I heard about this the other day locally and thought it was worth sharring with you.
Just some food for thought:
A horse auctioneer in Tennessee took quite a stand against over-breeding at his own auction. His comments were directed at the Walking Horse farmers standing there after having spent 1 hour watching the bids drop below $200. for good well broke riding horses. He told the people to just stop breeding. He asked where the buyers were because mostly everyone there was selling. No good bids, no buyers, mostly no-sales. He suggested a voluntary moratorium to the breeders. He said there was no reason for people to keep breeding 40, 50 to whatever amount of horses on their farms a year because there aren't enough homes out there to support this kind of breeding. He kept asking over and over why would anyone continue to breed that many horses on their farm per year contributing to the problem and knowing full well the prices of hay and grain has gone through the roof and then they complain about that. He said nobody wants your horses anymore. He said if people would stop breeding this year, or just breed half the horses they did last year, it would help the horse market rise up again back to where it should be in time. Although there was some negative grumbling, he also got a very small round of applause. He also mentioned that he used to be able to auction off plenty of farm equipment, tractors etc. horse trailers and they are not selling either. Farming has become a lost trade in this state and crop farmers are hanging on by a thread.
I feel his thoughts are dead on and apply to many breeds. What would really happen to the market if there were a voluntary moritorium on breeding? Could it gather strength and rise again? If you watch the sales board, you will see a lot of people selling out and prices reduced drastically for really good, wonderful, well cared for horses. Some may say there will always be a market for an exceptionally good horse, but now I may I disagree, because we all know of good horses, even great horses with championships under their belts are going for far less than they should be. We also know of wonderful horses that have gone through public auctions. This is such an awful shame. I also see the difference in quality of horse being bred now by both small breeder and larger breeder in comparrison to those just ten years ago.It seems like even though the quality of horse is improving in leaps and bounds, the market is not improving at all. In fact, maybe our breed is in more trouble than others because our horses are not riding horses. I feel it is still a buyers market, only this time, with higher quality horses out there to choose from.
Your thoughts?
Just some food for thought:
A horse auctioneer in Tennessee took quite a stand against over-breeding at his own auction. His comments were directed at the Walking Horse farmers standing there after having spent 1 hour watching the bids drop below $200. for good well broke riding horses. He told the people to just stop breeding. He asked where the buyers were because mostly everyone there was selling. No good bids, no buyers, mostly no-sales. He suggested a voluntary moratorium to the breeders. He said there was no reason for people to keep breeding 40, 50 to whatever amount of horses on their farms a year because there aren't enough homes out there to support this kind of breeding. He kept asking over and over why would anyone continue to breed that many horses on their farm per year contributing to the problem and knowing full well the prices of hay and grain has gone through the roof and then they complain about that. He said nobody wants your horses anymore. He said if people would stop breeding this year, or just breed half the horses they did last year, it would help the horse market rise up again back to where it should be in time. Although there was some negative grumbling, he also got a very small round of applause. He also mentioned that he used to be able to auction off plenty of farm equipment, tractors etc. horse trailers and they are not selling either. Farming has become a lost trade in this state and crop farmers are hanging on by a thread.
I feel his thoughts are dead on and apply to many breeds. What would really happen to the market if there were a voluntary moritorium on breeding? Could it gather strength and rise again? If you watch the sales board, you will see a lot of people selling out and prices reduced drastically for really good, wonderful, well cared for horses. Some may say there will always be a market for an exceptionally good horse, but now I may I disagree, because we all know of good horses, even great horses with championships under their belts are going for far less than they should be. We also know of wonderful horses that have gone through public auctions. This is such an awful shame. I also see the difference in quality of horse being bred now by both small breeder and larger breeder in comparrison to those just ten years ago.It seems like even though the quality of horse is improving in leaps and bounds, the market is not improving at all. In fact, maybe our breed is in more trouble than others because our horses are not riding horses. I feel it is still a buyers market, only this time, with higher quality horses out there to choose from.
Your thoughts?