Research Do vendors value safety in Thoroughbred horses in the Australian recreational riding horse market? Paul D. McGreevy a, * , Catherine F. Oddie b , Lesley A. Hawson a , Andrew N. McLean c , David L. Evans a a Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia b Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia c Australian Equine Behavior Centre, Broadford, Victoria, Australia article info Article history: Received 11 July 2014 Received in revised form 23 October 2014 Accepted 4 December 2014 Available online 18 December 2014 Keywords: horse Thoroughbred recreational riding adult riding safety abstract The purpose of this short report is to describe the influences on the pricing of Thoroughbred (TB) horses for the adult recreational riding market. Research into the association between horse breed and specific behaviors supports the view that some breeds are more reactive than others. There is anecdotal evidence that TBs may be more likely than other breeds to show traits that compromise rider safety. Having been bred for speed and reactivity, TBs may have reduced habituation tendencies. In addition, those that have raced may have had more training to accelerate than to decelerate and as such may be predisposed to uncontrollable flight responses. We examined data from advertisements to determine which descriptors influence the price of TBs (n ¼ 220) entering the adult riding horse market. Linear regression analysis of log(price) revealed that variates such as a larger total sum of performance experience and bigger ad- vertisements (P < 0.001), all significantly increased the price set by vendors. The inclusion of trail riding in the advertisement had a detrimental influence on price (P < 0.001). Dressage experience was asso- ciated with increased pricing (P ¼ 0.002). The inclusion of positive descriptive terms associated with safety had a rather smaller and less significant effect (P ¼ 0.012) on price. The average advertised price of $3,286 for a TB was significantly cheaper than the average advertised price of a non-TB horse ($7,384; P < 0.001). In contrast to the findings for the ponies and non-TBs previously reported using the same method, reassuring descriptors had a significant positive influence on price of TBs. These data confirm that TBs are valued differently to other breeds in the Australian adult riding horse market. Crown Copyright Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Over centuries, the Thoroughbred has been selectively bred for speed (Bower et al., 2008). On average, 17,860 live Thoroughbred foals were registered annually in Australia across the 11 breeding seasons between January 2000 and November 2010 (Howard, 2011). However, only around one-half of these will reach the track, and 2 surveys have estimated that of those that do commence training, another third leave racing each year because of a variety of reasons including injury, underperformance, and behavioral wastage (culling on the grounds of undesirable behavior) (Doughty 2008; Bourke 1995). The scales of annual departures from racing yards have been confirmed by a more recent report by Thomson et al. (2014). Thoroughbreds may enter the recreational horse market before training, after training, after racing or may be purpose-bred animals intended for nonracing purposes. They may be sold through sale yards, private sale, or through one of the small number of groups dedicated to rehoming racehorses in Australia. Although Thoroughbreds are considered affordable and may appeal to prospective purchasers on a tight budget, the suitability of those that have been trained only to race, as recreational riding horses has been questioned (McGreevy and McLean, 2010) because they generally require considerable retraining. We have created a hedonic pricing model for recreational riding horses advertised through a popular Australian monthly horse trading magazine, Horse Deals and Web site. The influences on the * Address for reprint requests and correspondence: Paul D. McGreevy BVSc, PhD, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia, Tel: 61 2 9351 2810; Fax: 61 2 93513957. E-mail address: paul.mcgreevy@sydney.edu.au (P.D. McGreevy). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Veterinary Behavior journal homepage: www.journalvetbehavior.com http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2014.12.004 1558-7878/Crown Copyright Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 10 (2015) 153e157