Is it possible that this is a trap?

[magical thyme]

52. yes, there are different quality

The vast majority of horses never make it past the lower levels. The basic levels of training prepare them for any other "job" they are suited to, however. Western reining horses, hunters, jumpers, and backyard trail horses all benefit from the basics.

Other horses make it up to medium levels, but can't do the highest levels of collection. It requires tremendous athletic ability and an interest in it.

Some horses make it all the way through to the highest levels of training (with Grand Prix being the highest) but are not competitive at the national or international levels. They do well in local competitions.

Ann's personal horses are competitive locally and possibly nationally, but not international quality.

Only a very few are International caliber and their prices tend to be extremely high, even at a young age. They can be spotted by a combination of bloodlines (certain lines have produced numerous international caliber horses), conformation, gaits, temperament and their early rideability/trainability. Even then, it is a gamble. Anything and everything can go wrong.

The middle class is priced out of International level dressage competition, except the few professional trainers to the 1% or the few who find sponsors. This is, btw, true of many of the Olympic sports. Most figure skaters, for example, are financed by sponsors. (The infamous Tanya Harding had a sponsor at age 8 or so, but lost her sponsor because her mother was beating her in the bathrooms when she lost. I think it's terribly sad that the sponsor abandoned her like that and partly explains how she ended up the way she did. Family matters.)

A woman I worked with for a year many years ago found a sponsor who literally gave her a blank check to travel the world and pick out her dream dressage horse. With that woman's and possibly other sponsorship, she ultimately made the US team for the World Cup.

Another US husband and wife team, Debbie MacDonald and her husband, are trainers to a 1%er in Idaho, who owns all the horses and pays them to train and compete them. Debbie went on to lead the US team in the Olympics she competed in.