Building a Better Picture of the American Sport Horse
The American Sport Horse Database is an independent research initiative of The Equestrian Link designed to collect, organize, and analyze information about sport horses in the United States.
The American sport-horse industry generates an enormous amount of information every year—about horses, breeding, purchases, sales, competition, development, ownership, and performance—but much of that information is scattered, private, or difficult to analyze.
Our goal is to bring that information together to create a clearer picture of the American sport horse and the market that supports it.
What We Are Collecting
We invite horse owners, breeders, riders, trainers, and other members of the sport-horse community to voluntarily contribute information about their horses.
This may include:
- Horse identification and registration information
- Breed and pedigree information
- Country and year of birth
- Discipline and level of training
- Competition history
- Purchase date and location
- Purchase price or price range
- How and where the horse was purchased
- Intended use at the time of purchase
- The horse's development after purchase
- Subsequent sales or changes in ownership
- Other information that helps us understand the horse's journey through the sport
You do not have to provide every piece of information. The more complete the information, however, the more useful the contribution becomes for research.
How to Submit Your Horse
1. Submit One Horse at a Time
Please complete a separate submission for each horse.
If you have purchased several horses, we encourage you to submit each horse individually so that each record can be accurately connected to that horse's history.
2. Provide the Information You Know
Complete as much of the form as you can.
Some information—particularly purchase price—is optional. If you do not know an exact figure, you may provide a price range or choose not to disclose it.
Please do not guess. An accurate partial record is more valuable to our research than an inaccurate complete one.
3. Submit Your Information
Once you have reviewed your answers, submit the form.
Your submission will become part of our research dataset. We may contact you if we need clarification or if you have elected to participate in future research.
4. Keep Us Updated
A horse's story does not end when it is purchased.
As this project develops, we will provide opportunities for owners to update their horse's record as the horse progresses through training and competition, changes ownership, or reaches significant milestones.
Over time, we hope to follow horses from purchase to performance.
How Your Information Will Be Used
The information voluntarily submitted to the American Sport Horse Database will be used to conduct research and develop a better understanding of the American sport-horse industry.
Aggregated and anonymized information may be used to analyze:
- Sport-horse purchase prices and market trends
- Prices by age, discipline, breed, pedigree, and competition level
- American-bred versus imported horses
- Young-horse development and market value
- Trends in amateur and professional horse purchases
- Regional differences in the sport-horse market
- Bloodlines and their relationship to performance and market value
- The relationship between competition achievement and horse value
- Ownership and development patterns
- Changes in the American sport-horse market over time
The resulting research may be presented through The Equestrian Link, including articles, videos, podcasts, market reports, charts, educational materials, and future analytical tools.
Our long-term goal is to develop an American Sport Horse Market Index that provides meaningful, data-driven information about the horses being bred, bought, developed, and competed in the United States.
Your Privacy
Participation in the American Sport Horse Database is voluntary.
Your personal contact information will be kept separate from publicly reported market information. Individual purchase information will not be publicly attributed to you without your permission.
We may use aggregated or anonymized data in research and publications. For example, we may report that:
"The median reported purchase price for four- to six-year-old dressage horses in the United States was X during a particular period."
We will not identify the individual owners behind those transactions unless they have specifically given permission for their information to be identified.
We also ask that you only submit information that you are comfortable contributing to this research project.
Why Participate?
Every submission helps create a more complete picture of the American sport horse.
By contributing your horse's information, you are helping build a resource that can benefit:
Breeders — by providing better information about what the market values.
Owners and buyers — by providing greater transparency about the sport-horse market.
Trainers and professionals — by helping identify market and performance trends.
Riders — by providing a clearer understanding of how horses develop through the sport.
Researchers and analysts — by creating a growing body of structured information about American sport horses.
The industry as a whole — by replacing anecdotal information with evidence.
Help Us Build the Record
The American sport-horse industry needs better information.
Your horse is part of that story.
Submit your horse and help us build the American Sport Horse Database.
The owner should be able to complete it in 3–5 minutes.