Step 1: Outline my goals 

Background

A shortcut step; I have had a lot of success with the horse Lord Seekonig. Previously I have produced all my horses from scratch, but Charlie was the first horse that I bought already at FEI level (he was at 3* level as a 9yr in 2022). Whilst it took some time to get to know him, it still allowed me to take a massive shortcut, and after 2 short years together we successfully completed our first CCI5*L at Luhmuhlen finishing just outside the top 10. I thought I would have a look to see if I could take that shortcut step again.

Level set:

• Ideally something having already competed at CCI3*S level

LA Looming; I know that my success on the world stage is only ever going to be as good as the work I put in, but also the horsepower I am sitting on. With LA looming, I am acutely aware that the horses in my stable right now are going to make or break those dreams in the coming years.

Age set:

• To be competitive at CCI4*L level in 2028 (10-16yrs ideally)
•  I already have horses that will be 16yrs (Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ), 15yrs (Lord Seekonig), 14yrs (Delarado) and 12yrs (Quantas R). So I am missing a few younger ones coming through the ranks. 
•  Ideally something old enough that could compete at 4* level in 2025
• Accounting for this I was therefore looking for a horse that was going to be 8 or 9 years old in 2025.

Who is Sam Lissington in statistical terms?

Dressage used to be my weakest phase, I went through Pony Club cutting all the corners, surviving dressage tests just to get to the “fun stuff”. I worked hard on it as a young rider, but I would say it only transitioned into a strength in the past few years when I got sick of losing. I thought to myself - What was the point of living on the other side of the world, giving up the sunny idyllic lifestyle of NZ, to freeze my butt off eventing on some barren hill in England - if you can’t post a sub 30 dressage score? And so my quest began, and actually only through daily written reflections did I manage to turn the tide on my first phase-itis.

Nowadays, EquiRatings stats say that it is a strength… I am in the 94th percentile for my dressage results across all riders in the world 2020-2024. And I recognise I can significantly improve a horse in this area.

My showjumping is in the 92nd percentile for all levels but drops to the 78th percentile when we look specifically at 4* and 5* results (2020-2024). And my cross country reliability is at 73%.

This is concrete proof that it makes sense for me to find a horse with good jumping statistics who I can improve in the dressage department.

Performance criteria set

•  Dressage - Anything under a 6RA of 38 or better
•  Jumping - Minimum 60% in their age category
•  XC - Minimum 60% or better in their age category

To conclude, we are looking for a horse born in 2016 or 2015 (8 or 9 in 2025), who has at least competed to 3*S level, with a dressage average of better than 38 with a SJ and XC performance of 60% or better.

Step 2: The search begins

Sam Watson filtered through the 8000+ performance horses level to develop a “draft” for me. We came up with 124 horses that best matched my criteria.

Step 3: Price Discovery

Client reach out

This is where Rozzie comes in!

If you own a FEI level event horse you may very well have had a friendly reach out from Rozzie, who deals with all our client communications.

• She sends inquiries to all of the horses that match the criteria for one of our complete search clients.
• The goal is to find out if the horse might be available for purchase, and if so at what price.
• She then gathers videos from the sellers and uploads them to a dropbox folder specifically for that horse.

Assessing Potential

As the available horses are coming through, I have the enjoyable job of reviewing the videos and providing a more “human analysis” to the picture. So why did this particular horse catch my eye?

The first thing I look at when Rozzie sends a new horse through are these three numbers. 

This tells me - poor dressage; I’m ok with that depending on the videos. A strong SJ% which makes this horse interesting. Backed up with a strong XC%. Bingo!

You’ll note that he has one bad SJ round (FEI record here)- I think this is an important point to discuss. We can all have bad days, and I will never write a horse off from one bad result. When a “bad day” in any phase is flagged up it should warrant more investigation, but not walking away.

The next thing is to review the videos and provide some notes for myself which help trigger my memory of a horse and direct it to the right type of buyer.

So what did I write about him?

I saw a lot of potential in his flatwork, I liked his frame and the way that he carries himself and I thought I could work with a horse like that! As you can see from my comments, I was particularly taken by his jumping ability. One thing we love to see when we are assessing videos is when a horse “helps out” when they get to a fence on an imperfect distance. I got the impression that this horse could be very clever with his feet, something that might give you that “5th leg” feel on cross country. 

Another aspect I pay close attention to is the type of bit that a horse is ridden in. In this case the horse was ridden in a snaffle in all three phases. I have a tendency to make my horses a little strong XC (something I am constantly working on!), so this was a huge plus for me to have a horse that is competing in simple gear.

Overall, I thought to myself, this horse might not be a world beater, but it looks like a horse I would really enjoy riding. And isn’t that really where we are going to find our biggest gains? To find a horse complements your strengths and ideally one that can accommodate for your weaknesses?

To give you the full experience, feel free to have a stalk! His original dropbox link is here. What would you have written?

I scored him out of 10 for movement, jump and type:

These scores seem quite low I hear you say? My reply to you - this is what my budget can afford, dear gentle reader! 

But also, we are comparing with the best in the world, and this is what the best in the world looks like.

I also rank them in terms of whether I think they will be suitable for various levels / riders

We had some feedback from the owner that he could be a bit “afraid of other horses” which, in English terms means he can be “horse shy”. This, combined with the fact that he looked a bit unruly in the jumping, meant that I didn’t think he would be suitable in an immediate sale for a JR or YR client.

However I did think he looked talented enough for 4*S and 4*L level.

5* level is so often a question mark until the horse is proven at 4* level, although even then we never really know until we’ve come home through those finish flags! In this case because he strikes me as a slightly heavier type of horse, I am not sure that he will be a 5* prospect. But considering my goal is specifically LA at 4*L level. This did not put me off him.

Step 4: Comprehensive Presentation

This is where all of the information of all the horses on your (my) draft is collated in a list and all the dropbox video links are shared. In this list I could compare all of the different horses that matched my criteria against each other. This gave me the full market picture to understand how performance impacts price, and interestingly also some key information about how location influences price.

I will go into this in further detail in a blog later down the track. But simply speaking it is supply and demand. There will be places where there are plenty of buyers actively shopping, and in the UK the demand for event horses generally outweighs the supply which means that sellers can ask a premium. However, there are other more remote locations where the demand is much smaller and prices are lower as a result.

This particular horse was about as remote as they come - he hails from Finland of all places!

Step 5: Shortlist, Vetting and Negotiation

From here your sourcing work is done, and the clients make a shortlist of horses to then go ahead and organise viewings etc. 

Being in such a remote place, I actually decided to do things a bit back-to-front which I thought some people might find interesting:

1. 1. I organised a vet to take a basic set of x-rays first. I then got my vet in the UK to review them. If anything major had come up on the vetting I would have known not to bother with the flight to view the horse.
   2. I then booked flights and accommodation for a two day trip to Finland. I checked the EquiRatings master list for any other horses to view while we were there. Neil Robertson and I had an adventure in the depths of Finnish Winter.
   3. On the first day we did dressage and jumping - testing his rideability, suppleness, contact and how he felt being put under a bit more pressure of upper level movements. I did a small course of fences, and honestly didn’t bother putting them up too high - I had so much fun! He felt exactly as I thought he would, although to my surprise he was actually more polite than I thought he would be.
   4. On the second day I did some indoor XC in the morning. I opened up the stride a bit and tested his reactions to various questions including jumping some angles and then some skinny fences on a soft rein. Another tick in the box from me.
   5. Having done my riding checks we then proceeded to the vet check which was pencil booked for that afternoon.
   6. We completed the clinical vet check along with some extra x-rays. We flew home to discuss the findings with my vet before making our final decision!
   7. A couple of weeks later “Luca” was in our stable!

Some fun facts

•  Along the way we actually found out that he has some pretty famous breeding. As it turns out, his grandmother was Cyna who competed under the Finnish flag with Piia Pantsu Jonsson. And blow-me-down, she was 5th at the World Games in 1994 and 4th at the Europeans in 1995!
• He’s settled into our team really well and is a character to have around the barn - very easy to deal with and a bit of a pet!
• I have done three events on him;
  • Poplar Park Novice - 29 double clear and 3rd place
  • Barbury Intermediate - 27 double clear and 2nd place
  • Thoresby Park Intermediate - 32 double clear
• All going well, he will do the CCI3*L at Bicton, and the CCI4*S 8/9yr class at Blenheim.
• Curious about how he looks on UK soil? You can find some recent video in the 2025 here.

But what if I’m wrong? What if he isn’t the horse I thought he would be? 

You always take that risk when buying horses, but I think he has enough of a FEI record to have the buying confidence that; if he doesn’t have the talent to be a 4*L horse in the long run, I think he will still make an exceptional YR horse with a bit more training. This means that we have a solid exit strategy to take to market if needs-be. 

So give me a wave if you see me riding him at an event, and if you see me suddenly change direction to avoid you - know that I’m not being rude, he’s just a bit horse-shy ;) 

An unashamed plug - We have two 25% shares available for purchase, if anyone would like to join the journey then feel free to send me a message! 

Find Your Next Champion

Curious about doing your own complete search? The cost of this sourcing model is:

• €5k upfront fee
• 5% success fee on purchase.

From hidden gems to medal contenders, EquiRatings can help you navigate the world of horse sales. Feel free to send me a message via sam.lissington@equiratings.com or explore our product guide here.