The Art of Breeding Exceptional Showjumpers
Practical guidance on buying, selling, and understanding showjumping sport horses. No hype, just honest information.
Your mare, gelding and stallion all share one customs heading. The tariff does not care about sex; it cares whether the horse is a pure-bred breeding animal. Here is what that means, what it costs in the UK, EU, US and Canada, and the one way sex creeps back in.
Harriet on the real cost of bringing a horse to America: our shipper's actual figures, the 10% tariff nobody has updated their website for, why a gelding is thousands cheaper than a stallion, and the one risk worth knowing before you send money.
Harriet is delighted to announce Natural Science Group as the yard's Supplement Product Development partner: bespoke liquid formulations, tailored to each horse's nutritional needs, developed to human-grade nutraceutical standards.
A two-person yard in Kent: one of them is the encyclopedia, the other one mucks out and writes the software. Who we are, what each of us actually does, and why that mix is the reason you can trust the records.
An embryo is the cheapest way to own a world-class damline and the most misunderstood purchase in the sport. What you are buying, what it costs, what can go wrong, and why breeders sell them at all.
Most horses are sold by someone who has known them for weeks. When you buy direct from the breeder, you are buying from the person who has known the horse since before it was born, and that changes every part of the transaction.
What actually happens between a foal hitting the ground and a horse jumping its first classes. The unglamorous five-year timeline that decides whether a talented horse becomes a good one.
Most yards sell at one level. We sell at four, under four names, because a breeding programme that works produces horses at every stage of the journey. The category describes the price. It never describes the standard.
What to ask, what to watch, and what a straight seller will volunteer before you have to ask. Written from the selling side, including the questions we would rather you asked us.
Most sellers will not tell you what separates one price band from the next. Here is the honest version, using horses currently in our own collection and their real prices.
We buy horses to produce them, not to move them on. Each one has a plan for its life with us, and the plan decides when it is ready to leave. Some of them are staying.
In the dealer network, the best horses go to insiders. At Horses Smith, every horse is owned, developed, and offered directly, no leftovers, no rejects.
From the green fields of Kent to an American barn. Follow the emotional and practical journey of a Horses Smith horse crossing the Atlantic.
Step by step, from export vetting in Kent to your horse walking off the plane in the United States. No surprises, no unknowns.
Misrepresentation, hidden histories, logistics nightmares, and broken trust. These are the real risks American riders face when buying from European dealers.
Buying a horse from Europe is complicated enough without a language barrier. Here is why working with a native English speaker from Kent, England changes everything.
Navigate transport, documentation, insurance, and settling-in when bringing a horse from Europe to the UK.
Compare the costs, risks, and rewards of buying an experienced competition horse versus a talented youngster.
Understand why temperament matters more than scope, what to assess during viewings, and how to match horse to rider.
Learn what information, media, and transparency serious buyers expect when you present a horse for sale.
Understand what a pre-purchase vetting covers, what imaging to consider, and how to manage risk sensibly.
Browse our current collection or get in touch to discuss your requirements.
