Monday, April 21, 2008

Breeding

Mikael at Rising Rainbow, an unbeknown mentor of mine, is struggling with the decision to breed this year.

I struggled last year when trying to decide whether to breed Classy. My struggles were for different reasons, and now I face those thoughts again. This time the answer, I believe, is a little clearer.

The day Emmett was born I was reprimanded for breeding. I was told I have too many horses, more than we can ride. Living on a family farm, one gets opinions from the entire family.

We live on a cattle farm and the cattle have to come first. The horses are for our pleasure, they do not bring in any money. In fact, anyone who has horses for pleasure will attest to the fact that they suck money out of your wallet on a regular basis.

With the recession (notice I didn't say impending recession), we have changed the way we feed our cattle. We raise our own corn, but soybean prices have gone through the roof. The feeders who rapidly ate up our corn supply, are now turned out to pasture to mature. Pasture that previously was used by my horses.

My horses who have always been on pasture from April until October will now be on hay year round. We currently have enough hay to get through until the first cutting, so it shouldn't cost us any more money.

This weekend I sold Catfish. We are down to Dixie, Gunner and Classy and of course little Emmett. I no longer have a riding horse, unless Classy can be ridden when she recovers from birth. She has arthritis issues, so her ridability is in question.

Initially I had hoped to breed her this summer to a nice stallion I had gotten to know. I was debating whether to breed again due to the horse market. I will say I really, really wanted a horse of my own out of Classy. She is an exceptional horse. By far the best we have ever owned. Emmett, from what I can already see, is calm, sensible and very nicely put together. Truly time will tell what type of horse he will become.

So, for now, I will be the one walking down the road while my girls ride their horses to the arena to ride. There will be no additional breeding of Classy. She will live here and (hopefully) become my trail horse. My niece will ride her on occasion and other children who visit. She will truly retire in fashion.

For myself, I am hoping to continue lessons with the trainer at Tammy's barn. Someone will have a horse I can borrow, I'm sure. I can still become a better rider without my own horse right??

3 comments:

Rising Rainbow said...

i'm glad that you've figured out your decision. Wish I could figure out mine. lol

Trail Riding Cowgirl said...

Kathy,

These decisions are never easy and I face my horse issues here on a daily basis with a non horsey hubby. I have wrestled with the fact of getting down to one to make it more affordable to do the things I want to do with Harley. You can still learn lots by taking lessons on other horses probably more by riding different ones. Start getting Classy fit now you can ride her with the foal alongside!

Deana said...

We had talked of breeding Ruby, Martin's Quarterhorse, but with hay prices and we rarely ride them. It is a big decision. It would be lonely here without the horses but sometimes they are so much work. We just had to have new fencing put in to keep Spirit IN the pasture and not our yard ALL the time.

But your baby sure is cute. The other thing is Martin just will not break another horse. He says he is too old so we'd have to pay for a trainer to do it all.