A new UK platform with the aim of modernising horse buying by introducing AI-powered search designed around how riders actually look for horses for sale — not just traditional classified filters — has launched.

Herdspace is the brainchild of Tracey Jones who came up with the idea after becoming frustrated with the current horse buying market. 

“I wasn’t struggling to find horses — I was struggling to rule out the wrong ones,” said Tracey. 

“You can search by colour and age, but not for things like whether a horse is safe to hack alone, straightforward to load, or suitable for a nervous rider. Those are often the things that matter most.

“This isn’t about replacing judgement. It’s about helping people get to the right shortlist faster — with fewer wasted conversations and better alignment from the start.”

Limited intelligence

Currently much of the online horse sales market still operates through legacy classified systems with limited search intelligence, despite transaction values that routinely reach £3,000-£10,000 for recreational horses and £10,000-£100,000+ for competition and sport horses. 

Research behind Herdspace suggests that around 66% of the factors buyers care about are not currently searchable on traditional platforms, often leading to wasted hours scrolling unsuitable listings, repeated conversations that go nowhere, and unnecessary viewings. 

Herdspace uses AI-supported matching to surface relevant listings while encouraging sellers to describe horses with greater clarity and honesty.

Examples

Example searches include:

  • Horse suitable for a nervous rider
  • Showjumper up to Foxhunter level, no quirks
  • Safe all-rounder for teenager moving off ponies

While Herdspace is currently focused solely on horses, the longer-term ambition is to build a trusted search platform for the wider equestrian sector across other categories.

For more information or to use the site, click here

Image © Shutterstock.

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