get off your high horse

[bugbee717]

I am ranting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have seven horses/ponies two of which are dartmoor hill ponies, one a warmblood ( from a breeder who breeds 30 or so a year hmmmmmmmmmmm is that right. She just did not like him, why, because he is slightly pigeon toed and she could not sell him for the £5000 which she sells his siblings)

I have a holstein cross, imported. Her owner did not know she was infoal till the day before she foaled.

my haffy, who is just a haffy.

my cross welsh, and my fresian.

All this talk of breeding just really gets too me, my dartmoor hill ponies have great paces. Always get placed in shows normally 1st or 2nd and have great conformation. Yet these are slated in the breeding, should we cull or not c!"!p. Yet my warmblood who is from a well known breeder has such poor conformation, will only ever be a happy hack.



Is it not about time some sort of regulation (sp) was put in place to stop people breeding, it does not matter if you was a breeder of the best horse or a commner on dartmoor.

We are at a time when we are told horses are not selling, so why the hell are people still breeding. Home use yes fine breed to keep, but not sell on.


I am sure we can all remember a dog is for life not for christmas. so why the hell is it not them same for horses/ ponies.

I know my seven soon to be eight will be with me till death

ARE YOURS

Rant over !!!!!!!!!

 

[schneeko]

Yes

My two are here to stay.

What is your holstien crossed with. I have a tb x holstein and I love him to bits. Holsteins are my favourite breed now.

 

[reddie]

I agree there should not be irresponsible breeding. However i don't think that you can compare having dog for life is the same as a horse. Ther are lots of different reasons why someone has to sell on a horse, financial, loss of confidence, outgrown, not compatiable

 

[guesstimation]

100% with you! Indiscriminate breeding of all sorts is just wrong, how many times do you see an advert for a mare saying she'd make a great brood mare when in fact she really wouldn't, shouldn't or if you did you'd be making more unnecessary, unneeded animals.

And how many ads are there of horses already in foal! Why put a horse in foal if selling it, ok they hope it will improve the chances of selling a poor quality mare because it has a coloured foal inside her, they wouldn't do it if it didn't work I guess but it is ridiculous.

Dartmoor Hill Ponies are wonderful beasties and you can get some excellent quality ones as well as some appalling quality ones (mines a hill pony but any one who sees him thinks he is registered) - you know what is really sad now is we used to take on all unsold foals from market and they would be the worst confirmation, they have turned out to be lovely ponies every single one of them, most are in companion homes and happy. Now there are so many unsold we can actually choose which ones we take, and sadly we choose those that are of the better quality as they are the ones with more chance of finding a home and leading a good useful life for someone. It is so hard having to make that decision as naturally you are drawn to the waifs!

We have had part registered ponies through our doors and currently have a registered mare too

You should need a licence to breed anything, and it should be monitered much better

There are stallion inspections on the moor to try and ensure the best is bred but they are all a bit of a con really, you should see what passes!

OK my rant is over too!!

 

[Enfys]

I am ranting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free, everyone has a right to their own opinion, I quite respect that. Here's mine...

We are at a time when we are told horses are not selling, so why the hell are people still breeding.
Because I can - there is no law that says I can't. My farm is a registered horse farm, and my stallion is licensed (at no small cost) with two breed societies.
I don't breed rubbish from rubbish.
I do breed them in my backyard though.
I breed medium size all rounders, registered horses that can, and do, go on to lead useful lives and bring pleasure to their owners

Home use yes fine breed to keep, but not sell on.
So, if we all followed this, where then would people eventually get their horses from? You wouldn't have any of yours if someone, somewhere, hadn't bred them, intentionally or not.
Only the 'elite', the breeders would have horses in the end, and if they didn't need them, they wouldn't breed, and if they didn't breed....

I am sure we can all remember a dog is for life not for christmas. so why the hell is it not them same for horses/ ponies.
Situations can change, sometimes unexpectedly and unavoidably, periods of financial stress, death, divorce etc, any number of reasons that money is needed elsewhere more urgently.
If I had the choice between setting food on the table infront of my family or spending it on the upkeep of a horse I wouldn't have a moments hesitation in choosing. Horse - family? No brainer.

As we all know, equines can cost a huge amount to keep, more than the average dog, for example, the cost of four bales of hay (what's that? A weeks feed for a pony?) would buy how much dog food?

I know my seven soon to be eight will be with me till death Yours, or theirs? If I died tomorrow, my horses would be on the market soon after, my OH wouldn't want to keep them.

ARE YOURS

No. I couldn't say that with any amount of certainty even about my personal horses (x8)

The others I could say No with absolute certainty.
I breed good horses for other people to enjoy, and I buy horses to sell on. I sell better horses and ponies than I buy because I spend a lot of time and effort in working with them so that other people will enjoy them and perhaps, just perhaps, keep them for life.



.........

 

[baymareb]

I have one horse. She's lovely, has a wonderful temperament and beautiful gaits. As long as I own her, she will never be bred. For one thing, I can't see me having the time or the money to raise a foal but for another, I can't see bringing another horse into the world just because I love my mare so much.

My outlook is that breeding should be a very serious decision, based on the quality of the horses being bred and the potential salability of the offspring. Because while I would love to say that I will keep my mare until she dies of old age - and while I will certainly strive to - things happen. She may outlive me. I may go broke and I'm not going to shortchange her life just to keep her in mine.

That's why my focus is on bringing her along to be a solid riding horse. If anything happened to me, I'd want to know that people would be happy to buy a horse like her. That's what I think the focus of breeding should be - producing horses that people will want to buy.

 

[Hanno Verian]

"We are at a time when we are told horses are not selling, so why the hell are people still breeding.
Because I can - there is no law that says I can't. My farm is a registered horse farm, and my stallion is licensed (at no small cost) with two breed societies.
I don't breed rubbish from rubbish.
I do breed them in my backyard though.
I breed medium size all rounders, registered horses that can, and do, go on to lead useful lives and bring pleasure to their owners

Home use yes fine breed to keep, but not sell on.
So, if we all followed this, where then would people eventually get their horses from? You wouldn't have any of yours if someone, somewhere, hadn't bred them, intentionally or not.
Only the 'elite', the breeders would have horses in the end, and if they didn't need them, they wouldn't breed, and if they didn't breed....

I am sure we can all remember a dog is for life not for christmas. so why the hell is it not them same for horses/ ponies.
Situations can change, sometimes unexpectedly and unavoidably, periods of financial stress, death, divorce etc, any number of reasons that money is needed elsewhere more urgently.
If I had the choice between setting food on the table infront of my family or spending it on the upkeep of a horse I wouldn't have a moments hesitation in choosing. Horse - family? No brainer.

As we all know, equines can cost a huge amount to keep, more than the average dog, for example, the cost of four bales of hay (what's that? A weeks feed for a pony?) would buy how much dog food?

I know my seven soon to be eight will be with me till death Yours, or theirs? If I died tomorrow, my horses would be on the market soon after, my OH wouldn't want to keep them.

ARE YOURS"

No. I couldn't say that with any amount of certainty even about my personal horses (x8)

The others I could say No with absolute certainty.
I breed good horses for other people to enjoy, and I buy horses to sell on. I sell better horses and ponies than I buy because I spend a lot of time and effort in working with them so that other people will enjoy them and perhaps, just perhaps, keep them for life.



.........

Enfys I think that the point bugbee717 was trying to make is that in the UK, there is a lot of irresponsible breeding carried out, taken in conjunction with horses not making the grade in racing, the market is glutted.

This ends up with a lot of horses going for meat or ending up in situstions that cause concern for their welfare.

There is always a market for high quality horses, yes that market shrinks or expands but it is always there, for me the issue is when the market is saturated at the lower end, ponies that have been only intended to be ridden go for meat.

There is a sector of the industry that concentrates on producing quantity not quality, one effect of this is that there is often a shortage of "quality" horses, which is why people go overseas, adding to the problem.

I'm not having a go at all breeders in the UK, just a very small minority of them, who I believe are harming the UK bloodstock industry as a whole.