Selling horses, or not

I had a talk with a very good friend of mine about breeding and selling horses here in Sweden. I realized what a limited market we have over here. Now, this is just my thoughts on the subject and if I ruffle some feathers and tick some of you off, I´m sorry but I didn´t mean you, I ment your neighbour!

First, the attributes I look for in a horse is, in order of importance to me: disposition, breeding, how they move and conformation.

Disposition to me equals trainability and in the end how successful you will be, no matter the discipline. If a horse has the heart and try, you´ll achieve so much more and limit the grief and frustration. Even if you´ll never leave your ranch and go show, dispossition is key to a happy partnership.

I try to breed and raise horses with the best possible breeding my limited budget can afford. But there´s a reason a stud and/or his offspring has won $$$$ and often the bloodlines carry the disposition/trainability and movement through generations. Thats why I rather pay a little x-tra than go with the neighbours stud who´s pretty and cheap. And really, when you raise such a limited number of foals a year as I do you have to limit the chances you take and I really can´t afford to many misses.

In this business you have to be patient and have a plan. If I´ve learned anything over the years it is that without a plan you really can´t reach your goals. So when you find that great mare that really throws babies that makes you proud, hold on to her and have a PLAN with your breeding. Descide what type of colts you want, what traits you look for and look for studs that compliment your mare and what she throws. Don´t just go with your trainers or neighbours stud because it´s convenient.

The way they move is really the way you maximize your performance. By this I mean athletisism, style and natural ability etc. If you have a horse that gives you his all and allway´s tries hard, there´s still going to be a limit to what he physically can do. I´ll also admit there´s nothing more frustrating than a horse who has all of the above but no heart and try! That´s why I place more value on those traits than I do movement, but it´s still the limit of your horses ability.

Conformation is really the last thing on my list, but the first thing I look at and the first thing that disqualifies a horse in my mind. Conformational defects that I believe leads to a weak or injury prone induvidual or something that will seriously limit his physical ability to perform, allway´s makes me pass. However, I´ve seen more than one individual with crooked legs, too long pasterns, hocks way off the ground, low headset, high headset, big uggly headed monsters be champions. Heart and try often outweighs defects in conformation, as long as they can stay sound.

Now to the heart of the matter:

After all the efforts and costs involved in producing the kind of horses I would like to own and ride, to whom do I sell the offspring?

The fact is there´s not many people out there who, in my opinion have what it takes to maximize the horses potential. How many Swedish trainers do you see taking a colt from scratch to the winners cirkle at major events? All I see are imported older horses with years of training and showing from the majors abroad, most often USA. Ok, to some extent you still gotta train `em and keep them going, but to me the signature of a TRAINER is starting a colt and taking it all the way, and to do it repeatedly. At a show I wish I could say man, that guy´s horses look really good and then look at their papers and see © SweMade! I don´t know, but seems to me we have way, way too many World Champions here who actually never even been to the World Show! There of course are exceptions, and you all know who you are! The sad thing is most of these WorldChums have a following of non-pros, clients and what not who´s supposed to learn from their masters (Scary Thought!!) do I want to sell to them? My friend who I discussed this matter with has come to the conclusion that he rather sell his horses to a good home out in the sticks than to a self professed master of the universe, I tend to agree with him...but still I´ve really put my heart and soul, not to mention money, in to this colt and would relly like to see him do what he´s bred for...

To close out this long rant, wich probably won´t make me any new friends or bring any customers:

I, by no means what so ever, claim to be a trainer and have absolutely no such aspirations but I do know horses and I have been around enough great horsemen in my day to recognize one!

Please show a more humble attitude and realize we can all get better, me especially...