[QUOTE=Guilherme;8763059]
Concur with your capitalistic analysis. It leads to the famous advice to “never invest in anything that eats.” 
G.[/QUOTE]
Or…
Don’t breed any animal that you are not willing to keep.
[QUOTE=oldernewbie;8761252]
I’m going to be a bit vague because I don’t want to publicly out people when I don’t know their circumstances…
I thought of this thread earlier today when I got a sale announcement in my email for a breeders dispersal. Took a look at the horses and while their bloodlines were excellent I don’t think a single one was trained under saddle. A lot of potential but again - who wants to take a chance on an aged stallion that needs to be gelded and trained to be useful?
Just sad and LE I don’t blame you for being mad. It’s totally unfair to the horses.
ETA: 20+ horses. Some of the copy for them just reinforces the comments here although I do believe they are halter broke at least. And not thin. But definitely not trained much beyond that.[/QUOTE]
I thought it might of interest to know the results of this sale. 26 horses.
5 - no sale
7 - minimum bid of $500
5 - sold for 501 - 1000
9 - sold above 1000, most in the 1500 - 3000 range
High sale horse was 6400
Only 1 horse trained under saddle and brought 1900.
I hope all the horses found a safe landing.
[QUOTE=oldernewbie;8796805]
I thought it might of interest to know the results of this sale. 26 horses.
5 - no sale
7 - minimum bid of $500
5 - sold for 501 - 1000
9 - sold above 1000, most in the 1500 - 3000 range
High sale horse was 6400
Only 1 horse trained under saddle and brought 1900.
I hope all the horses found a safe landing.[/QUOTE]
I’m kind of surprised at those prices (seem high, but I don’t know what “meat price” is right now, to put it bluntly.)
Meanwhile over in Morgan-land, we have a broker who just picked up 90 – yes NINETY – Morgans from an elderly couple in upstate New York… It sounds like their program just went off the rails years ago, as the horses are mostly young, unhandled, unregistered, g-d only knows who the parents are, many have hernias and other issues needing vet attention, etc. And this is far from the first time it’s happened in Morgan-land. And it won’t be the last. There is a breeder in another part of the country I know of, cussed old lady and no one can force her to disperse, but that farm will be a disaster when the time comes. Another whose daughter stepped in and made her sell some of her horses, and geld her stallions. And so forth.
It’s sad, and it also really p*sses off the breeders who are being careful to do it right, e.g. the breeder of the filly I owned, who puts so much time and care into her horses, from picking the parents and on. People complain that the breeders’ horses are “too expensive” (and for the most part, the prices would make the sport world laugh; think mid-4 figures for good trained horses), but will go out and pay $1000 (or less) for a “rescue”. The difference between $1K and $6K evaporates pretty quickly.
[QUOTE=quietann;8796859]
I’m kind of surprised at those prices (seem high, but I don’t know what “meat price” is right now, to put it bluntly.)
Meanwhile over in Morgan-land, we have a broker who just picked up 90 – yes NINETY – Morgans from an elderly couple in upstate New York… It sounds like their program just went off the rails years ago, as the horses are mostly young, unhandled, unregistered, g-d only knows who the parents are, many have hernias and other issues needing vet attention, etc. [/QUOTE]
I’m pretty sure the fate of the 26 who sold at auction is much better than those poor poor 90 Morgans. In the past I would have said that I don’t understand how people can let things get to that point. Having dealt with my almost 90 year old parents for the last year and seeing my friends trying to deal with their parents, I can now understand how. There’s nothing worse than an older person who is 90% wacko, but still retains just enough brain power to be stubborn as hell. Won’t let anyone help them, won’t fix the problem, won’t won’t won’t…
The prices I quoted aren’t too bad for the 9 above 1000, but the others - not so good.
I’m hoping for the best for those 90 horses, but 
Sadly these massive herds being disbursed are just more evidence of the dire state of the U.S. equine market. I’m sure there are many more out there in the private sector. And then we have the 50,000 head “gorilla in the room”: The BLM.
G.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;8797344]
Sadly these massive herds being disbursed are just more evidence of the dire state of the U.S. equine market. I’m sure there are many more out there in the private sector. And then we have the 50,000 head “gorilla in the room”: The BLM.
G.[/QUOTE]
I was wondering about that.
I’ve been riding for 35 years so obviously started before the internet. We really had no idea what was going on in the rest of the horse world, or even locally outside our discipline. So have these herd disbursals (sp?) always been there and we just never heard about them?
I don’t know where you are but the equine market in CA is quite healthy. It’s much harder to buy a horse than sell one.
[QUOTE=Malda;8797382]
I was wondering about that.
I’ve been riding for 35 years so obviously started before the internet. We really had no idea what was going on in the rest of the horse world, or even locally outside our discipline. So have these herd disbursals (sp?) always been there and we just never heard about them?
I don’t know where you are but the equine market in CA is quite healthy. It’s much harder to buy a horse than sell one.[/QUOTE]
Back in the day, 20-30 years ago, I think it was still acceptable to just send the no-sales along to the meat man. In itself nothing wrong with that, because sometimes the best bred horse is only worth $/lbs…
Along with the fact that it was rare for people to keep their pasture puffs, except for the most special critter.
