’s a bottom-line figure,” he said. “And the health regulations are a real bear.”