Tapeworm/rescue horses

[Lif Strand <fasterhorses@gilanet.com>]

** WARNING **  Strong opinion follows!  Do not read if you are touchy!

Teddy - Oh right on, right on when you said  >people STILL think they
are getting a bargain "endurance" horse when they pay $2000 or less.
They MAY be lucky."

The economics of the endurance horse market has been amazing to me over
the years.  Why is it that people want to price endurance horses like
used cars:  Somehow, even tho sellers put in feeding, worming,
vaccinating, shoeing, training, maybe conditioning, etc. etc. so that
the horse is actually worth as much or more than when that seller bought
the horse, yet buyers expect the prices to go DOWN rather than up on a
horse over time!  Woe to the breeder who has to pay a stud fee (or feed
the stud they own) and pay for mare care & foal care & registration on
top of it all and then has the nerve to hope to make a bit of profit to
justify all the expense!

So then you get people like the Virginia guy who's got to sell horses at
a tremendous loss just to pay for hay for the rest of the herd, breeders
who have to drop prices way, way below what we have in them to even get
anyone to look at them, individuals who can't even match the price they
bought a  horse for, and rescue orginazions* that are undercutting even
them, well....

Well, I just am amazed.  Horses aren't like inanimate objects that don't
get better with age.  With training, conditioning, good care, etc.,
aren't they *increasing* in value?  I donno, I never took an economics
course in school, but it just confounds  me.  Lif

*Note - I am NOT criticizing rescue organizations or the value of
rescue, just making a point about the economic effect

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