Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I wish people wouldn't immediately point fingers at so-called  
"backyard breeders" as the source of unwanted horses.  Has anyone  
done the research to show that backyard breeders flood the market?   
Seems to me that we just heard about loads of unwanted well-bred,  
well-trained horses that may very well have come from "professional  
breeders" who make their living creating horse after horse after  
horse.  The "backyard breeders" I know, including myself, produce a  
foal once in a while to keep or to give to a friend or sell to a  
carefully considered buyer.  Also, the people I know who've bred  
their mares have been really uptight about matching their horse with  
an appropriate stallion.  They've been even more uptight about making  
sure their foals find good homes, complete with buy-back options.

While there's obviously a need for focused full-time breeders, I'd  
challenge any of them out there to review their production/placement/ 
sales policies to be certain they aren't part of the problem.  The  
guy who wound up with over 100 "extra" horses sounds a poor  
businessman at best and cruelly irresponsible at worst.  Just as bad  
are those individuals who choose to have horses without the capacity  
to care for them for a lifetime.  Seems to me we have to accept that  
owning horses includes having the resources to handle retiring (or  
humanely killing) them once they're past using.  By the way, I'm  
terribly sad that all the local slaughterhouses quit accepting horses  
as personally bringing one's friend to the LOCAL kill spot was a kind  
and practical way to handle the whole issue.

Mary K. -- whose sanest, soundest horse is a mixed-breed pony bought  
from a good-hearted drunk (sorry, the term fits in this particular  
case) who let his mare run with a friend's stallion because "they  
were in love"; and whose second-best horse is a beautifully bred  
Polish Arabian produced by a "backyard breeder".

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