Am I the only one.....

[spottysport]

......fed up with people complaining about the price of young horses these days?????????????? Everyone seems to want to purchase a future superstar for around 1,000!
I know people who have their own stallion. He runs on the hill with a band of VERY mediocre mares, and produces mediocre youngsters - now I would expect to pay up to 1,000 for one of those. On the other hand a lot of breeders have 1 or 2 GOOD mares, spend time choosing a suitable stallion, pay 100's for stud fee, vet ect. Then we sit up for days and weeks on end waiting for foals, handle them, vaccinate them and fret over them. Is it wrong to expect a tiny return on all this work and investment???? Sorry for longish rant!

 

[AmyMay]

I think that it's a difficult one. Knowing how much it costs to get a foal on the ground - let alone get it to two or three years old - I agree that their prices have to be pretty healthy in order to make any money from them.

However, people are just not prepared to pay. So breeders are between a rock and a hard place.

 

[Faithkat]

No, you're not the only one, but it is only the Brits that seem to complain or, I would prefer to say, are unrealistic. You and AmyMay are quite right highlighting the costs of producing a decent foal. Mine is up for sale at a price that will actually only cover the cost of producing her, registration (which went up £7 in one go the other day!), microchipping and vaccination. . . . and that's if I sell her at weaning. If she doesn't go until she's a yearling or later then my costs will have gone up accordingly but I'm unlikely to be able to ask more for her. Good grief, it cost me £42 just to have the vet draw her chart for registration (and that was sharing a call-out fee)

 

[htobago]

Isn't there an old saying "Fools breed horses for wise men to buy!" ???

It is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to buy a good youngster than to breed one. I don't know what it's like for other breeds, but with Arabs at the moment even the good ones aren't sellling for anything like what they are worth - and certainly not for what they cost to produce.

At the very top end of the show-Arab market, they are still fetching good money (even silly prices - or 'Middle-East prices' as they are now often called, due to the number of very rich Sheikhs who are now buying and breeding show-Arabs). But breeders with nice, quality, well-bred horses - who are maybe not going to be big in-hand show champions but nonetheless perfectly good - are often having to accept very low prices, especially for young colts and geldings.

I've taken the easier option of just having a stallion at stud - no mares or foals of my own.

 

[Anastasia]

You are correct about some people not willing to pay the price in the UK. Yet they will go across to the continent and purchase a foal or riding horse sometimes for double the money (for the really good ones).

The problem with the UK is that everything costs so much. The livery is more expensive, training costs so expensive and AI costs more expense than on the continent.

I went to visit a friend in Holland back in February. He has one of his jumping horses with the Dutch International rider Jur Vrieling. He was complaining to me about the cost of keeping his horse with an International rider. And what was he paying for this rider per month...................700 euros (approx just under £500 per month).

When I told him what we were paying for one of our stallions at last years prices at a competition yard (and this was not an International rider) his first sentence was "If I was paying that per month for one horse I would stop breeding!!".

Needless to say he felt much better after speaking to us!

 

[Donkeymad]

To be honest, I don't think a lot of people actually realise the costs involved. They see it as a 'qucik romp' with the nearest stallion, then letting the mare carry on and just give birth. No extra care or feeding etc. Then the foal simply drinks from mum until it starts to eat grass. We all know, this is far from the truth.

 

[Faithkat]

Oh, isn't that what happens then (she says with her tongue clamped firmly in her cheek)
I think there have been enough horror stories of people losing mare, foals and mares AND foals on this Forum this year to bring it home how NOT easy it can be.

Having got my mare in foal really easily last year, I thought it would be simple again. . . . I think the weather is to blame but trying to get her to cycle properly since she foaled has been a nightmare. The stud owner reckons that they think it's autumn and their systems have shut down. Finally managed to get her to ovulate this week so I took half a day off work yesterday to go haring round the Hampshire countryside collecting semen and taking it back for them to AI her . . . . fingers crossed for the 14 day scan on 26th . . . .