[Carly]

I have been hearing many, many people talk of breeding their mares this year. Please, Please THINK before you breed.
You may truly love your mare, and think she would make a wonderful mommy, and that you will be keeping the foal forever- but things happen, things change. What if you CANT keep the foal forever?! what will happen?
Will it be a qua;lity foal, from good parents, and worth somethign on the market? will the faol be registerable? Think about re-sale value. You and some people you know may say "you cant ride papers" but it matter to ALOT of people, and can make or break a price.
When you go looking for a horse, you dont want a conformational disater, neither do others.
With the cost of breeding- stud fees, AI fees or mare care. Vet fees- ultrasounds, check ups, anti-abortion shots, emergency calls if anything goes wrong at any time. Feed bills- pregnant mares need special feed, and so do foals. After all of those fees, it is much easier to go buy a foal you already know the colour, sex, size etc. One you know the personality of, and you can buy the lines, breed, colour, sex, aprox. height maturance, and AGE. You also dont have to sideline yourself and your mare for months.
The markets all over are being flooded, and sale prices are down. so many horses are going to slaughter, because there just arent enough homes for them all. PMUS ranches are shutting down, adding to the flooding. So many horses are starving, or neglected because rescues are just too full of perfectly good, unwanted horses that just arent being re-homed.
Please, SERIOUSLY THINK it through. do you want to add to pain, and sadness alot of horses are going through, by possibly creating another unwanted horse?!
Idf your mare is not worth re-creating conformationaly, bloodline wise, and her foals cannot be registered, etc, etc, etc... PLEASE THINK IT THROUGH.

You see so many rescue stories, hear of so many horses who are going through he!!, dont add to it.
BREED FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS, NOT JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO GO THROUGHT THE EXPIRIRENCE, RAISE A BABY FROM BIRTH, YOUR MARE WOULD MAKE A GOOD MOMMY, YOU WANT TO HAVE A "PIECE OF YOUR MARE", OR YOUR MARE IS SUCH A WONDERFUL HORSE, YOU WANT A FAOL FROM HER- well what if the faol has problems, and has a bad temperment?!..???

I am just saying, please think it through.

[prettyqtrs]

I think that we are making good decisions by breeding our mares. We think our mares a awesome and worthy of breeding. And we are trying to breed to awesome stallions. Many of the foals will be for sale, but if they do not sell we are able to keep them...no problem. And when they are up for sale, we are very particualr when selling a horse to someone. So far, every horse that we've sold the new owners are extremely happy with him/her have awesome future plans for him/her, they are great people, etc. And I think if we keep selling to people like that we won't have a problem. And like I said if they don't sell, no problem, we are capable of caring for the horse, doing what we need to do with them (vaccinations, farrier, de-worming, training, etc.).

Here's our mares...
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...spx?page=Mares

Stallions that they are bred to and due to foal this year...
Grudini-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...il.aspx?id=543

Blueburn Peponita- http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...il.aspx?id=593

Docs Ben Cutting-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...il.aspx?id=552



And the stallions we will have mares bred to this year for '07 foals:
Blueburn Peponita-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...il.aspx?id=593

Holidoc-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...l.aspx?id=1085

Hollywood White-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...l.aspx?id=1086

Short and Final-
http://www.prettyquarterhorses.com/d...l.aspx?id=1123

[Carly]

I mean like, you are breeders, and showers etc, You breed for quality, right?!... I mean like the "backyard breeder" type... an example being someone with a Paint/Welsh mare. She has okay confo, a good temperment, and is a wonderful childs horse- but isnt flashy, or anything super special. Just a good horse.
She does some pony club, and is good on the trails, and her and her rider win ribbons in local shows.
There is no reason to really breed her just o have a foal out of your precious mare, or to ahve a baby to raise, or have the expirience. If you want a foal, go and buy a faol. You can probobly find a similiar filly or colt to your mare. It is less cost, less risk (you could lose momma, baby, or both) and you are not possibly creating an unwanted horse.
I am not trying to sound rude, or act like anything special... its just common sense when you really think about it.

[CowGirlUp1833]

YES! I agree! Just THINK. If you have good reasons for breeding, and you are breeding quality to quality for a specific purpose...then by all means...go ahead. We NEED good breeders to keep the quality of the species.

BUT, if you are breeding for reasons that are less then sound i.e.; My mare is so sweet, I want a piece of my boy, I want a baby- they're so cute!, I want to make some extra money, or any other selfish reason, then THINK ADOPTION/BUYING INSTEAD!

We DO NOT need any more, OKAY horses. I love ALL horses...and some of the best I've known were mutts...but lets not BREED so-so quality on purpose and hope to get lucky.

If you want to breed, then who am I to tell you no. BUT, I BEG of you- STOP AND THINK. If you want to breed, wait until you can afford to buy good quality breeding stock and breed quality horses. Its the right thing to do.

[Carly]

thanks Kim!.. you said it waaaay better than me! I ramble on and repeat myself , but its the point of it all...

[Friesiangirl]

ah...i won't have much thinking to do! no mare to breed too! LMAO!

[luvs2ride79]

Very good point Carly! But, there are some people who have been breeding for quite some time that really should get out of the business, or change their scheme.

Case in point, I saw these ads for a Canadian QH breeder. Her horses are decent, but nothing spectacular. Good papers if you like Poco Bueno and those studs, but any notable studs are 3 generations or more back. She has a lot of linebreeding going on too, and with HERDA, that's a bit scary. In years past, her horses would have sold for $1,500-4,000. They are currently priced from $800 to $1,500 CDN...

The market is flooded. There are 3 MILLION registered Quarter Horses in the USA alone. That accounts for 1/3rd of the entire horse population in the US. Most of the quality breeders that I know who are smart business people are still bringing in good money for their horses because they are intelligent enough to know when to adapt to what the market wants, or change their entire scheme. And right now, the market does not want medicore Quarter Horses, they are a dime a dozen...

This can also be said for other breeds and types; this is just one example.

~Barbara

[madvoice]

And that's why the Welsh colt I am buying is going to be two stone lighter after he gets here.

[luvs2ride79]

Originally Posted by madvoice

And that's why the Welsh colt I am buying is going to be two stone lighter after he gets here.

LMAO!! Very Good!

I wish there was an easy, and affordable way to spay a mare...

~Barbara

[CowGirlUp1833]

Originally Posted by luvs2ride79

LMAO!! Very Good!

I wish there was an easy, and affordable way to spay a mare...

~Barbara

There is...its called Keep her away from stallions.... its VERY cheap!