Re: RC: Killer Horses

[Bette Lamore <woa@stormnet.com>]

Hi Laura 
Too bad you didn't go back and read the whole thread. No one is saying
that you can't find gems among cheap horses. This is about people who
spend thousands on fancy equipment, restaurants, vacations, etc, demand
perfection in a broke to death conformationally correct horse and then
hard ball the breeder down to a price less than it cost to feed him (let
alone training/labor costs) just because killer prices are the norm. I
started the thread by saying that I stopped breeding for sales in
endurance 3 years ago due to the insultingly low-ball offers from people
who could not only afford to pay more but who knew full well what it
cost me to raise them and were taking advantage of the current low
prices. Other breeders have said the same thing. In short, endurance
riders are losing breeders for this field yet are beginning to recognize
that certain lines and types do better than others. Those that rescue
horses are held in high esteem in my book---I'd rescue them all if I
could (and have rescued several myself). Just saying that breeders can
no longer afford to take a loss on their horses. The difference is
between garage sales where you occasionally find a WONDERFUL saddle that
was hardly used, and going to a tack store for your gear. Would you ask
the tack store owner to sell you something for below his cost? How long
would he stay in business if he did? And then if he did and went out of
business, all you would have left are garage sales. Some would be happy
with that; and it is nice to have a choice.
Bette
Bette Lamore
Whispering Oaks Arabians, Home of TLA Halynov
http://www.stormnet.com/~woa
I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it
gets to the end, the faster it goes. Smell the roses!
> Laura Hayes wrote:
> 
> I haven't followed this whole thread, because I don't have the
> patience to open all the files I get from ridecamp, BUT, I have a
> killer horse - $400 at the local auction - came in on her hind legs,
> so Killer may fit in more than one way.  I have owned her for 15 years
> now.  She is probably an Anglo Arab and was fully an adult when I got
> her, but she was a super endurance horse for myself and all the people
> I lent her to over the years.  One season, with limited competition,
> she won 4 50s (100%) and was BC at all of them.  She also was fourth
> at a 100 and BC.  She was probably 14 or 15 years old at that point.
> 
> Did I get problems with my cheap horse?  Sure, some of the same ones I
> have gotten with expensive horses.  I really don't think that the
> price of the horse is indicative of the quality.  Sometimes there is
> an unrealized potential, sometimes there is a reason that someone had
> to dump a horse at a killer auction.  In the case of my mare, she was
> just a little 'goofy'....some of the local cowboys would have said
> "stupid arab", but she just needed the right person to bring her
> along.
> 
> I have bred my mare once and got a great little mare who is going to a
> new endurance home this week, she is 6 years old, broke, sane and
> sound.  I sold her for $1800 to the 'right home' (I waited to find
> that right home).  I think you could call her a cheap horse, but since
> she is not big enough for me, I was willing to let her go cheap to
> someone who will love her and use her the way I want to see her used.
> Did I make money?  Yeah, right....I had her for 6 years!   But I feel
> good about her, and the woman buying her is getting a great horse.  If
> she can't keep her anytime in the future, I would take her back.
> 
> I am not sure where all this is going, but I think it is important to
> remember that there may be reasons horses end up somewhere as CHEAP.
> They are not all problems or unhealthy, or nuts.
> 
> By the way, I bought Azzor Kishi (Oz) for $600 and he was 24th in the
> nation and first and
> best condition champ in the NE as a 6 year old.  I sold him that year
> and he was 2nd in the ROC in Kentucky with a heavywt. Cheap horse.
> 
> Laura Hayes  AERC 2741

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