Re: RC: KILLER HORSES

["robert and carla lawson" <robandcarla@hotmail.com>]

don't think i mentioned wanting an endurance baby out of this one this is 
more like a haltern baby her grandfather was a national reining champion.

>From: "B.E. Jackson" <riosanbravo@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: tblazer2000@yahoo.com
>To: robandcarla@hotmail.com, ridecamp@endurance.net
>Subject: Re: RC: KILLER HORSES
>Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 11:24:19 MST
>
>>Haley was $650 can trot good batteries. but will have me a super nice baby
>>when I can find the cash for a nice stallion. We bought her for my husband
>>because of her gears pokey and slow.
>
>Carla, don't take this the wrong way, but it's something I've noticed in 
>general throughout the horse industry. Why do people breed their cheap 
>horses? If one wants to create/sustain overall value in a breed, one should 
>only breed the best to the best. It's a mistake to think a "nice stallion" 
>will make up for the mare's lackings.  If—as you yourself compare her to 
>your others—the mare can't cut it as an endurance mount and that's what you 
>do with your horses, what do you plan to do with her "pokey and slow" 
>offspring? I'm always challenging myself with the same questions, as I too 
>have a mare in my barn. But just because she has a uterus and I emotionally 
>want a youngster frisking around, doesn't mean it would be an ethical 
>choice for me to breed her without a "plan."
>
>On cheap horses:
>I have bought/traded for/adopted probably a lion's share of cheap horses in 
>my life. I looked upon it variously as "giving them a  good home," "defying 
>the hoity-toity horse breeders," "making silk purses out of sows 
>ears"(risky at best), and "being fiscally responsible" (egged on by my 
>husband for this one). At one time, I looked at the five horses in my barn 
>and realized their purchase prices averaged out to around $700 (sounds high 
>because I paid the heftiest for my Andalusian/Arab; the others were 
>virtually "free"). However, cheap horses often come with expensive 
>"problems" and there came a time more than once when I couldn't financially 
>justify the veterinary costs of keeping them alive (colics needing 
>surgery). So, you start off with a cheap horse that you didn't have 
>vetchecked properly because heck he was a rescue or a giveaway, and then 
>you find out he's got a congenital heart problem, or her guts are badly 
>scarred from parasite infestation, or a huge enterolith is lodged in his 
>bowel and though the $5000 surgery is out of the question, you do opt for 
>the autopsy, out of some insane curiosity.... I don't buy them cheap 
>anymore, don't take in any more rescues and I'd advise anyone wanting a 
>horse (especially for a physically demanding sport like endurance) who 
>doesn't think they can affort a good purchase price to put themselves on a 
>budget; stash the amount you'd be spending on monthly and yearly upkeep 
>(vet, farrier, lodging, feed, tack for a year or 18 months, and then go out 
>and use that money to purchase your horse. (Besides, it's good practice for 
>the financial hell you'll be facing when you do own a horse!) If you don't 
>have the full amount in a year, then see if you cant put something down and 
>make payments if you must, but don't settle on an animal just because the 
>price (or lack of it) is right. Of course, this is all IMHO.
>Okay, I'm off the box and making a trash run so there's plenty of time to 
>compose flaming responses.
>
>Bonnie in AZ (not saying where ;->)
>

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