Question for breeders

[gimp]

I am really curious about breeding (minis, that is). With the economy as it is and all I am a bit curious about the breeding folks having multiple foals each year. Is it like dogs, where the foal is "reserved" before it hits the ground? I cannot imagine having a bunch of foals each year and not having them pre-sold. The herd would grow incredibly fast and all would be related. Do you have waiting lists?

I was a bit frightened to put this on the main forum in fear that I might upset someone, but I am really interested in how this works.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

We actually breed for ourselves first. We also try not to have more than four mares due a year. That way we know we aren't overfaced. If the foals don't sell, that's OK. We show what we breed. All our foals are Futurity Nominated. And we do pretty well selling the foals we don't want to keep, and occasionally selling some that we DO want to keep!

So far it worked out pretty good- in 8 years of breeding we only have one "foal" who didn't sell, he's five now. We COULD have sold him several times, but he's a bit psychotic and we won't let him go just anywhere. That said, we would GIVE him away to the right home.

Lucy

 

[Jill]

I also say to breed for yourself first, and don't get further "ahead" than you feel comfortable keeping unless / until good homes come along. I think it's fairly unlikely to have many foals "sold" before they hit the ground unless you've got some fairly high profile horses. Not that it can't happen, but I'd say it's rare. But, yes, there are breeders who maintain a waiting list. I do -- of people who have expressed an interest in a particular cross, horse, or hypothetical result. So far though, I haven't turned loose

 

[Marnie]

This is a good question and one that I wonder about too. Especially the people who have something like ten or more foals? It takes a decent price to even maintain the mare for a yr and with prices so low, how and why do they keeping breeding so many? I used to have about 10-15 a yr but the market was there but I guess I helped flood the market but I didn't know what the future held.

Now I only have a few mares and breed them for my petting zoo, I already have people who want my babies from this yr, they're all so friendly from being around people. So this is why I breed my few.

 

[targetsmom]

This is a really good question... the short answer is that very few if any foals are "reserved" in advance although some breeders have developed a clientele. I was thinking of this over the weekend. We have been "breeding" for three years and this is the first year we have had a live foal. He is everything we could possibly have hoped for, and we were very excited about him. And then we started to market him and we haven't had ANY interest - not one single e-mail, or call. So I was thinking of one of my Father's sayings "be careful what you wish for". And in the meantime, because of the 11 month gestation, by the time you realize there is no interest, you may already have more foals on the way... Of couse, I could probably sell him for $500, but at that price, I will geld him and show him.

Now, before our colt was born, we would get phone calls from people wanting to buy OTHER minis on our website... I guess what you have to do is sell the ones there is a market for and keep the rest. I think we will be able to sell our driivng minis, but then I thought there would be interest in our foals too.

Oh, and we know there is no way we could ever even attempt to cover our costs - our vet fees in one month alone are more than anyone would pay for a foal. Now, don't get me wrong, we love our minis, and our colt is a treasure, but as a business......forget it.

 

[kaykay]

I do have a waiting list for a Feature filly and one for a pinto filly by Black. So of course we have had all colts this year LOL. We only have 4-5 foals per year so we dont have to panic. We usually keep at least 1 or 2 to show so that doesnt leave a lot to sell.

I do know a lot of larger farms have cut back on how many mares they breed back

 

[Matt73]

Yep, breed for ourselves here, too. There is NO money in breeding any kind of horse on a small scale. The people that make money are the ones breeding AMAZING animals (top hunter/jumpers/reiners/race horses etc.). I just spent over $500 in vet bills for my one mare after she tore her cervix during her first foaling. I'm keeping my gorgeous filly. But...if I sold her, I'd ask $1200. Considering feed and vet bills that's not even breaking even. I can't imagine what some of these big breeding farms incur in vet bills during a foaling season. You need LOTS of money if you are going to breed horses. My babies are bred for me...

 

[Jill]

Matt -- this is not a happy thought but one that has become very clear to me over the past couple of years. There are some big farms that simply wouldn't choose to provide the type of vet care to their mares and (for sure the currently less valuable) foals that you and I would. The potential for big vet bills doesn't factor into the equation for some of the "big" farms. Unfortunately, I know of one case based on two dying colts I received last fall and despite some steep vet bills and much professional attention involved with trying to save them, it was to no avail and they were gone w/in a month of arriving here. Necropsy confirmed my vets' diagnosis of this ongoing illness that they had had working in them for months

 

[SampleMM]

I have a very small herd of buckskin horses. This is a hobby for me but like any big farm, I have spent big money on my horses, advertising, vets bills, and so on. I don't mind though because horses are my passion. I am not in the business to make a profit or to support my family thank goodness because I'm sure we'd die of starvation. I will only ever have two or three foals a year because if there was no market for them, I would certainly provide them a forever home.

I did have an overseas client that reserved a buckskin colt or filly. I ended up having one bay colt, who is going over to France to live and my other mare had a false pregnancy.