Is safety valued in the Australian pony market?

Horse-riding is a particularly dangerous activity for children especially before they have accrued significant riding experience. It is reasonable to suppose that children in this relatively naive group would be riding ponies and, accordingly, they and their caregivers are the target market for ponies presented for sale. We examined whether there was a relationship between the use of descriptive terms associated with pony safety and the advertised price. This would indicate that vendors valued safety characteristics in their pricing decisions in the Australian pony market. We examined the Ponies and Pony Club sections in 6 consecutive 2009 editions of Horse Deals, the leading Australian horse trading magazine. A pilot analysis identified 66 descriptive terms and phrases that vendors used to describe their ponies. These descriptors were assigned to 4 categories based on the extent to which they communicated a behavioral or biological characteristic of the pony relevant to rider/handler safety. Of these 4 categories, 3 reflected degrees of perceived positive assurance and the fourth contained covert warning (negative) descriptors. Data on price, descriptors, and other characteristics (age, height, gender, color, breed, registration, experience) were gathered for 875 advertisements. A linear regression model analysis revealed that price significantly increased with factors such as height and stated experience in showing and dressage (P < 0.001). Positive descriptors were not associated with an increased asking price in the Ponies or in Pony Club markets. However, there was a significant decrease in asking price (P < 0.05) for every warning descriptor that appeared in advertisements. We concluded that safety descriptors do not contribute to pricing of ponies in the Australian horse market but warnings about possible unsafe aspects of the animal can have a deleterious effect on pricing decisions of pony vendors. Our findings concur with previous research carried out in other horse markets and may provide further evidence that vendors value characteristics that are different from those valued by buyers. We recommend that the potential purchasers in these markets become better informed of the importance of safety and predictability in animals bred and trained to be ridden by younger riders