We have a 6 year old mare we bred and raised
(with no immediate plans for selling her.) I had $3500 in that foal before
she ever hit the ground, between stud fee, sweepstakes nomination (I was talked
into that one), extra care for the mare, etc.
Unless one is breeding show or breeding
horses for which one can get 5 or 6 figures, I doubt anyone can make money
breeding and selling horses. The nice thing about feeder calves (which we
raise) is we can sell them every year and make a fresh start. We take
whatever the market will pay, but it's better than raising breeding stock, which
we tried for about 20 years. With that route, you're in the same bind as
with horses. If they don't sell when you can still recover your costs, you
are obligated to keep feeding them until a buyer comes along or you just sell
them through an auction at market price. After 20 years, we were ground
into the dust and we just decided to go back to raising feeder calves.
It's much less stressful. You can't do that with horses, however, as one
is dealing with performance and personality, not just livestock.
"I have kept a horse an extra two years trying to get "what it was
worth". I finally sold that horse for next to nothing"
This is similar to my neighbor & the
Arab/Freisian yearling. She could have sold her as a weanling for $2000,
refused 'cause she had so much $$ in her due to vet bills & Foalac (the
mare wouldn't take care of the foal), and she expected to get all
her $$ back plus a decent profit. Now a year later, she's having a hard time
getting her sold at $1500, has been offered $1000.She's not a breeder or
trainer, so in my opinion the filly loses value the longer she holds on to it,
as it is bigger & more difficult to handle.
