What is the purpose of Breeding for you?

[PuzzlePiece]

After hearing a comment today: 'breeding is just about making money' (which I completely disagree with as in my experience you have to be selling in the £thousands to make any sort of profit - accounting for breeding costs then livery, vet, farrier etc which add up every day from birth)
I was wondering what peoples views on breeding are: Do you breed to sell on? To keep a mares bloodline going? Breed a future competition horse? Keep a business going? Because someone said they have a stallion that would go great with your mare? ....
Just interested in the personal reasons people breed and whether it makes a difference if your a small/home breeder or do it as a business.
I work in the stud industry, personally I would have to have a top class mare and would aim to breed a better competition horse as I like horses to have a purpose.
Thanks in advance to all who reply, I am not saying any reason is better than another just interested to hear peoples views

 

[whisp&willow]

I've only bred the once, and did so to produce another riding horse for myself. (general all rounder that I can show at low level/riding club type events)

It meant keeping a bit of my mare for the future (she is nothing special, but everything to me) and meant that I could do all the work myself and build a great bond as I have done with her mother (bought as a 2 yr old, and now 19)

It has been a great experience and I have loved every minute of it. Willow isa lovely girl, and will be with me for life. I have been approached by someone who was desperate to buy her and offered A LOT of money for her, but she will never be sold. She is for too special to me.

She has cost me a fortune: breeding and bringing up is definitely not the cheaper option!

I can't see me breeding again. As much as I love my Willow, I think if and when I am looking for another horse I will be buying not breeding.

 

[HBM1]

Now that I have picked myself up off the floor after laughing at the "breeding is just about making money" comment, I would say that I wanted to breed horses with excellent blood lines and a very good chance of making the top in competition - but - at the same time, breeding horses who could also be ridden by anyone. Temperament means a great deal to me. Of course we all hope we will be able to produce a youngster so talented that they do make money in the future, but you can never go into it thinking that, because the money drains out at a hell of a speed in the first few years!

 

[JandP]

I bred to have something from my mare, who I have owned for 15 years and is my horse of a lifetime - lots of talent and amazing temperament. I wanted her, but with go faster stripes! A risk undoubtedly but so far I have ended up with exactly what I planned for, couldn't be happier!!

 

[Rollin]

Conservation, I have two rare breeds and will never recoup my breeding costs.

 

[angrovestud]

I breed as I have a dream, perhaps silly & stupid to some, part of my dream has come true already through sheer determination and belief in my horse, I am waiting for my next babies to grow to continue my dream when I breed I want a foal that will not only be physically correct also they must have good temperaments, also beautiful to look at, the last thing I think about would be to breed for money I will leave that so everyone else what I want is perfection and a horse that can do something no ones else's can

 

[templewood]

I wish someone would tell me how you make money from breeding!
I started breeding because I bought a PRE stallion just to have fun with, and he turned out to be something really special. I was constantly told by judges and experts in the breed how good he is and what an amazing pedigree he has. I felt that I couldn't let him go to waste and that his genes needed to carry on, so my choice was either to sell him or to breed. I kept him and many years later his stock are showing that I made the right decision. Although my bank balance doesn't agree!

 

[Enfys]

I breed because I can. I do it for fun, because I enjoy it.

I am merely a backyard breeder and I realise that the professionals tend to poo-poo people like me, but, quite frankly, I don't give a flying fig what they think, I am not in their league and have no desire to be, but it doesn't mean I take it any less seriously or don't bother state the blatently obvious.

This is why I keep my own stallion and broodmares :

Like any other breeder it gives me a buzz to see my babies going out in the big wide world and making someone happy. I am so pleased with this chap, and so, more importantly, is his owner.

Not to mention the fact that this horse has been used as a therapy horse (think RDA) since he was 18 months old.

I only breed horses that are registerable (apart from one unplanned one where the mare took matters into her own hands) and from sire and dam that have the qualities I want to reproduce. I don't aim to produce world beaters, but I do aim (and succeed) to produce well mannered babies that will go onto lead useful and productive lives.

I do breed to sell on, yes, and yes, I do cover my costs - mainly because I own the stallion, the mares, and my own land.

 

[henryhorn]

The first aim is to breed horses for ourselves to compete.
The next is to breed horses that will have long useful lives, so trainability and soundness are top of the list. Next comes talent because to fulfil the first three they need a fair bit of that too, as although I have nothing against happy hacker horses ours can offer so much more.
I know for a fact we haven't made a penny profit in almost 28 years of breeding, but the rewards come from seeing your home breds give other people success and tons of fun and competing horses you are confident will always give of their best and so likely be in the rosettes every time.
Our original aim was to breed a stallion like the one we had, but that proved near impossible and as more and more of the horses proved how versatile they were we refined the stock until we had what we feel are top class all rounders, you can for instance go to a County Show and win a Riding Horse Class, do BD and get placed every time even as an average rider to Elementary, event and again expect to be placed most times, and even go Quadrille dressed up in all manner of spooky costumes. Add being sane to hack/box/handle and I guess a huge percentage of the riders on HH would like a horse like that.
Our ambitions have grown with their successes too, this year we have used three fabulous stallions via AI to mares who have proven records, although we are going more into dressage breeding the same principles will apply that we have always had, anything we aren't happy with we don't repeat, and temperament has to be a high priority, it's pointless having the most beautiful talented horse if it needs a professional to ride it!

 

[Casey76]

Conservation.

I have a rare breed, and recently bought a mare with the intention of being able to breed in the future.

I have a huge fascination with the blood lines and the currently diverging types, especially mountain bred vs "plains" bred Mérens.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I breed because I can. I do it for fun, because I enjoy it.

I am merely a backyard breeder and I realise that the professionals tend to poo-poo people like me, but, quite frankly, I don't give a flying fig what they think, I am not in their league and have no desire to be, but it doesn't mean I take it any less seriously or don't bother state the blatently obvious.

This is why I keep my own stallion and broodmares :

Like any other breeder it gives me a buzz to see my babies going out in the big wide world and making someone happy. I am so pleased with this chap, and so, more importantly, is his owner.

Not to mention the fact that this horse has been used as a therapy horse (think RDA) since he was 18 months old.

I only breed horses that are registerable (apart from one unplanned one where the mare took matters into her own hands) and from sire and dam that have the qualities I want to reproduce. I don't aim to produce world beaters, but I do aim (and succeed) to produce well mannered babies that will go onto lead useful and productive lives.

I do breed to sell on, yes, and yes, I do cover my costs - mainly because I own the stallion, the mares, and my own land.

OMG Enfys .


NOW THAT is a minnie me photo doesn't he/she look like mum

I only bred once that was to keep. Next door bre
ed to make money

 

[Dry Rot]

It is easy to make a small fortune breeding horses.

All you need is a large fortune to start with.

An old one but a true one.

A wise man buys a horse, a fool breeds one.

Well, a proper fool here but I am only a hobby breeder and get my enjoyment from seeing them go on and bring a lot of pleasure and success to others. Too old to do it myself but I can enjoy success at second hand. And in the meantime, it is the training and interaction with another intelligence I enjoy. Truth be told, it is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Of course, I'm just a beginner. But I did think and dream of doing it for over forty years before the first foal hit the ground.

 

[Hurricanelady]

I'm another very small time breeder, I originally wanted to get just the one next generation from my lovely part bred Trakehner mare who is just a fantastic all rounder, and would have been a fantastic eventer if I could jump well (which I can't)!

Spent a very long time researching a suitable stallion and then tried to do ET with her, bless her she did her job fantastically producing 3 embryos across 2 cycles, but none of them held in the recipients so it was not meant to be. As someone entirely new to breeding (and clueless at the beginning) I was extremely pleased with how helpful and flexible the stallion owner was, and can't recommend Future Sports Horses highly enough on that score. Other breeders on this forum have been extremely helpful and I have been lucky to be able to use a very experienced stud and stud vet practice.

I ended up finding my mare's fabulously bred half sister and am now the proud owner of her plus her two lovely youngsters, one of whom I bought at a week old when I bought her, and the other one I bred myself as a last ditch attempt.

It has been a hard and very challenging 2 years, but so very rewarding and I am thoroughly enjoying caring for my two lovely youngsters and am looking forward to them growing up and developing. I have the luxury of letting them develop entirely at their own pace and waiting until they are completely ready for backing etc. If I had to sell them it would break my heart, so I personally couldn't do this commercially.

It has cost an absolute fortune and clearly it would have been cheaper to buy older ready made horses, but we will hopefully end up with two lovely well balanced youngsters who are happy and enjoy their lives with us and that's all we want

 

[Spring Feather]

There are many reasons why I continue breeding. Initially and purely emotionally, you do get a huge feel-good factor from producing nice quality youngsters. Then you get a real buzz when you see that others think the same and they buy your youngsters with the intention of producing/competing them to national standard.

I love breeding my mares and raising their foals, I find it a little addictive to be quite honest and I think if I didn't breed there would definitely be a bit of a void in my life as it takes up so much time and requires good co-ordination and then to experience the great contentment when all mares are settled for the year.

Finally yes I do breed to make money. Selling our youngsters makes a reasonably significant impact on our annual turnover. If I wasn't making healthy returns from the sales of our foals then as much as I personally enjoy breeding, I would no longer do it. Breeding and selling my youngstock is a part of my business so it can't be a self-indulgence at the end of the day.

 

[JVB]

It's on my bucket list, I really want the experience of seeing a foal develop and grow from day one. I bought a mare so it could be an option.

But I want to try and produce the best foal I can too, it will be for keeps so I'd like to be able to compete it one day as high a level as possible.

I also want to keep my mare's line going so I can keep her daughter, then maybe grandaughter etc if i get lucky. If she has a colt then I may try again for a filly, who knows.

I can also tell my mare is desperate to be a mum, and will make a cracking one too so I'm doing it for her as well so she can experience it.

So mostly emotional reasons