Personally I wouldn't use a "saddle fitter" only a master saddler, but I do appriciate that they are hard to come by.
The majority of ones employed by brands do very little training at all.
With AES you can always do DNA afterwards if people want. THey have their own lab and are very quick.
I use AES without DNA and have no issues and has never been mentioned by buyers
It cost over a grand to get a foal on the ground so selling horses for that makes no sense at all. I don't think horse prices are high, just what they should be currently
I think I am about 40 miles from CI but I have a 225 acre farm so space and grazing isn't really an issue for us. Also have large sheep pens that can double as mare and foal pens
I have a mare due end of July, so we will be on foal watch any way then. Literally makes no difference to do two at once! I will hopefully then have a mare and foal for them to go out with. :)
From a practical point of view, if she is find somewhere for her to foal and preferably turned out with out youngstock. I can help with both if need be
I have just purchased a foal and paid the full asking price. I felt like it is a strong market, I wanted him and it was not a greedy price.
I sold a horse earlier in the year and I got the full asking price. Think it is indicative of where the market is just now
I have a few that are mentioned here.
Blackford are excellent, but do have sticky bits, I would say they come up slightly big
Flexars are great, no sticky, true to size, they look tiny when you first get them though.
Horze also good, range of designs, find them true to size