The New Reality of Breeding

Where are we heading with the horse breeding industry?

by Allison Trimble

These days we all are being more selective about when and how we spend our money. The horse market, considered a luxury market for most people, has been struggling. As we look forward to this breeding season I want to share with you what I have done as a breeder and stallion owner to stay afloat.

Financial Sense
I went into breeding season this year with about 13 mares of my own, all ex-show horses, and I had 11 weanlings and 11 babies due to be born. I know it seems like a simple math equation, but that situation grows your herd in a hurry. That is fine if the market is healthy and young horses are selling well, but having to keep and feed all of those prospects through the chilly Northwest winter months is a huge undertaking. I own my stallion and do 90% of the breeding work myself, so that keeps the actual cost of breeding down, but what happens after that is what gets expensive.

In January I decided I wasn’t going to breed for a couple of years. For me, it didn’t make financial sense; I simply didn’t have the time and I wanted to start to build a healthy and sustainable business. I weaned the foals this summer and started the process of legging the mares back up. The Western Washington University Equestrian Team is using most of them as their practice horses. Next year, these horses will all be back in the show pen teaching beginners the ropes in my lease program and as lesson horses. For the first time, my broodmares are paying for themselves.

The Down Side

I spent years building a breeding program I believed in and I am riding colts by my stud and out of my good mares. They are the best babies I have ever trained. I look forward to riding each of them every day, and that is a hard thing to put on hold. But when I get this group of 22 yearlings and weanlings sold, only then will I breed a select few mares of my own again. I need to be able to show the babies I have produced to make future foals more valuable and I can’t do that if I spread myself too thin.

As a stallion owner I realize that there is a real dilemma for mare owners—there are so many well bred, talented horses out there for sale right now, and they're pennies on the dollar compared to what it costs to breed to my stallion. I keep that in mind when I am approached by people wanting to breed to him. For most stallion owners, it is important to have babies getting into the show pen, so many of us are willing to give discounts to mare owners this year, especially if it is to a potential show home.

Buying vs. Breeding
Today, people are buying horses, but they care more about the individual horse than the pedigree, compared to a couple of years ago. They don’t want to be stuck with four costly horses that didn’t turn out; they want a horse they know. They want to keep their risk as low as possible while still being able to play the game. That said, many people will still breed a mare they own and love to a stallion they are comfortable with, especially if they can get a cost effective stud fee.

Horses conceived this next year will likely be trained three years from now in a much healthier market. If everyone quits breeding and tightens up too much, the standstill will be hard for the industry to recover from. We will still need good futurity horses four years from now.

Want to share how the economy is affecting your breeding, buying, training or showing decisions? Send an email to coastalequine@aol.com.