Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The Outside Course!

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features!

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Where Do Horses Come From?; More Morning Thoughts.
Topic Started: Sep 14 2011, 06:23 AM (135 Views)
DairyQueen2049
Member Avatar
DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I guess I'm on a roll.

Read this blog:

http://blogs.equisearch.com/horsetalk/

Horse Breeding: The Big Correction
September 2, 2011
Yesterday, I got a look at 10-year breeding statistics (2000 to 2010) from three breeds’ registries. And to say that there’s been a correction in the breeding market would be an understatement.

Comparing 2010 to 2000, the number of mares bred to produce Paints plummeted 76 percent–from 105K to 24K. The number of stallions on APHA stallion reports fell 68 percent.

Over in the Appaloosa world, mares bred went from 17K in 2000 to 4,788 in 2010–a plunge of 71%. As with APHA, the number of stallions on ApHC’s stallion reports is down 68 percent compared to a decade ago.

Since 2005, AQHA has seen a 44 percent drop in mares and a 43 percent drop in stallions on its breeding reports. Between then and 2010, nearly 100K mares were taken out of production–just in that one breed.

Among other things, these numbers represent a stunning example of supply-and-demand economics.
I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts, and any insights you may get from seeing past the anecdotal to some real numbers.



And that resulted in people commenting which brought on her next blog:

The Horse You Love Was…Bred By Someone
September 7, 2011
This is one of those times when there’s something that’s really bothering me, and when I just have to write my way through it to even be able to say what it is, exactly. So here goes.

I read the first 65 comments to my previous post, ‘Horse Breeding: The Big Correction,’ in one sitting, after the Labor Day weekend. Was amazed, yet again, at how passionate and polarized people become, just as soon as someone steers toward the subject of horse slaughter.

But horse slaughter, as profound a topic as it is, wasn’t the subject of my previous post, nor is it the subject of this one.

The bother-point has more to do with the perception I got of a growing disdain for that collective known as ‘breeders.’ It’s like no matter what adjective gets used with it, ‘breeder’ is now a negative in the horse-world lexicon, leaving a ‘breeding is bad’ imprint on the collective consciousness.

As in, socially unacceptable.

Big breeder. Backyard breeder. Small breeder. Market breeder. Hobby breeder. Nowadays, you might want to pick your company before you’d dare describe yourself with any of these terms.

Something about this makes me sad. It reminds me of the “this is where milk comes from” talk I can remember my mom giving to the town cousins, who found our family milk cows to be disgusting.

We’re long past a world where everyone can simply raise his own horse out of the family-farm work mare. Now, for most people to have that horse, someone else has to have created it. E.g., there needs to have been a breeder, and underlying market.

Let’s look at it this way: For all intents and purposes, all of our cherished personal horses were bred–e.g., put on this earth–by someone, whether deliberately, accidentally, or via government agency. (Even if a horse came from a BLM roundup, as one of my charges did, originally, its existence was financed by that ‘someone’ known as the American taxpayer.)

I can appreciate the sincerity behind the ‘STOP BREEDING!’ cries of today. But let’s not lump all breeders into the Soldiers of an Evil Empire category. That’s just way too simplistically unrealistic. If all breeders had quit in 1986, when changes to the U.S. Tax Code sent the previous tsunami throughout the breeding market, the horse market would be virtually extinct right now, and the youngest horse you’d be able to find would be 24 years old.

Certainly, there are inept and unqualified breeders of horses out there. There’s also no shortage of those willing to point them out. No reason for me to go there.

However, I do see a need to point out that there are a great many dedicated, diligent, even sacrificing breeders who deserve some respect and thanks–for the time, toil, and dollars they put into getting an equally great many of our presently loved horses on the ground. Maybe your horse’s breeder bred you a super individual in every respect; more likely he bred you a horse with some things you’d change if you could, because horses are never perfect.

Point is, he went to the trouble and took a risk, on behalf of a future owner (you, as it turns out), because that’s part of what breeders do. We may not need them at the number and volume we once did, but we still need them–unless we’re all ready for that extinction to really begin taking place.

OK–have had my say on this. Thanks for hearing me out.

end of copied blog

So, will I have more trouble finding my next horse (i figure at my age and riding I'll need one more horse at minimum in my lifetime to keep me moving down the trail) my next TWH, as breeders quit breeding?

Will you have trouble finding your next show horse?

Will first time horse buyers have a problem finding a horse?

Not today, we seem to have enough horses to go around today - but 5 yrs from now.

What about 10 yrs from now?

Or did the QH and Paint and Appy people need to back off anyway b/c people are really only buying TWHs, MFTs, TBs and warmbloods (and Gypsy Vanners and Fresians)?

What do you think??

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Won for Me
Is the meadow on fire?
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I didn't read the whole first post! Sorry! My initial thought was there was a turn away from those breeds mentioned to other breeds like Warmbloods. Probably if you look at the statistics of warmbloods bred in this country in 2000 and now, the upturn would be dramatic.

I also don't think that article touches on the backyard breeders who will breed anything. Maybe Appaloosa'a and Quarter Horses have seen less breeding, but no one draws statistics from the know-nothing breeders.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
headlesshorseman
Member Avatar
You're BANNED!
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
DQ....I got your next horse....he's just waiting for you to come down and get him....

HH ;)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TarynJ
Member Avatar
Guiding your way to Candy Mountain, since 1873.
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Like anything, I think it's the middle market that is going to suffer. Bad breeders will continue to breed and serve as suppliers to the meat auctions. Elite breeders who can consistently sell premium offspring will continue to breed. It's the ones targeting the average ammy owner who are cutting back because the average ammy owner is often also cutting back expenses.

Look at the breeders on TOB who get jumped on for producing a nice looking, average performing, happy packer mutt type. I'm thinking of the TB/Draft/QHs I grew up riding, and couldn't find when I was shopping. Bria was the ONLY warmblood I looked at, and I only could afford her due to extenuating circumstances.

The add that to the fact that really, there's little profit in breeding that type given the expenses in raising horses now (if you do it properly), and there goes the middle market.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · The Hay Loft · Next Topic »
Add Reply