Horse Talk

[Bunnylady]

Bloodlines are not accomplishments. What have these horses done, besides being pretty colors, to justify making more of them? As far as I can tell, the only real reason for breeding this filly is "because I can."

 

[abigalerose]

Well the stud I want to breed her to has been shown in the NRHA for two years, not sure what he's won but I'll be asking lots of questions when they get back to me. And as for June no she has not accomplished anything, and she probably never will since I just trail ride. Of course one day I would like to do reining if I can learn how, but who knows how old June will be by then. If I were to get into reining within the next 3-5 years I could always have her foal trained for it. I don't think a horse necessarily needs to have accomplishments to be bred though, if they have personality, conformation, and bloodlines (and color being a bonus), and you want a foal for your personal use, I don't think it's wrong at all. Would I breed June every year just for the heck of it, or to try and sell the foals? Absolutely not. But I genuinely do want a foal from her, even if it's just to trail ride, and I think that's okay, as long as I can figure out the perfect age to breed her at

 

[Bunnylady]

It's your horse, your money, your choice. Just remember - there are no guarantees; Secretariat's full sister The Bride lost all 4 of the races she was entered in. Both of my mini Blondie's parents were show horses, but conformation-wise, she's a wreck. You aren't looking for anything spectacular, and as long as you get something usable, you probably won't have any complaints.

But if you are breeding a $600 horse, a stud fee of $300 sure looks more attractive than $3000.

 

[abigalerose]

That's true. And if anything were to ever become of June and she was worth a lot more, then maybe it would be more reasonable to breed to mobster, or if she just produced the best foals in the world. But for her first and most likely last time breeding, I think this dun stud would be perfect. And yeah, I know there are no guarantees, but like I said, my only use will probably be trail rides. And even if it came out with three eyes and no tail I'd still love it. But as for breeding this year, I'll have to do more thinking on the right age and make sure I have all my other projects done first, so nothing is set in stone yet, that's for sure

 

[abigalerose]

And as for the stud, yes his color is very nice, but that's not why I like him. He's got bloodlines I like, good conformation, and is suppose to have a very gentle personality. Now maybe he's not perfect, but around here it's pretty slim pickins, so I'm my eyes he is. You see a ton of studs that are just studs becuase of their color. For example lots of blue roan studs with terrible conformation and crappy bloodlines (or grade) with a stud fee of $500 just because they're blue roan. But there are lots and lots of studs around here with no accomplishments and terrible conformation that people think they can make money off of because they have a flashy color or because their papers say Hancock or Doc somewhere way back on their papers. It's a little out of control where I live, imo. And most people breed their grade mares that have really no special qualitys, just so they can sell the foal for four or five hundred dollars. I went to a farm one day to buy chickens and they had 50 grade quarter horses for sale, all weanlings or yearlings, for $500 each. I want to breed June, and I'm not against breeding, even grade horses, but if you're gonna breed a whole bunch of grade horses for no other reason then profiting off of the fact that they're buckskin and palomino, well I don't really like that, becuase a lot of them will probably end up in a sale barn. And I know June is nothin special either, other that having nice papers and good color and conformation, but I love her and I'm not trying to make money off her in any way. In fact if I breed her I'll be pouring tons of money into her and the foal, but it'll be nice to have baby to work with from day one and do everything exactly how I want, and hopefully turn out a lot like June. Which is probably why a lot of people breed their mares but I don't see the harm in it if they plan on doing everything right by the mare and keeping the foal.
I have a little chihuahua and I bred her to a stud dog for a litter, and I sold one (registered and with all his shots and I found an AWESOME home for him) (and I put way more into shots and ultrasounds and x rays than I made off the pup I sold) and I kept the other two, well I kept one and my sister kept the other, and now they're all fixed and living happy lives, and I absolutely love having a puppy from my most favorite dog. The puppy is a lot different for her, but also has some of the same quirks, and I've got to watch her grow from the day she was conceived and that's pretty special. So I know I'd be happy with doing the same thing with June

 

[Bunnylady]

Gads, I couldn't imagine getting the farrier out to trim 50 yearlings or weanlings . . mega ouch! Somehow, I doubt that farm was doing it, either.

 

[abigalerose]

I would say probably not, I mean even June had never seen a farrier and she was 2 and a half and the only foal that her owners had. A lot of people around here don't have farriers out unless there's an actual problem that needs attended to. I even use to be like that but I'm doing things differently now. Although my farrier was suppose to be out Tuesday but I still haven't seen him yet. Ugh. I'm thinking about finding someone different

 

[Bunnylady]

Blondie was 8 months old when I got her, and she'd been trimmed several times. Good thing - as cow hocked as she is, she wore down the insides of her hind feet a whole lot faster than the outsides. It took a lot of work to keep her feet anything like level. I like to think the work paid off in maybe helping to straighten her out a bit, any way, her feet wear more evenly now. Unfortunately, she still has stifles that tend to lock if her toes get long, so I have to keep her rear feet at a much steeper angle than what most would consider 'ideal.'

Betsy was 9 years old when I got her, and as hard as she was to handle, I doubt she ever saw a farrier (unless previous owners were drugging her first, which would have been an adventure in itself). I suspect her feet had been left to 'self-trim.' If you have rocky soil, it can work (I know someone in the piedmont area that has one horse that their farrier never trims, because she never needs it), though it can also look nasty at times. Soft, sandy soils like we have here don't do it well, and I have seen neglect result in horribly distorted feet, particularly on donkeys.

Obviously, nobody trims the wild horses, so it isn't absolutely essential to a horse's well being. But there are some issues that apparently can be helped by corrective trims, though you'd have to know they are there to begin with. Having their feet picked up and worked on should be part of every young horse's training, though with 50 young animals on the property, I'd be surprised if those folks had even had the time to get them all halter-broke. It's not rocket science; a lot of people do barefoot trims themselves (or even basic shoes), but once again, there's the time factor, and most people couldn't begin to find the time for 50 young horses, to say nothing of the mares that produced them.

 

[abigalerose]

I would say those 50 foals are a lot like June, gentle from being around people, but that's it. I can't really understand why June's previous owners never had her trimmed, they seemed very knowledgeable about horses, very very wealthy, they only had 5 or 6 horses total, and June walked on hard sand (in Florida) for most of her life and had cracked hooves. So I'm not sure why they didn't keep her trimmed. But we have rocky soil and all of our horses have never really needed trimmed, except for June, and it seems like her outside hooves wear down faster than the inside so, shoes it is for her. I'm pretty confident once Phoenix gets trimmed he won't ever need it again. He was on soft pasture before so they're a little long but he seems like he's got easy to keep feet, like my last mustang. But I've been working with June on picking up her feet since I got her and she's still stubborn about it

 

[abigalerose]

So, Phoenix has been mounting June, and I'm not sure what to do about it