Fools breed Horses for wise men to buy ?

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What do you think of that quote then, Lynn Russell, todays H & H.


Not really too supportive of breeders I wouldn't have thought.
 
Very true, I quite often feel a fool although I have been told on several occasions that I am wise beyond my years!!
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However if it weren't for us fools she wouldn't have horses to ride.
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It's been said a lot, so not terribly original of LR. In some respects she's got a point; when you breed so many things can go wrong and there are so many variables that you don't necessarily get what you were expecting. If you go out and buy something you get exactly what you want.
 
I think what you're saying is right but as someone who doesn't breed I did read it as a swipe, which considering there is a lot of talk about british breeding being so far behind the continentals it's not too encouraging really.
 
Funny how the continentals like using our British bred TB to keep there breeding programme on tack ha ha no were rubbish at breeding thats why!
 
I think Lyn purchases most of her horses in Ireland so maybe it is a dig at them, cheeky mare. I know the breeders of Lyn's horse of a lifetime ''Polaris'' and I don't think they consider themselves fools!
 
I'm not having a go at british breeding myself, its just when you listen / read a lot of industry ' names ' they lament the lack of progress / behind the continental breeding programmes.
 
It is an age old saying.

It is often more cost effective to go out and buy a horse do a specific job when you can see what he is looking like than to take time to plan and breed a horse in the hope that the result will do the job.

But its not as much enjoyment.
 
its a very old saying...

i haven't seen the article so don't know what context it was said in... but i do agree with her.

breeding is such a gamble and can cause so much heartache.

it is much easier and (in 95% of cases) much cheaper to buy a 3 or 4 yro ready to break than to breed and bring on your own.

having bred in the past, i now buy horses as weanlings- far cheaper, you can choose what you like, much less risk and you still ge the enjoyment of watching them grow up.
 
I bred for the first time last year and had a stillborn. I haven't recovered yet!! The one saving grace is that I didn't lose the mare! I will not ever breed again,I will purchase a weanling. It is cheaper and far,far less worry.....
 
i agree with her, but i've bred 5 so far, and aim to breed again. financially it makes no sense, plus every mare i've bred has ended up smaller than i want, and every gelding too large, and none has really made the grade so far. but, i love breeding horses (for myself), i love having foals around and watching them grow and seeing how they turn out.
 
If it wasn't for Irish breeders Lynn Russell would have no horses to ride. The "wise men" of the old horseman's saying also do not gain the satisfaction of breeding that special one and the pride when you see their achievements. It is arduous, painstaking, expensive and heartbreaking (isnt everything to do with horses at times!) but is also joyful, exhilarating, timewasting (watching foals frolic) but at the end of the day I would sooner be visiting stallions and sitting up in a foaling box all night than thndering around a ring on a cob. Each to his own.
 
LHS,

it's an age old saying, and I would that it were rubbish, but it isn't. To support the argument, a dear, and now dead friend, once said to me, and I quote " You can always buy a good horse, my boy, but you can't breed one", which is in equal measure, also true.

We live in the HOPE of breeding an International horse. THAT I would suggest is the point. Those who would breed, would live in the hope of success.

Does anyone make any money out of a horse? Consider the TB foal which sells for £100k. The brood mare value would probably be equal to this amount, and then add to that the cost of the stud fee, and all the ancillary costs, which for the best studs can be mind numbing, and that six figure mare will need to produce many useful youngsters, to justify her costs.

It may well be true that fools breed foals, but rather like farming, I for one, will keep doing it until I run out of money!

It wasn't a swipe at British Breeding, it was a simple fact!

Alec.
 
Sadly I agree with the expression when applied to breeders in the UK. Two important differences for UK breeders when compared to the continent are that 1) economies of scale are achieved by the large continental studs, especially those that stand their own graded stallions, 2) there are good and frequent vehicles for selling youngstock i.e. the auctions. It is only with hindsight that I have realised how important these factors are and for those reasons I am stopping breeding this year (after 10 foals in total). Breeding is more of a bottomless money pit than anything else I have done over the years (eventing, BD etc)! The worst year was when we lost our best mare during birth - the foal's hoof ruptured her uterus; we were then looking after a very sick orphan foal around the clock for months - just my husband and I. The foal had to be hospitalised at 1 day old for a few days, including an attempted but failed fostering. The hospital bill was over £5000, the mare we lost was worth well over £5000 as a riding mare, the replacement milk cost a small fortune, and my husband and I were exhausted! Although the foal survived, he has not been the easiest given the amount of necessary human intervention in his first few weeks of life.
To cap it all - the recession now means I have more horses than I want as prices have plummeted - whereas the stud fees, AI and other vet costs, and cost of keep have either stayed static or gone up!
 
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If it wasn't for Irish breeders Lynn Russell would have no horses to ride. The "wise men" of the old horseman's saying also do not gain the satisfaction of breeding that special one and the pride when you see their achievements. It is arduous, painstaking, expensive and heartbreaking (isnt everything to do with horses at times!) but is also joyful, exhilarating, timewasting (watching foals frolic) but at the end of the day I would sooner be visiting stallions and sitting up in a foaling box all night than thndering around a ring on a cob. Each to his own.

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BRILLIANT!!
 
It's an age-old saying and quite a lot of truth in it.

If you were to sit down and work out the costs of getting your foal on the ground, it makes more financial sense to choose from a selection of 'ready to go' youngsters.

For the majority of breeders in the British Isles, breeding is a labour of love. Or the analogy I often think of regarding horse-breeding is buying bread - do you start from scratch with raw ingredients or go to the supermarket to buy a loaf from the shelf? As for the 'Aldi' and 'Lidl' super-markets on the Continent, the Europeans have mass-production and marketing down to a t.

I haven't read the article and don't know what context it was used but would guess that any Irish seller wouldn't lose a wink's sleep over the remark.
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Having seen some horses that people *do* actually buy, Id say that not all men who buy are wise. At least when you breed you dont really know for sure what you are going to end up with but when people can see what it is they are buying and its grim and yet they still buy it ... well whos the fool now?
 
I have not read the article but it would not bother me.One of the horses we bred represented Ireland at the World Championships in Lanaken 2008 and as breeders we were never so proud.We went to Lanaken and it was a great experience.We sold him as a weanling and he changed hands once since then but we were happy with the money we got for him and we wish his current owner every success with him.Thats the joys of breeding as far as we are concerned.
 
There's a thread in LN about this as well - the OP there describes herself as 'outraged' !!
Personally I didn't give LR quoting the saying a second thought until I came on here & saw that some people had found it offensive. I don't sell my homebreds, but even if I did I'd be way out of pocket !! The reward for me is watching them grow & educating them in to being nice horses - that's priceless.
 
it is just a old saying, I don't see why people are so offended about it? It is only highlighting that breeding horses is a difficult & risky business, I don't think any breeder would disagree with that.

In this day and age of equine reproduction science & the technical data on bloodlines, it is not so risky I suppose, but in its day the saying was true I am sure.

Lynn Russell rides show cobs, which are notoriously difficult to breed, a small ID - a rarity these days & but still lots of people try.
 
I took it more as a pop at people who go into breeding from a mare that they dont know what to do with any more or they want to breed a clone - as opposed to the individuals who have a decent mare, fully understand ALL the costs AND the risks and STILL want to do it.

So I had a proven mare, intermediate BE points, medium dressage and she had a good foal before- but I dont have my own land, I have never bred before and sat down with a horrible spreadsheet of costs - and decided she would go on as hack! I am one of the "will buy" brigade - in my case it would have a nice idea but only a pipe dream
 
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