"Homebred" in ads: Good, bad or indifferent?

It's not something I would ever put in an ad: wonder what it's supposed to add to the horse? I used to have a stud farm and wouldn't consider my horses to have been "homebred", even though they were.
 
Like the racehorse trainer who went to look at a young horse and said - rather unkindly - "You must have bred it. No one would have bought a horse looking like that."
 
Cortez said:
It's not something I would ever put in an ad: wonder what it's supposed to add to the horse? I used to have a stud farm and wouldn't consider my horses to have been "homebred", even though they were.
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I'm pretty sure that the one of mine that is homebred had it stated in her advert....i can't remember exactly my reaction to it in her advert but I'm pretty sure I just read it as a factual description of what she was.
 
I would be indifferent. It could mean that the horse has had a great start in life with vaccinations, worming and farrier. It could mean a spoilt brat. I would judge the horse in front of me.
 
Homebred is merely a statement of fact and along with all the other statements written in the advert, it is up to the purchaser to make what they will of it.. When I go buying my first question will be, who is it by and out of. There are bloodlines I would not touch.

Anyone looking to buy my homebred's would find themselves with mannerly and well educated horses, along with training and competition records starting with the very first dressage test sheet through to the last time they competed.

It is very easy to assess a young horse by simply looking at the owner and facilities you will soon see if it is educated correctly or not. The first give away is when it does not take 2 steps back off the door when the owner slides the bolt back.
 
sport horse said:
It means that you know its full history and likely its full veterinary history.
You will know its breeding and that its passport belongs to it.
You know that the owners have managed to back break and ride it away plus any competition record.
You will know it has lived in one home and believe it or not there are plenty of breeders who do not mollycoddle their horses and produce them to attain the most of their natural talents so that they can sell to the most appropriate home.
You can probably deduce in most cases that it is not a dealer selling who has bought it cheap or in px for another horse and doped it so you can ride it.
However in view of the fact that most of you would prefer not to buy a 'homebred' I rather hope you continue to buy the c..p that is imported - it is what you all deserve.
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Well said!! I've been reading in disbelief some of the answers on here. I have various homebreds here, all by my own stallion, so can give a buyer a chapter and verse history of sire, dam, their ridden performance, and the offsprings traits based on the parents. I think that's a real positive. My horses are known for their good manners. They all tie up, load and travel in the lorry from two weeks old. They socialise with older horses to teach them manners, and show very successfully at county level. That is my definition of a homebred.
 
To me, ‘homebred’ says more about the owner than the horse. I would take the horse at face value regardless
 
I have bred a few ponies, well my mares have. They all have manners and are well handled. All except one have been/were shown in-hand and/or under saddle. One of our vets commented how good my "homebred" mare was when she had a scan on a suspected tendon injury. He had wanted to sedate her to do it but I told him it wasn't necessary as she wouldn't move from where I put her.

It wouldn't put me off a homebred but I don't buy many these days!
 
cundlegreen said:
Well said!! I've been reading in disbelief some of the answers on here. I have various homebreds here, all by my own stallion, so can give a buyer a chapter and verse history of sire, dam, their ridden performance, and the offsprings traits based on the parents. I think that's a real positive. My horses are known for their good manners. They all tie up, load and travel in the lorry from two weeks old. They socialise with older horses to teach them manners, and show very successfully at county level. That is my definition of a homebred.
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Absolutely this!
Wouldn't remotely put me off either, I would just have the knowledge that the seller would have the horse's complete history available. Plenty of decent, experienced folk around breeding the occasional foal.
 
pansymouse said:
My gut says brat just as it say yob to a cob.
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Goodness, how unlucky am I - a brat and a yob to contend with! :D

To me, being homebred is neither here nor there. I would probably view it as something reasonably positive - in the sense that the horse's full history would likely be available if I were to buy - but seeing it written down in an ad wouldn't really sway my decision one way or the other.
 
I look more at the horses breeding, soundness and temperament then anything else but I have known a few bratty homebreds that have no idea how to behave in a herd environment away from their mums when they are older and have been inevitably moved on.
I always question the reason for sale too, you have invested a huge amount of time and money in breeding a foal and then to sell, obviously there are genuine reasons sometimes but it's something I would look into straight away.
It doesn't put me off as I've seen a situation where a lady had a homebred that I was looking after, he had been with her for his entire 30 years and was the most spoilt horse he was awful at times but that being said.. She took on a companion pony for him while I was working for her and this mare was 11, been a child's pony for years pony club, the lot. Came in pretty normal if feisty mare. 7 years down the line and she's been turned into a worse version of the homebred above due to be spoilt and having everything her way.

So I think it doesn't matter what age they get spoilt... I'd take a well brought up and socialised homebred over someone's beloved and spoilt stud bred 10 year old.
 
Yes I can see all the advantages of well socialised, well bred home-bred horses with full histories: presumably if you were advertising then you'd also state some of them?

When I see 'home-bred' I assume a single foal to a single mare, not a professional stud.

I think before I saw the BOGOF foal ad I tended to think of 'home-bred; as a good thing: well loved, consistent handling, not passed from pillar to post, full history known etc. But then I started seeing the potential downsides: no other youngsters for company, no nanny mare, bred for sentimental reasons or accidentally rather than for quality/temperament. All technically 'home-bred'!

So now I have moved to 'indifferent'. But it is interesting that word can lead to so many assumptions: good and bad.
 
There is a 2 year old at the yard I'm on. He briefly went on livery after weaning with a couple of youngsters but has spent the last year or so here with 1-3 other older horses at a time for company. Not a Homebred as he was bought from the stud but he is a royal PITA and not a horse I would want to buy given his up bringing. So to me, Homebred wouldn't make any difference, I'd be more interested in how the horse was bought up if the history was known and what was in front of me.
Eta- to me Homebred is an amateur breeder who has a couple of 'average' or all round foals or a very small scale stud. Not commercial breeders or a Bogof but certainly after reading this thread, were I looking for a horse and the ad said home bred, I'd ask more questions than I might otherwise have done!
 
Homebred would not put me off at all. My best horses have come straight from the breeder. My very best horse came from someone who just bred one a year and didn't ride herself. He was a well produced, confident individual, with no hang ups.
 
If you can tell from the advert- and at viewing - that the people know what they're doing, it would be plus for me.

If you can tell that they don't, it's irrelevant.

My mare was advertised as homebred, and is an absolute gem.

I wish people would stop trying to generalise when it's meaningless. Horse people do it entirely too often - our individually tiny experience of cobs / imported warmbloods / chestnuts / homebreds / Arabs / exracers / xxx injury all too often gets presented as inarguable fact. We are very lucky on this forum to have people with lots of experience. You can spot them a mile off because they're always the ones who don't make generalised assumptions about anything!
 
Antw23uk said:
I'm with the others having always assumed its a bad thing and it would be a spoilt brat BUT now I know a few home bred horses I'm inclined to keep an open mind. At some point or another a horse is born in a home so surely they are all home bred? So yes, used to put me off, now potentially wouldnt.
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Mine was born wild on the Forest & stayed there until he was 4, so definitely not a homeomebred :D

But a homebred wouldn't put me off but it wouldn't be a selling point necessarily either - I'm indifferent to it.
 
I breed one or two a year. They are bred to be top show jumping horses but as with any breeding programme they do not all make Grand Prix level.

All my youngsters are produced exactly the same. They run as a mixed herd all summer from 1 to 3 years old. Broken at three. Turned away. They do a little at 4 - maybe a few shows if they are mature enough. At 5 they start their competitive career. Maybe at that age or at 6 we decide whether they will continue as show jumpers. During this period they have travelled in a horsebox and trailer. They have been to shows, loaded/unloaded, stood on the lorry for the duration of a show, they have been ridden,schooled and hacked out by young girls and by my main rider. They will have been clipped several times, shod, vaccinated etc etc.

The ones that we decide to sell on will then be taken out by the yard girls and they will do dressage, riding club training events etc to make them as well rounded as possible.

I consider that to buy one of my 'homebreds' anyone would be very fortunate. In fact, so do the people that have had them as I have buyers from as far away as the west coast of USA wanting another! I have kept in touch with nearly all of the horses. Many are still in the same home to which I sold them.

If you do not consider buying a 'homebred' a positive, please do continue to patronise some of the dealers that have featured on this forum. You will be cheated/lied to and you can take them to court, win a judgement and still fail to gt a refund.

Whatever you do please do not respond to my very rare adverts - you will not meet my strict critieria for a future owner of one of my homebred horses.
 
Ambers Echo said:
Yes I can see all the advantages of well socialised, well bred home-bred horses with full histories: presumably if you were advertising then you'd also state some of them?

When I see 'home-bred' I assume a single foal to a single mare, not a professional stud.

I think before I saw the BOGOF foal ad I tended to think of 'home-bred; as a good thing: well loved, consistent handling, not passed from pillar to post, full history known etc. But then I started seeing the potential downsides: no other youngsters for company, no nanny mare, bred for sentimental reasons or accidentally rather than for quality/temperament. All technically 'home-bred'!

So now I have moved to 'indifferent'. But it is interesting that word can lead to so many assumptions: good and bad.
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yes agreed :) my (light hearted) comment came from experience back in the day when I had to work with a lot of TB young stock and various horses at vets-the non-homebred ones were generally much easier to handle as they'd seen something of the world and been handled by lots of people. And often when I see an ad that states 'homebred' the rest of it seems to imply something that perhaps the owner cannot be very objective about.

Am I making a generalisation? yes. would it put me off if it was in budget and local? no, I'd go along and see it-its doubtful though that it would be my kind of horse these days so a bit of a moot point. I am sure that many home breds are done somewhat better than some of the studs of a certain breed I have visited-in terms of feet, worming, sympathetic handling etc

as for only buying from dodgy dealers or buying elite sport horses-there are plenty of people selling in between those extremes thank goodness.
 
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