Horses For Sale in Pennsylvania

Horses for sale in Pennsylvania - find your dream horse

Pennsylvania is a state with diverse horsemanship traditions, encompassing everything from draft horses to harness racing and hunting. Your dream horse could be waiting for you among the horses for sale in Pennsylvania currently available on the ehorses website. To find out, use the country and area filters before adding other criteria, such as the age, height, gender, and color of your ideal horse. Then, browse the great selection of horses for sale in Pennsylvania. The most searched-for breeds in Pennsylvania are Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, and Standardbreds. The Standardbred has always been popular here as a harness racer. Quarter Horses are the most bought horses in Pennsylvania for competitive and recreational riding.

Horses for sale in Pennsylvania - find the perfect owner for your horse

Are you a horse breeder or a private seller with one or more horses for sale in Pennsylvania? Your expertise can now reach buyers across the globe, thanks to the ehorses website. It’s easy to use and enables sellers to promote their horses through their choice of images and videos. Here's a checklist to ensure the best results.

Checklist for an advertisement

• The essentials for any advertisement are your horse's age, height, gender, and color. Describe your horse’s talents and achievements, too.
• Up to 20 free images and 4 videos are included in your advertisement at no additional cost. Good visuals contribute greatly to sales success.
• Completing as many options on the ehorses website as possible ensures the advertisement reaches more buyers.
• Sales can be lost through sharing incorrect information. Check all contact details are complete and up-to-date.

Horses in Pennsylvania

The economic impact of the Pennsylvania horse industry

Pennsylvania ranks 8th in the USA in terms of horse numbers, with an impressive 223,628 horses. Horse owning is very much a family affair in Pennsylvania. 1.6 million households, which is 30.5% of the state’s total, have at least one horse enthusiast living in them. Pennsylvania ranks even higher in terms of economic impact, rating 6th overall in the USA. The direct economic impact is believed to be $1.7 billion. Horses also support up to 43,114 jobs in Pennsylvania. When all economic influences are considered, including the indirect impact through related employment and services, Pennsylvania’s horse industry contributes $3.3 billion to the state and supports 60,133 jobs. These figures are divided between the recreation, competition, and racing sectors. Some studies estimate Pennsylvania horse racing’s overall impact as highly as $1.6 billion annually, suggesting it creates up to 23,000 jobs.

The history of horses in Pennsylvania

Conestoga country

Horses were always essential to the development of Pennsylvania. The first horses in the region were probably introduced by British explorers. Pennsylvania also made an important contribution to early American horse breeding by creating the Conestoga Horse, a draft breed that is now extinct. This was largely the outcome of the combined efforts of Dutch, Swiss, and German settlers in the region and French Huguenots. These European arrivals were all agriculturalists who needed strong animals to draw their farm vehicles. As roads improved, the Conestoga Valley in Pennsylvania became famous for a particular type of farm wagon known as the Conestoga. It is a vehicle frequently seen in historical movies. Up to six massive horses were used to draw these vehicles, with distinctive harnesses that rang with bells. In this way, the farmers of the Conestoga Valley could transport large quantities of grain and other goods to the growing cities on the east coast. The Conestoga Horse could reach 18 hands high (72 inches/183 cm).

Pennsylvanian horsepower

While horses were vital for farmers and long-distance travel, the occupants of Pennsylvania’s cities managed well without large numbers of horses. Philadelphia was known as a “walking city,” a place sufficiently small that the inhabitants could walk from place to place and have their goods delivered on barrows and carts pushed by humans. A few members of the elite had carriages or rode on horseback in urban areas, but most people walked. The Philadelphia-Lancaster turnpike road, which opened in 1795, resulted in the use of stagecoaches and increased Conestoga wagon traffic. As the cities grew in size and became increasingly commercialized, more horses appeared on the streets. In the later nineteenth century, working horses became the focus of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Horses, ponies, mules, and donkeys worked in Pennsylvania’s coal mines and hauled loads along the canals. The elite maintained hunters, racers, and riding horses and rode for leisure and pleasure. While horse racing was a very popular sport in the early days, it was banned in Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century. However, harness and other races still took place – unofficially, of course. In 1872, a dreadful equine flu outbreak known as “the Great Epizootic” shut down Philadelphia and other cities. Despite this and the increasing use of motor vehicles, some horses worked in cities until the 1950s, and a handful of urban working horses remain today. The Pennsylvanian Amish still farm with horses, using no motorized machinery. 

Most famous horses in Pennsylvania

Racing was a popular and well-established sport by the time Pennsylvania’s most famous horse was imported. One of the earliest locations was Race Street in Philadelphia. Then in 1797, an English Thoroughbred called Messenger, sometimes known as Imported Messenger, arrived in Philadelphia. Like most Thoroughbreds of this date, Messenger was a runner rather than a trotter or pacer, but he became the ancestor of famous trotters, such as Hambletonian. Hunting Park in Pennsylvania was the original mile-long harness racing track in the USA. Pennsylvania thus made a significant contribution to Standardbred racing.

Basic information about Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is also known as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It has a population of 12.8 million people, and the capital is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania spans the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, and Appalachian regions of the USA.

Do you want to narrow your search? Discover more horses from Pennsylvania in:

• Philadelphia
• Pittsburgh