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Re: [RC] To bred or not to bred - Heidi SmithI feel pretty confident in my views on "generalist vs specialist" and what sells as babies that goes on year after year excelling in the event(s) they were bred for. So on this topic I will simply say I agree that we disagree! :) Penny, right now you are right that in the stock world, specialist babies sell. It is later, as adults, that they go to the canners. It is the generalists that can re-sell and re-sell, and find homes again when they are 12, or 15, or 20. And it IS the generalists that can do all things well--you will not find the specialists doing other sports. (Keep in mind that some sports REQUIRE generalists--including endurance and dressage--and to some degree, stock work.) And yes, we will have to agree to disagree--I've vetted at auction yards and horse sales, and spent most of my professional life dealing with stock breed clients--many of whom were on the top of their game, so to speak. And I've personally watched those same horses go for dog food prices that you claim don't go for that. I had one client in particular who could just about recite the QH stud book forward and back who shopped those sales and picked up mares from the lines you named for peanuts--sometimes $500 or less--and brought them home and bred them--and raised some darn nice foals. And yes, he could sell the babies. The stock breed folks like to buy babies to speculate. Just as the TB yearlings often command a pretty good price. But go stand at the auctions and watch the ones in the prime of life go to the killer buyers! One of the killer buyers in my area also did a little training on the side, and would sometimes get those horses out of the auction and tune them up a bit and sell them as riding horses, too. He was also a client of mine from time to time, so I had a pretty good idea what he got and what he did with it. I'm not arguing with you over what you may be able to sell as babies. But you're mistaken if you think all those horses of that sort of breeding continue to retain their value throughout their life. How many stock breed breeders do you know that will let their babies come back for resale later in life? Again, I'd point out that it is breeding the generalist horse that has put Arab programs such as Al-Marah on the map for 50+ years. And it wasn't until the Arab show breeders started to breed specialists that the Arab breed started to go downhill in the public eye. In any event, feel free to disagree--but do look around you at the PMU farms and the low end sales and the killer pens across the country, and look at the pedigrees of the horses there, before you tell me that those horses aren't there. Because they are. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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