Actually no matter how careful you are, how you study the bloodlines,
how many things you do right - you still don't have a guarenteed
endurance horse or race horse for that matter. If so scientists would
dominate TB racing, be rich and not have to spend their lives in the
hall of academia. It all rolls around to one big crap shoot.
Then that is assuming your prize foal doesn't take a freak fall in a
rain storm at five weeks and break it's leg!
Your numbers aren't even close - they don't take into account the
overhead associated with breeding - the extra barn space, the extra
pasture, the video system to monitor the mares, the medication you are
one to keep you from going bonkers during the first the breeding and
second the foaling process.
Even in TB racing where there is money - most that try lose their
shirts. The only reason people breed endurance horses is for the love
of the breeding, being around the horses and to see if their theories
are correct - it's not for the money and it is 99 times out of 100 most
likely a poor business decision.
Why do people breed their prized mare - one who most likely got them
down the trail many miles - because they want part of her to get them
on down the trail. Rational - maybe yes maybe no - but what about
breeding for this sport is rational?
As far a PP exams. I've had two horses pass with flying colors that I
later had to find a new job for. The one we didn't get a PP exam on my
wife fell in love with and no logic would get in the way. Come next
year the Jbird with have done an endurance ride for 10 consecutive
years. Not as many miles as I would like but that's not his fault -
changing jobs, quitting job, building a house and starting company, him
getting West Nile, etc. Of course during the times I was the most
preoccupied his conditioning was what didn't get done - but he kept on
trucking. Yes you can take a horse with insufficient conditioning out
of the pasture and do 25 you can even do 50! But we're very proud of
the old boy who did it without the blessing of a vet based on my wife's
intuition and instant love for the horse.
Some times you have to go with your gut on these issues - not to say PP
exams aren't importnat - but their another piece of info that goes into
the hopper for the final decision. I'm happy we didn't get a PP on the
Jbird because I am sure he would have not come out at the top of his
class but by golly he's withstood the test of time.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
Truman
Lif Strand wrote:
At 02:43
PM 7/18/2004, Jody Rogers-Buttram wrote:
This is why I like to raise my own
replacements. Your right Roger, buying and paying a lot for an
endurance prospect is a big deal. I personally can't afford to pay the
3k and up for a horse.
As a person who was (no longer am) breeding horses for distance
riding/competition for about 20 years, I do have a bit of a
disagreement with your position. Let's say you decide to breed your
own. Let's say it only costs you $75/month to care for a horse - an
incredibly low amount - and that includes feed, farrier, worming, shots
and everything, and you do your own training.
Mare pregnant one year: $900
Foal fed through 3 yrs: $2700
Total cost to beginning of foal's 4th year: $3600
Now you've already paid out more than you said you'd be willing to pay
for someone else's horses - but you don't have a guaranteed endurance
horse anyway. Some foals just don't grow up to be endurance horses, no
matter how good the sire and dam. So instead of having a choice among
horses that look like good prospects, maybe have even done a ride or
more, you're stuck with a horse that isn't suitable.
If there were guarantees that every foal from a great mare and a great
stallion would be a great horse too, everyone who was into breeding
would be rich. When it comes to genetics, nothing is simple.
-- "It is necessary to be noble, and yet take humility as a basis
"It
is necessary to be noble, and yet
take humility as a basis.
It is necessary
to be exalted, and yet take modesty as a foundation."
