Having worked twenty years within the equine industry, and having watched its ups and downs, I know what horse buyers want when they set out to purchase a young horse. Here I am speaking for the industry as a whole, not back yard owners who may pick up any horse if it’s priced right, but show and performance people who are looking for a prospect, and are willing to shell out real cash to find one.
How do you breed a foal that these people will want?
First a little about why you want these people to buy your foal in the first place. Crop out horses are a dime a dozen, these are the horses that in spite of breeders spending years perfecting a bloodline, are born with poor conformation. These horses are then sold outside the industry at a bargain. You do not want your foal competing in this market.
The performance market will also help your mare, or your breeding program make a name for itself. The reason every barrel horse rider is looking for Dash For Cash babies is because they win. Breeding is expensive and risky, the costs add up quickly and the last thing you want to do is spend a year and a half or two years producing a horse that sells for $500.
So how do you breed for these people.
First and foremost bloodlines are largely meaningless. In spite of the statement about Dash For Cash, name alone will not (usually, there are of course exceptions) sell your foal. During the 1980’s when the Arab industry collapsed in Scottsdale, AZ, I worked several total liquidation auctions. We sold hundreds of Arabians, many carried Bask, the stallion responsible for the explosion in the breed’s popularity, top and bottom. They had cost tens of thousands of dollars to breed and house. They were lucky to go for a $1000. In the Phoenix papers at the time people were giving arabs away for free, and other barns, not as lucky as the ones I worked, saw their whole herds going to killer buyers. You cannot ride papers, and if your mare has bad conformation, or the stallion is not the absolute best that you can afford, you are merely breeding another back yard horse with a nice pedigree. The world has plenty of these.
Second, conformation is job specific. A quarter horse, with his round barrel and short legs may make a great cutting horse, but he will not take you to the Olympics in dressage. Straight legs and nice basic conformation can get you far, but it is not everything. Many beautiful horses cannot find homes because they do not have jobs.
So what does your mare need? She needs to have achieved something in her life that makes her stand out, that proves the worth of her pedigree and conformation. You must have taken the time and money to have built her reputation in the performance ring that will best illustrate what her foal will produce.
You need to pick a stallion who has shown that he can do more than stand at stud. The stallion should be able to make up for any of your mare’s (few) conformational flaws. Likewise she should make up for his. His job and the mare’s job should illustrate to buyers what the foal’s job will be. In other words don’t breed a plow horse to a racehorse and try to sell the foal as a dressage prospect. It may be, but it will be a questionable prospect, and people are unwilling to shell out real money for a questionable prospect.
Lastly, you need to be deeply involved with the market you have in mind for the foal. I may know horses and I may have a fair handle on bloodlines, but I would have no business selling a cow horse; I know nothing about them. If you do not intend to keep the foal, then it must be salable, and that market must have a need for your particular foal. Otherwise you will find yourself unloading your foal on Craigslist for $500, which doesn’t cover one penny of your breeding costs and pretty much assures your foal a sketchy existence at best.
What if your mare isn’t purebred? Or is a color breed (not Paint, but Pinto, or Buckskin)? Then do not breed her. Love her, enjoy her, ride her to the top of her game, but do not put another horse into a market that is literally chewing them up and eating them. If you want another horse, a foal is an expensive route to go, fraught with risk and disappointment. No stallion can make up for a poor mare, or the reverse.
Foals are for sale all over the country, Texas is giving them away! If you want one, make the world better for one horse that had an uncertain future.
A well bred horse with ideal conformation and a job will have a home in any economy, but it is the breeder’s job to ensure that this is the case before starting down that yearlong, and very expensive road.