Horse price formation what it is worth - PART 1

In nowadays, the pricing of a sport horse — specifically in Europe, where sport horses for the entire global equestrian industry are actually bred and produced — follows a very simple logic. A modern European sport horse simply can not cost less than a certain amount.

If the horse was raised anywhere in Europe — Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, or even in the furthest corners like Lithuania, Latvia, or Hungary, where horses are also bred and kept — it cannot be free. Even if you own a huge piece of land, a large farm, and have been doing this for years, the horse still has costs attached to it. . Always.

On average, keeping such an animal, even on your own private farm, will cost at least around €10,000 per year. Minimum. If you go extremely cheap, maybe €5,000. So what does that give us? It means that a five-year-old horse cost is a minimum of €50,000. Realistically, even €60,000, because before that there is also a year where the mare carries a foal for 11 months, and the mare herself also has to be bred and maintained.

Or, if the horse lives on some remote farm with a lot of land where you barely feed it, it survives only on grass growing on land inherited from your grandparents, you never invite a paid professional — no farrier, no veterinarian — and buy absolutely no feed, then even in that situation the operational cost of simply existing next to this horse will still be around €5,000 per year. As taxes, electricity and food for human that looks after the horse - all are present.

€5,000 per year is the absolute bottom of survival-level horse maintenance in Europe. So eventually we arrive at the sale of a five-year-old horse. It should cost at least €25,000 simply for its existence not to become a financial loss for the owner. But realistically, more like €50,000–60,000, because €10,000 per year is simply a more honest number.

And the buyers, if they saw a horse that truly cost only €25,000 total by the age of five, they would not buy it even for €2,500. Because the horse would look and behave far from their expectations. Hooves grown almost to its nose. Rough coat. Untouchable because nobody touched it. And if somebody does touch it — well, that human being also needs to eat.

Nobody works for free.

So the base cost of a horse in Europe is not something theoretical. It already exists. It is €10,000 per year. €5,000 is the absolute bottom.

Lower than that means somebody already has financial losses out of it.

If a horse costs less than €10,000 per year of its life, it means that somewhere along the way this horse already caused minus experience to somebody who bred it, raised it, or worked with it at some stage of its life.

It already brought disappointment. Negative emotions. Financial loss. Frustration. Regret. Some form of unhappiness. Because it failed to hold market value at the level required for its existence. Most horses which are being sold and bought today fall into this category. So when you go to look at a horse priced below €10,000 per year of its life, you are already going to see an animal that has made people unhappy somewhere along its path.

Even if the dealer currently selling it to you is personally happy, making money on it, explaining what an amazing deal €10,000, €15,000, €20,000, or €25,000 is for a six- or seven-year-old horse. Do not forget that before this dealer, there is an entire chain of people who were even more unhappy, because they let this animal go at a loss for themselves so that eventually it could end up in front of you.

So why do you think that if this horse already made other people unhappy, it will suddenly make you happy? Think about that.

The buyer's degradation

Here we want to talk about the process every horse owner has to go through in life — buying and selling horses.

We have been breeding, producing training and ..... yes - selling sport horses not only for many years, but decades now.We have been at both ends of the stick. We bought horses privately, from big places and small, through auctions, even through live sales in UK some years ago, where you get cobs and hunters and occasional race horse mixed with sheep.

What has changed?

We will tell what we see and quite possibly you will recognise something.

Just yesterday, just one single day, about 20 people contacted us about buying a horse. Almost every conversation followed the same exhausting and irrational pattern and ended nowhere. This is no longer an exception.

It has become the norm. On one side, there is the buyer with endless questions, endless inspections, endless suspicion:
• "Why is it expensive?"
• "Why is it cheap?"
• "Why did the horse compete there?"
• "Why did it not compete somewhere else?"
• "Is it healthy?"
• "Why are you selling it?"

And so on for hours. When all the questions were patiently answered, the person disappears without thank you or offers a fraction of the price.

Which is equally annoying. Of course, we do not expect everyone who asks to buy the horse. But we also remember the times when people conducted themselves with more dignity. In less anonymous, less internet times, people knew that how they behave today will impact relations in the future. If you are a pain with people today, most likely there will be less opportunities for you tomorrow. Not nowadays, everyone is free to message everyone with no consequences.

Earlier people who were buying horses were mostly horsey people themselves. Most of them were likely to be sellers at some point also. They respected the seller as their equal. They intuitively sensed what is ok and what is not. Where are the politeness and common-sense lines not to cross. Just think about it this way. Before you were always shopping in your local area. No one would travel hundreds of miles to try out a horse. Or even fly to another country — to combine touristic and equestrian interests. You did not want to annoy people you know. You did not want to get a reputation as a difficult person to deal with.

Nowadays there are no such limitations. It is not a problem to arrange a whole travel adventure to try out a horse. And to see the process as checking out another car model. Treating all involved, including the horse, as sales managers who are just happy to entertain you in the hope to get some money because at the end it really is their job.

It seems today horses are viewed by buyers as any other kind of goods on the market. Like a car, for example. If you are choosing yourself a car, you go to the showroom. If it is an expensive brand — they bring you champagne and Swiss chocolates in the process. You test-drive one model, another model. Then you go away without any obligation whatsoever. To “have a thought about it”.

Do you see the problem?

People who are probably never selling horses themselves, who got some money for this fun, not necessarily a large sum. They are like shopping for a new car, not a living soul. And are doing it in a professional showroom, not with people have personal relations with the “sale object”. And another complete piece of nonsense is this idea that if a person bought a horse and paid money for it, then automatically they will care for it properly, understand how to manage it, understand what to do with it, and behave responsibly toward it. Personally with this particular creature and its demands.

That is absolute nonsense. Money mostly gives people another illusion that now they have the right to demand, check, try, question, pressure, negotiate, destroy everyone’s brains, and then still leave because "they are not sure." The whole crowd believes that the buyer is always right.

They see the picture. They want the result. They ask whether it can be bought. But they can not complete anything. Like zombies. The horse buyer world has degraded so badly and become so full of internet idiots, irresponsible people, lunatics, people who understand nothing, have no real connection to horses, or have simply lost touch with reality completely, that it becomes harder and harder to meet with those rare cases where you are dealing with a normal person.

A person who genuinely wants the horse. A person who understands what and why they are doing. Meeting normal people in this zombie horse-buying apocalypse becomes really rare. So a completely natural reaction appears: to stop dealing with it altogether. And instead to create a completely different approach to the question.

A different approach to how horses can move between people. What should happen to a horse when it is time for it to continue its life with somebody else. The entire seller-horse-buyer system is rapidly degrading.

It has not completely collapsed yet. But it is clearly moving in that direction. And as far as we are concerned, we are already out of it.

Horse price formation and outcome - PART 2

Of course, it also has to be said that the horse itself, the animal itself, has absolutely nothing to do with any of this. The horse does not care at all how much humans imagined it is worth. In exactly the same way it does not care how much petrol costs, how much food costs, what your taxes are, or about money in general, which today functions as the equivalent of everything.

The horse does not care about any of it. It is what it is born. But this is how the market reflects reality. And of course, this also affects what the animal looks like and what it is capable of doing. And this is where we arrive at a very interesting situation. Because on one hand, the horse should theoretically cost a lot. First, because it’s production costs were high. Second, because it does interesting things that make humans happy — for example, jumping high, or being willing to ride and work with a person.

But at the same time, it cannot actually hold that market value. Because… well. It just doesn’t work out. So in the end, what exactly do you want? You see a horse that you like. You are watching the horse jump. You want to unite yourself with it somehow. You are absolutely convinced that you can do it better. Fine.

But what are you actually offering to the person who currently has this horse? Mostly, you are simply offering whatever you personally have available. And that has absolutely nothing to do with what it cost for all the previous people to achieve the thing you are now staring at, wanting to become part of. And then people invent all sorts of excuses for themselves.

Like:
“Well, she has to pass x-rays, i only want to jump 1 meter occasionally, but x-rays must be perfect, I don’t want any risks.”
“Well, I need to be sure about certain things.”
“But how do I know she will go well with me?”
“And what if she doesn’t?”
“These are such huge risks for me.”

Well yes. If the risks are too huge for you — then simply do not get involved. Because the question people ask is usually not based on what something objectively costs. It is based entirely on their own personal situation, which has nothing to do with the actual reality behind the horse.

You have €30,000 — so you say: “I want to spend €30,000.”

You have €3,000 — so you say: “I want to spend €3,000.”

You have €300,000? Well of course, people still meet the corresponding horses at every level.

The person who can spend €300,000 ends up with the horse that somehow carries them around and makes them happy occasionally.

The person spending €30,000 usually ends up buying a six-year-old horse that already made all previous people unhappy by losing half of its market value along the way.

And the one spending €3,000? Well, obviously that one starts biting knees off immediately, throwing people off, collapsing into various disasters — and still the buyer is surprised.

Because they also “carefully selected.” Did a hundred x-rays. Ten vettings.

Checked everything. And still the horse is €3,000. Why? Because all the previous people already concluded that the situation was hopeless, accepted endless financial losses on it, and finally agreed to get rid of it for that price. That is why it is €3,000.

And none of this passes without consequences. If ten different people were involved with this horse — the original breeders, the second breeders, the first resellers, the next resellers, the riders who tried to make it work, the people who tried to build a relationship with it and live happily with it for life…

Then another layer of dealers who already squeezed the previous owners, the ones who failed to live happily with the horse because it simply was not good enough, forcing them to step into someone else’s financial situation and hand the horse over while signing themselves into a massive loss…

But now let’s look from the other side. Imagine you are exactly that person who was the breeder, the rider, the whole story behind this horse. And this is what grew out of it. This is what the market currently reflects it as. Partly because the market itself is like this.

Some people have one thing, some have another, some have nothing at all — but everybody still wants everything. And at some point, there is almost no difference anymore whether you sell this thing for €25,000 or give it away for free. Actually, giving it away for free might even be more fun.

At least the process becomes interesting. At least you reverse the situation. Because otherwise what happens? You take a massive loss — after feeding the horse, caring for it, riding it, transporting it everywhere, investing years into it — and then on top of that, people still eat your brain over your own loss.

It becomes worse than crypto or any stock market disaster. Like: by the age of seven, your costs on this horse are €70,000, but you sell it for €15,000 because otherwise the market simply will not absorb it. Because this is the animal. Because this is the market. So you have to officially accept a €55,000 loss for yourself.

And on top of that, you are also expected to smile and explain to everybody how wonderful everything is and how happy you are to have “the deal done”. You see, it is often easier just forget about this horse rather than to go through all this selling process quest with try outs, hundreds of pointless questions and no results for months.

At least then nobody destroys your brain. At least then you get some enjoyment out of the process. You reverse the situation.

If by the age of seven or eight the horse did not manage to grow into something beautiful enough, talented enough, and tolerant enough toward any kind of humans for the market of wonderful people with money to value it above €10,000 per year of its life, then this is already a loss.

A financial loss. A mental loss. And in general, a complete loss for those who were with this horse through all these years. And the loss is such that selling an eight-year-old horse for €20,000–30,000 or giving to someone is almost the same outcome. As minus €80,000 or minus €60,000 is not such a big difference.

But emotionally, the difference is huge.

It looks like it is better to make your own rules of the game.

Horse try-out - welfare concern ?

Yes, everybody loves all these welfare conversations.
“You cannot torture the horse.”
“Horses are not toys.”
“You must respect the horse.”
Fine. But why is nobody discussing the way horses are sold? Why is this part never touched?

Why is it considered normal that buyers come, try the horse, and then simply disappear without any obligations, without any responsibility, without even minimal compensation for what they just put the animal through?

Let’s leave aside the financial losses and disasters of the breeder, the current rider, the people who raised, trained, kept and prepared the animal. Let’s look at it from the horse’s side. Because supposedly this is all about horses, isn’t it?

Let’s look at it from the perspective of welfare of the horse. The horse is living its own life with its current rider. They exist in an emotional connection first of all. And they are also in a physical sporting connection, which is exactly what creates the picture that attracts buyers in the first place. And the horse has absolutely no idea that it is “for sale”, that it “costs money”, or that buyers are targeting it. Then suddenly completely unknown people appear and start imposing strange, unpredictable demands on it.

Every buyer wants to come and try the horse exactly the way they personally imagine riding it later if the relationship works out. But the horse knows nothing about this. The horse knows nothing about their budget. Nothing about its x-rays. Nothing about their “huge risks”. Nothing about their fantasies. Nothing about their precious right to be completely sure. From the horse’s perspective, it is a welfare nightmare.
And when there are 10, 20, 30 buyers like this — all uncertain whether they even want to buy anything, because maybe the horse “won’t suit them”...

Well, husbands and wives do not suit everybody either from the first sight.
So they leave and move on. But the horse stays behind in complete confusion about what is happening. Why are random people suddenly demanding different things from it? Why do strange humans keep appearing around it? Why is the world around it suddenly unstable?
Why is the person it knows suddenly handing it over again and again to strangers who ride differently, ask differently, react differently, punish differently, panic differently, smell differently, disappear differently?

For the horse, this is an extremely stressful and exhausting experience.
Why horses should be subjected to this at all is completely unclear. And welfare discussions almost never take this side of horse trading into account. Even in riding school when people come to have lessons, they do only what trainer permits them to do. When “potential buyers” come to try a horse, they do what they want and how they used to do things. No one cares how the horse feels about it.

When people go to a riding school or take sport-training lessons - at least they pay for the lessons. First, they pay to ride the horse. Second, they ride the way the trainer tells them to ride. There are rules and guidance.
There is at least some responsibility. There is at least some balance in the situation.

Now let’s look at buyers. First of all, they ride for free. What, paying for a tryout is offensive? “No no, we are potentially going to pay, may be, if the horse suits us, if we have the money, if and may be. But first - we need to try, to be sure what we may be will pay later. If we like it”. Well - even girls in red lights of Amsterdam are paid in advance, not after and if the customer “liked it”.

Second, they ride how they personally want, because they need to make sure the horse suits them perfectly. But the horse knows absolutely nothing about this arrangement.
Several tries like this and the horse feels abused, loses confidence and connection with its current rider.

We saw horses getting really upset after such try outs because they were confused, they did not know what was going on, why there were different aids now, why different manner of riding. We had several cases taking horses exactly like this — horses that had started their careers well, but after endless buyer tryouts ended up in a state of complete confusion.
And eventually the horse stops performing altogether.

It cannot even compete properly anymore with its original rider because emotionally it is completely destroyed. At that point the sellers could no longer get any proper money for them anymore. The horse itself became emotionally lost and unusable for the very thing it originally was already doing. After that, the horse is likely to be dumped cheaply somewhere, which creates even bigger losses for:
• the current rider;
• the rider's team;
• the seller;
• the breeder;
• whoever was involved around the horse.
And for the animal itself too.

But the buyers? They simply walk away. No consequences. No responsibility at all. Yes, often this can be restored. Yes, over time trust between horse and rider can return. Yes, emotional stability comes back when the horse understands again: this is where it lives; who are the people around it; what are the expectations; what are its routines. Good or bad routines - is secondary. At least they are stable for the horse.

This is quite an obvious welfare concern that almost nobody wants to discuss. People want to discuss water access, temperature in horsetrucks, endless formal health papers and other things like that.
It is not a welfare. It is a farce. A disgusting, hypocritical, modern welfare theatre where everybody talks about respecting horses while the actual horse is treated as a testing object for random people’s fear, ego, budget, projections, insecurity and internet-fed fantasies.

Unique’s story

Story about the horse who inspired us to make this club.

Our hero today is Unique (it is his real name, which reflects his essence), a KWPN gelding, 25 years old this year, born in 2001.

Look at this horse. What do you think?

— “Ok, another big bay warmblood gelding doing his job. Nothing that special since we did not see him at Olympics or World Cup Finals. It is just your personal memory and experience — valuable only for the owner-rider.”

But it is not so straightforward and simple.

Unique is a real living proof (still alive and enjoying himself) of what we strongly believe in. That everyone should have a chance, UNIQUE CHANCE — every human, every horse or every creature.

This horse spent 20 years with us since we bought him as a 5-year-old. He had many wins and placings with me on different international arenas at CSIs of 3* and 4*, including winning a 5* CSIO Grand Prix. Not every horse shows even this kind of achievement.

But… I, as his only rider, will never say —

“Oh! What a great horse he was! How thankful I am that I met him and had the honour to compete him all these years!”

— what you normally expect to hear and what lovely top riders deliver.

Quite the opposite.

He was never brave, honest, cooperative or wanting to please.

I bought him for just above meat price in the UK in 2006, labelled as “danger”. And this was correct — spooky, scared of everything and stubborn gelding. He had no contact with the hand, was turning not just 180 degrees, but more likely 540 degrees away from any jump in front of him.

But, against all the odds, we had this serious international career together.

We both didn’t like it on the one hand, but on the other — it was an interesting life, good career. This horse had one lifetime rider. He had confidence in his life — that despite his odds and buts he knew where he belonged.

Unique even always knew the engine sound of our (his) horse truck.

I remember once — we were travelling between shows and stopped overnight at some stables somewhere in Latvia. In the morning we decided to drive about 100 meters to put fresh water into the tank of our horsebox, so we started and moved to the place with water.

Unique heard the sound of the engine and somehow realized that the truck was leaving without him.

He didn’t want to stay.

He jumped or somehow climbed out of the stable and ran up to the horsebox.

Luckily he didn’t scratch himself much and the next show we travelled to went well. It was CSI**** in Kaliningrad. But we were well impressed by this escape and running after the truck.

He had a full-length competition career from 5 years old to 18 years old — when we retired him.

He was never lame or sick and never met any vet for any treatment.

The only places he met vets were international horse inspections and international border controls.

He also managed to live his show life without a microchip as he was born and started his FEI career before microchips became compulsory.

Unique is still healthy, happy and confident about his today and tomorrow. He is walking in our fields with mares and planning for more happy years.

So you see — the reality does not have to be predictable to become true.

The difficult horse, refused by everyone, could get quite high in competition results and had a long satisfying life and sport career.

Today, this horse inspired us to make a project — UNIQUE CHANCE.

Something as unique, weird and unconventional as this Unique’s life story — getting from where he was supposed to go to where he is now, with all CSI’s and ribbons along the way.

Asudo — Horse Story

This horse’s name was Asudo.

We called him “Posuda,” because everyone around us always gives horses ridiculous home nicknames. “Posuda” means “dishes and utensils” in English.

This story started in 2006.

So almost 20 years ago now.

At that time we were living in England, renting a corner of a farm from an old respected English farmer called John Funnell.

Yes — exactly that John Funnell.

The father of the well-known showjumper William Funnell.

So this was not a random place.

Apart from trading sheep, horses and basically everything possible, this wonderful old farmer also specialized in dealing with horses that people wanted to finish.

When a horse was considered completely unsuitable, unwanted or impossible, dangerous or hopelessly ill — people brought it to him.

He would take the horse to hunting kennels where 30–40 hounds lived, shoot the horse there on the property, and the hounds would eat it afterwards.

At the time, this was still a fairly normal practice. Maybe it still exists somewhere even now despite all modern animal welfare discussions.

John Funnell was a very respected man: if he gave his word, he did what he promised.

That is why owners, riders and various respected people trusted him with these situations.

Meanwhile, we were living on his farm, and he watched our sporting experiments with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief.

Then one day Asudo arrived.

A beautiful five-year-old gelding with excellent breeding, originally bred for eventing by M*** Ph****.

The horse had been sent there because he did not want to be broken in to ride.

He threw people off.

Deliberately.

Again and again and again.

So the official plan was simple:

John Funnell was supposed to shoot him and feed him to the hounds.

But instead, he suddenly became interested in running an experiment.

Who would win?

Would this horse become rideable with us?

Or would we lose too?

Especially Kir.

In the end, John basically gave us the horse almost for free.

Probably for little more than the amount already paid for having him fed to hounds.

And eventually — Asudo became rideable.

It was not easy.

We will probably not describe all details publicly because some things are better left undescribed.

But the fact remains:
the horse became completely functional.
About a year later, by the beginning of the next season, he was ready to compete in eventing.
First novice level. Then intermediate. Then quickly up to one-star CCI level.
At six years old, that was a normal sport career start. With Kir they did it all — dressage tests, cross-country and showjumping rounds.

He stopped throwing people off completely.

Mostly he just made dramatic facial expressions with his elegant thin lips and occasionally considered removing Kir from existence — but usually decided it was easier to continue jumping instead.

Eventually Asudo moved on to other people.

He spent many years carrying different riders through different countries.

Then something interesting happened.

Years later, after passing through several different owners, the horse eventually returned back to us as part of an exchange deal for another young horse.

So Asudo ended up back where he started — with us.

He stayed with us again for some time, and later moved on once more to people who gave him a happy retirement life.

In total, he lived almost 25 years — passed away at the end of 2025.

Which is interesting, because he was supposed to be destroyed at five years old in 2006 because he was considered completely unusable.

So was it good or bad that it didn’t happen and old John once changed his trustworthy word?

We rode him through it all and he returned to the sport he had originally been bred for.

Were those extra 20 years of life — and the happiness he gave several different people besides us — meaning that maybe the original verdict was not entirely correct?

That is the story of Posuda.

Justin — Horse Story

So this is the story of a huge horse called Justin Guzzy van’t Asschaut.

We called him “Mokhnach” — which means “hairy creature” — as when we initially got him he had fur like a mammoth.

This happened much more recently, probably around 2017.

At the time we were, as usual, casually looking at horses out of curiosity at the absolute bottom level of the market. The true bottom.

Places like marktplaats.nl and tweedehands.be. That is where all kinds of strange creatures appear for sale.

So suddenly we saw the listing:

• enormous horse

• completely unclear description

• 185 cm tall

• just turned eight years old

• surprisingly good breeding

• and no price stated

So naturally we went to see him.

We arrived somewhere near Venlo in the Netherlands to a typical riding school. They brought out this gigantic animal.

We went there together with Sofia, who is very small herself — and next to her stood this absolute dinosaur of a horse with a long typically local name: Justin Guzzy van’t Asschaut.

The woman selling him did not even really know what price to ask. She was basically studying our faces trying to calculate how much money we might be willing to give her: not too much, not too little.

Eventually she asked for a relatively small amount. I will not even mention how little.

“Fine. We’ll take him.”

The next day we came back, paid, loaded him into the trailer — where he almost did not fit.

And then, after receiving the money, the woman happily admitted:

"Oh this is wonderful. I can’t believe I sold him. I actually got him for free myself from the stables on the other side of the road. They were already preparing to put him down and I said — I will pay the cost of removing the corpse. That is how I got him. So happy now."

The reason was his throat surgery.

He was born with a condition called “roaring,” where the throat structures do not open correctly for breathing during exercise. Normally this can be improved surgically.

But his surgery had gone wrong. The second one — by the vet’s opinion — went even worse.

From our point of view he was breathing fine. He no longer made the roaring noise — but he also could not really neigh anymore. And water constantly came out of his nostrils when drinking.

The woman was honestly just thrilled that anybody had paid anything for him at all. She probably would have sold him for five times less than we paid.

So we brought him home. And he seemed to be completely happy with life. He jumped willingly. Worked willingly. Everything was fine.

Apparently after all his previous owners and all the medical drama, he had slowly been moving toward the conclusion that he was destined to be euthanized.

But nobody had informed him personally.

His jumping technique was very special.

He jumped one-meter fences by literally standing up on his hind legs like a dinosaur and launching himself from hind legs to hind legs. No bascule. No elegant shape. No careful front legs. No classical technique admired by modern jumping experts. Just: vertical dinosaur launch sequence.

But he had a good character. Very uncomplicated. Very easy mentally.

Also he was a strong and powerful horse that never thought he had any breathing problems. He was sure — he had no health problems at all. And we completely agreed with him.

Things developed quickly.

Within about three months, Kir and Justin started jumping their first international 145 cm classes. That is the entry level for proper ranking international competitions before 150 cm classes and Grand Prix level.

They competed at CSI Lummen and performed very well.

By then, after four months with us, Justin had also updated his jumping technique. He stopped jumping in his dinosaur style and began jumping like a normal horse.

With his size he barely needed effort anyway. For him, 180 cm fences probably felt emotionally similar to one meter.

Not an Olympic horse, obviously. But perfectly functional.

He later competed in Grand Prix classes with us. Then travelled to France competing successfully again.

After about a year and a half with us he moved on. The horse was fully fit for the purpose. His way moved on — to new owners in Moscow, Russia.

And there he became a legend of his level.

He carried countless riders through World Cup qualifiers, puissance classes, national championships and so on. He was jumping with young riders and juniors, proving to be a horse that “does everything himself”.

And he is still jumping smaller classes with children and juniors there now at 17 years of age, remaining fit and strong.

Interesting communication happened while we were still competing him in Europe before he left for Russia.

One day an unknown woman wrote to us on Facebook, as we published his photo from jumping in France.

She asked: "Is this really the same Justin Guzzy competing internationally with you?"

We answered: "Yes."

And she replied: "I was one of his previous owners."

She explained that she had spent some time trying to make him “breathe normally” to be able to ride, trying specialists, trying different approaches — but eventually became convinced that the horse could never handle serious exercise and probably could not even breathe properly under effort.

And therefore she had decided that putting him down would be the best option for him.

She literally wrote: "I thought it would be kinder to send him to death."

We simply sent back a smiley face on Facebook.

So by now, almost 10 years later, we are in contact with his current people and see him when we go there.

Justin is alive and jumping in Moscow now. Still making people happy. Still fit and strong himself, planning something like at least 10 more years in retirement.

The last, but not least, is to mention that we never had any issues about his health, also at horse inspections or warm-ups at FEI competitions.

He was always fit, normal looking, not making any distracting noises or anything of that kind.

As to the water — the fact that some of it was coming out from his nostrils never bothered him.

So what was the correct way for him?

To put him down at 8 years old because it seemed to those around him that he “was not capable”, “was constantly suffering”, “would never be able to” and that “all veterinary help was useless”...

Or not.

Just to look at how the animal really behaves, really expresses himself and let him go as far as he wanted himself.