Prairie ranchers have found a market for the alive and kicking byproduct of the pregnant mare’s urine business.
For the last five years PMU producers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been selling weanlings to American sport horse buyers who annually tour the provinces.
The latest trip led to 60 sales, about triple the business done in 1996, the inaugural year of the Sport Horse Buyers Tour.
This year, eight buyers from Kentucky, Georgia, Kansas, California, Maryland and South Carolina bought 32 horses in Saskatchewan and eight in Manitoba. Another 20 weanlings were later sold to the American buyers’ neighbors and friends.
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The North American Equine Ranching Information Council sponsors the event. Most prairie equine ranchers belong to the organization.
“They saw an opportunity to increase the value of the foals that they were raising on their (PMU) farms by doing this breeding program,” said Jim Pollock, a Saskatchewan Agriculture agrologist from Moosomin.
When bred with Thoroughbred stallions, the draft mares that are used in PMU operations produce offspring that are suited to the needs of sport horse enthusiasts.
Thoroughbreds tend to be flighty and apprehensive, while draft horses are big, but even-tempered and quiet.
“When you combine the two, you get sort of the best of both worlds,” Pollock said.
“You get a very athletic individual that has size, substance, bone and temperament but does not have the baggage of the nervousness. This is one of the few places in North America where we have this large number of draft mares that we can dedicate to this type of a program.”
Sport horses are used in activities such as jumping, dressage and polo, but most Saskatchewan and Manitoba foals are sold as fox hunting horses. Pollock said there are 170 registered hunt clubs in the United States.
Horses are ready for hunting when they’re five years old, which means the foals sold during the first tour in 1996 are now being used.
“We’re hoping they will do great things and bring us more business,” Pollock said.
The tours have also led to other business opportunities. Some Americans now winter their horses in Sask-atchewan because their barns aren’t big enough.
Pollock said this year’s tour went well, but the American contingent was dismayed by how prices have shot up at some ranches.
“Some of them increased their price quite significantly from last year to this year for no apparent reason.”
A fair price for a foal was originally considered to be $1,000, but ranches are free to set their own prices.
Buyers also expressed consternation about transportation headaches. Getting the animals across the border can be a nuisance and the distance they have to be trucked is often daunting.
Pollock recently spoke to a woman from Florida who wanted to buy four Saskatchewan foals, but couldn’t justify the cost of transporting them.
He expects that buyers will eventually start paying premiums for horses that have more Thoroughbred blood or that are halter broken and vaccinated.
