Bad economy cleansing for horse breeders

In this market, middling breeding programs fade away
Story by Rachel Duff

With foaling season in full swing, breeders and horse associations are getting a look this year’s foal crop. What they see is that while the staggering economy has been a burden for the general population, a shaky economy may not have been all bad for the horse breeding business.

Dr. Jim Bob Long, reproductive veterinarian and horse breeder from Kearney, Mo., says that the bad economy may have a cleansing effect on the horse industry. In the past, there has been some indiscriminate breeding, Long said. There have been owners who haven’t shown much constraint in breeding horses, creating a surplus in the market. The current economy has discouraged these types of breeders, leaving more serious breeders to provide a greater percentage of horses, Long said. The serious breeders may not be breeding all their mares, but they will be breeding their best ones.

“This is the time to upgrade your herd,” Long said. “We’ll have better horses because of the economy.”

That’s not to say the economy hasn’t taken its toll on even the serious breeders. Long, a third generation horseman, has been breeding more mares than he thought he would, given the horse market and the U.S. economy. He has bred only about 50 percent of the mares he normally does. Still, Long is optimistic about the situation.

“True breeders are optimistic,” Long said. “They keep breeding for better horses.”

Sharon Marohl, president of the Missouri Equine Council, said it’s not just the economy but also the diminished value of horses that has caused the drop in breeding, but she views the drop in breeding as a good thing. The Missouri Equine Council has been encouraging horse owners to breed responsibly since the unwanted horse issue has become so critical. The council discourages backyard breeders, she said. This is the first year that mares are actually being bred less across all disciplines, said Marohl. People have begun to see that it sometimes makes a horse less marketable to breed the mare.

“For me, personally, I think unless you are in a position to breed that mare and keep the baby until it’s at least four, you should reconsider breeding,” Marohl said. “Because that’s how long it will take to turn the industry around.”

Waiting for the industry to turn around is something longtime horse owners have had to do before. LaDonna Wilkinson, senior director of registration for the American Quarter Horse Association, said every 10 to 15 years the horse market slows, but it always comes back. Yet, that doesn’t take away from the decline in numbers AQHA now sees in its registration. Since April of this year, registration is down 17.6 percent, and the stallion reports show that registration will likely be down next year as well. The stallion breeding reports are down 9,000 since 2006. There are not any programs to help breeders with the costs of breeding, but AQHA is looking into it.

Stallion owners, however, are already reducing stallion fees. That’s the only place there is money to spare in the breeding process, said Long. He said stallion fees have dropped this year, apparently in effort to help mare owners navigate breeding costs.

Apart from declining stallion fees, there are some programs that help everyone involved in the breeding process. The Kentucky Breeders’ Incentive Fund Program has helped its breeding market for non-race breeds during this economic downturn. This incentive fund helps the industry to profit through standing stallions, breeding mares and foaling mares in Kentucky. Foals born to mares that are bred by a stallion standing in Kentucky are eligible as long as they were also foaled in Kentucky. While this program only benefits horse owners in Kentucky, it may be a model for other states to use.

“We encourage other states to make similar programs,” said Norm Luba, one of the authors of the documents describing the program for the Kentucky Quarter Horse Association. “Because the owners can then pick and choose what’s best for their business.”

The program has been one way for Kentucky to grow its breeding industry. The number of non-race stallions standing in the state has more than tripled compared to 2006.

“Incentivising demand is the most important thing for helping the market right now,” said Luba.

Click here to respond to this article

Top of Page