If this article was supposed to be a story about a “poor honest horse breeder fallen on hard times” you’ve missed the mark. (Horse breeding industry faces crisis, WP, Aug. 26.)
“You have to breed 100 horses a year to get two good horses.” What an idiotic statement. This woman should stop breeding horses for meat. She should breed cows if she wants to produce animals for slaughter. If you care about and have any knowledge of the horses you claim to be a “reputable breeder” of, you select mares with sound temperament, conformation and performance characteristics, with pedigrees that support breeding them.
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You breed them to stallions that match their traits as individuals, and if the resulting foal is handled daily until it is a good equine citizen, that foal will have value.
Some will be better than others, but you will not have only two percent of the foals turn out to be “good horses”.
I have a friend (what Ms. Coulthard would call a “hobby breeder”) that breeds three or four well-bred, well-handled and socialized warmblood/ warmblood cross foals a year. Her horses are lovely, sell as weanlings without fail and are sought after by amateur riders.
(This woman) should get out of the business she thinks she is operating. It would be kinder to the horses she claims to care about.
Gabrielle Kaufmann,Irricana, Alta.
