KWPN Ster Mare Imported for Riding, Not Breeding: Anything Odd About That?

[phippsie62]

I’m looking at a ster mare, with IBOP and Prok certifications. She is five years old and has had one foal, but was imported as a hunter/jumper prospect. It was my understanding, based on what I’ve read on COTH, that in Europe mares are kept back for breeding, especially ster mares. I’ve had second-hand contact with this mare’s breeder, who said he put her in an auction to raise the quality of the auction. From there she was purchased by a broker, who then sold her to a rider from North America who imported her with the intention of selling her on.

How unusual is this, and could it suggest there might be something NQR with the mare’s soundness for work? Or might it be that the quality of this mare’s foal was somewhat disappointing? Or could it be that the market is producing so many horses that some mares are now being let go into the sport disciplines?

Thanks for any insight…

[RyTimMick]

This could go either way. Breeding them at 3 and then putting them into work is normal. It is hard to tell by this story why the breeder sold the mare, but clearly they never intended on keeping her if they put her in an auction. That being said did they sell her after she had her foal, or before? Does the breeder have other siblings and is her mother young? Maybe they didn’t need another mare. So if you want her for sport, than it really doesn’t matter. If you want her for breeding, has her motherline produced enough to justify using her? There are too many unknowns with this history.

Tim

[JB]

Maybe “breed the best, ride the rest” is at play here? Maybe they weren’t as satisfied with the foal, at least not enough to keep her as a broodmare, so wanted to sell her as a riding horse but still to a quality home.

It sounds like a lot more details are needed.

[CanteringCarrot]

It’s really not that unusual here to breed a mare around age 3 or 4 and then begin their training under saddle after the foal is weaned. A few people at my stable have done this.

It can be the case where you have a well bred mare that has nice movement and conformation and you want to breed her early in her 3 or 4 year old year so you can have what you suspect will be a nice quality foal and begin the mare into her riding career with no breeding interruption (not everyone wants to do a recip mare/embryo transfer). At that point you have the foal you want, and you can make money by putting a start on the mare and she can now be sold for riding and you can also show she was bred successfully. So this can be attractive to a potential buyer. You can also choose to sell a well bred foal at that point too or keep for yourself.

If the mare were young and sold strictly as broodmare that’d be more suspicious as I’d wonder if initial training didn’t go well or she didn’t stay sound under saddle.

It’s a toss up here in Europe as we don’t all do the same thing. In Spain with the P.R.E. the mares are typically only for breeding. This stems from some history in the breed. Warmblood breeders vary as to what their approach is, IME. There are tons of mares here that people are riding for sport and in competition. I know more competing than I do solely used for breeding.

[Majestic_Gaits]

KWPN is also a bit more focused on sport in the mare lines so maybe they wanted to prove the mareline more. Look up the pedigree on horsetelex.com and see what the mareline has in it.

[Elles]

In many cases breeding is financially not very interesting.
https://www.kwpn.auction/nl/collectie/26/all/all/price-desc

[RyTimMick]

@Elles

In many cases breeding is financially not very interesting.
https://www.kwpn.auction/nl/collectie/26/all/all/price-desc

Those prices are super low. I would imagine many were No Sale, and brought home. This was similar at the foal auction in Holstein this summer. The highest price was 13,000, but many more lower than that. The recent auction Glantz & Gloria auction did much better though, with an average sale price of over 14,000 Euro’s. I am thinking the Verband auctions are not doing as well as the private ones.

Sorry to go off topic, but Elles post was interesting considering Holstein is having a HUGE 70+ foal auction soon, and I can’t imagine there are that many buyers out there.

Tim

[Mouse_amp_Bay]

I’ve bought beautifully well bred mares with no intention of breeding. I love nice looking animals. And I love mares. Good things the poor things don’t realize I’m just a crappy amateur with limited skills and ambitions. At least I bring lots of cookies :winkgrin: