I would like to comment on the article titled “Horse breeding industry faces crisis” (WPAug. 26.)
It is true that there is no market for low end horses. It’s no secret. The horse business is down. Horses are not really livestock anymore, but a luxury, and when the economy takes a downturn, luxuries are the first thing to get cut.
However, the current horse market is a situation made worse by breeders like Ms. (Betty) Coulthard. She is apparently cranking out large quantities of horses that there isn’t a market for. There is still a market for a high quality young horse.
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The breeder I have worked for stands a wonderful stud and has quality mares. The people breeding to this stud tend to be choosy about what they breed and they always end up with a show quality colt.
In the 15 years I have been with this farm, maybe six colts total were horses who would not make it in the show pen at all. Not all were world champions, but they were quality horses. Maybe not commanding the prices they did a decade ago, but they still sell.
In the grand scheme of things, it costs very little more to breed for a good horse than an average horse. A stud fee is just a small chunk of the expense equation when compared to breeding and upkeep of a colt. If you can afford to breed at all, you can afford to breed well. If you have to breed 100 colts to get two good ones, you just plain aren’t a good breeder.
True, it’s a gamble to try to make a really top horse. Heck, my own horse was a national champion as a youngster but he has full siblings who are only competitive on the B circuit.
If what you’re producing isn’t selling, you need to stop making it. Stop flooding the market with more average stock that there isn’t a market for. Scale back your operation, take stock of your stock’s strengths and weaknesses, research what crosses are making marketable horses and then figure out how to duplicate that.
It’s not a complete gamble like Ms. Coulthard would like you to believe. With the state of the market, we should be seeing higher quality stock because horses who would have cost a fortune are now at a much more attainable price. You’ll make more money in the long run breeding a couple good quality horses than 100 average ones.
Blair Finney,
Lake Orion, Michigan
