LS Blog - homegrown horses are our best chance for topping the podium

[GraceLikeRain]

@Horsecrazy3

Valegro famously failed his stallion licencing – and Carl Hester picked him up for a measly £4,000 (€4,600/$5,600). Why? Because he wasn’t showing much promise! There were plenty of people who didn’t believe that Valegro had huge amounts of talent or potential, but Carl and Charlotte saw something in him, trusted their gut and produced one of the best Dressage horses the world has ever seen!’

Ehhhh

There is this really tired trope of finding the backyard diamond. Valegro is one that is often described this way. He was a really nice young horse and Carl was already very famous. I feel quite confident that the average Joe couldn’t have purchased him and certainly not at that price.I think the seller saw a good opportunity to get a horse into the hands of an expert and Carl was willing to take a phenomenal hindend over a flashy front end. There is a video floating around somewhere when he’s young, maybe 4 or 5. He’s already at a demo and they are talking about his potential and it’s very evident. It isn’t like he was plodding around at a local show and someone saw what no one else saw in a 12 year old horse and then developed him into “the valegro”.

Having known some pretty big names from a distance before and after they were big, it’s wild the rewriting of history that occurs. People who were kept spouses and volunteered a half day a week in their field became “working tirelessly balancing a grueling work schedule and mucking stalls to ride at midnight” type of story. Saying privileged people got to reap the benefits of privilege isn’t as fun of a story and not one the average person can relate to at all.

[GraceLikeRain]

Here’s the video. The whole first minute is rattling off the list of championships he won as a four and five year old.

5 years old Valegro & Charlotte Dujardin - Your Horse Live Clinic

[DownYonder]

We need a paradigm shift in sport, from celebrating the top to celebrating the bottom. A groundswell of support for those in the trenches, developing the 5-and-younger horses. A bright spotlight on those long slow years of installing changes and half-halts.

She isn’t wrong about the lack of a deep well of good young horse trainers, and some of the reasons have already been pointed out by others. And one of the biggies as to why young horse trainers don’t STAY as young horse trainers is because they find it so freakin’ difficult to make a living at it. It’s hard enough for pretty much any trainer other than the VVBNTs to make a good living, but it’s even harder for folks trying to specialize in young horses. There isn’t a steady pipeline of youngsters coming to them for starting or even to show in lower levels/young horse competitions, so the trainers are forced to take in horses of all ages just so they can (hopefully) make ends meet. And part of the reason why THAT is happening is because breeders and folks who buy youngsters tend to want the horse close enough to them so they can personally check on its progress on a regular basis without having to rely on messages and videos from the trainer. Add to it the fact that very few people buying youngsters have super deep pockets, so they might put the horse with a colt starter for maybe 3-6 mos, then want to bring the horse home or put it with a trainer who is closer to them.

That said, I had a recent conversation with someone who works for the Budweiser Clydesdale team. He started out on the breeding farm, caring for mares and foals. In response to my question, he told me they may put 20 foals on the ground in an average year - of which maybe 5-6 end up on a team. Assuming half of those 20 foals are fillies, the other 10 end up as geldings, and maybe half of those 10 geldings have the qualities needed to make the team. And that is with a very well-structured and well-managed breeding and foal raising and training program that has stood the test of time - and much of those aspects are in very short supply in the U.S. Sure, there are some super good breeders here but there may be only a handful that are willing to spend the $$$$ to put their young stock out with really good young horse specialists.

[Horsecrazy3]

Well, Carl himself has said he does not buy expensive young horses. He’s been successful. He buys 2 and 3 year olds and go from there. I’ve been to 3 of his clinics and he says the same thing when asked about buying. Will have to tell him he is trotting out that tired old troupe of finding a backyard diamond the next time he’s here. LOL

[VodkaRedbullx2]

There are so many incredible us breeders that are willing to work with trainers with payment plans and incentive programs too. There are ways, you just have to knock on the right doors.

[Bogey2]

this^^^^^ well said blue_heron

[Demerara_Stables]

@DownYonder

And one of the biggies as to why young horse trainers don’t STAY as young horse trainers is because they find it so freakin’ difficult to make living at it. It’s hard enough for pretty much any trainer other than the VVBNTs to make a good living, but it’s even harder for folks trying to specialize in young horses. There isn’t a steady pipeline of youngsters coming to them for starting or even to show in lower levels/young horse competitions, so the trainers are forced to take in horses of all ages just so they can (hopefully) make ends meet.

I’d also add - it’s SO hard to market yourself as a young horse trainer. 1) if you’re not horse showing (because 3-4yos don’t show much), no one sees you so no one knows you exist 2) the idea that you(g) need to send your horse to a “colt starter” or a “cowboy” really needs to go away. I’m not saying those people are not good, but so few young horse owners even consider that their horse can be started by a dressage or jumper rider, so they only look for cowboys. Being started by a dressage/jumper trainer is a completely different and (of course I’m biased here) better way of being started.

[Cowgirl]

Granted this was over 20 years ago, but I paid $4k for a good quality foal in Denmark and then about $75 per month for rearing until the horse was 3. THen I paid $150/month board and training. THis was all plus shoes and vet (minimal in Europe becaue they don’t do enough, IMO). She was correctly started as a 3 year old mare, sent through the mare performance test and then sent out to pasture again. I had some personal issue that did not let me import her at this time and left her another year and half. When she was four, she was competed in a few qualifiers for the young horse tests. WHen I imported her (which cost way more than I had invested at this point, including my insurance), she was very correctly started (although had minimal ground manners and I needed to trailer train, cross tie train, farrier traine, etc). She often scored 8 for gaits as a young horse. I won many championships on this horse, local/regional/national, up through grand prix.

By contrast, my two US bred colts cost $20-25k as pre-weanling, and yes are better quality than the european filly, close to $1,000 per month to raise in the US (keeping at home: hay/shavings/grain/vet/insurance/utilities/maintenance/labor); cost over $1,500/month in board and training for very incorrect colt starting, and then a long period of rehab after I brought them home. Both horses are way more talented than my european raised filly, but I am struggling with both because of…US. I am now looking for winter boarding options and may have to send them both to a warmer climate for the winter just to get proper boarding and training help. I have no idea what that will cost me, but probably more than the horses are worth eventually!!! The system in the US is not set up to work. (BTW at one point the author of this blog badmouthed US breeders to justify why she went shopping in Europe. I say, pay no attention to the (wo)man behind the curtain…)

It is way too expensive for this homebred theory to work in the US, not to mention the lack of young horse trainers and colt starters and the extraordinary cost of land/hay/feed…

[Cowgirl]

Carl is FOS. I happen to know that some of their young horses were well priced the cost of a house here.

[Horsecrazy3]

LOL, I’ll pass that “delightful” acronym on.

[Manni01]

What’s FOS??

[fivestrideline]

Full Of Sh*t, if I’m not mistaken

[eponacelt]

@blue_heron

I’m sure there’s a lot of things she doesn’t share but she seems to have struggled a lot less than many many other trainers out there who aren’t writing “woe is me” blogs about how US breeders are the future and then buying horses from Europe when the US breeders aren’t gifting her horses.

Pretty sure she’s just not sharing her personal or financial issues (which affect pretty much every trainer - has anyone seen Eliza Sydnor’s recent FB post?) in her blog. I think she gets pretty real in the Equine Mastermind podcast that RideIQ put together. Its free, so doesn’t need a RideIQ subscription, but still, I don’t think she (or really most any professional) will talk about the daily struggles all the time.

[blue_heron]

What do you mean she’s not sharing personal or financial issues? That’s pretty much all her blogs and Facebook posts are about.

[Cowgirl]

I had a well known jumper trainer start one of mine, and it was a nightmare.

[Cowgirl]

HAHA, in this case, “Full of Schtick”
Carl’s schtick is about buying the “cheap as chips” rejects and turning them into champions, but of course they are “cheap as chips” to him when a partner is funding the cost of the horse and he is giving his name and training to the project. No one at his level is paying next to nothing for a young horse. They are paying low to mid-six figures, most likely. Maybe it was true when he was making his name; not true now. He is a fabulous trainer and a wonderful rider and his horses make team after team. He is not buying rejects. I promise you the current one he is riding from Fiona Bigwood, was not “cheap as chips”

Anky and Sjef used to say that they couldn’t go look at horses themselves or the price would go way up. The success quotient of adding them to the team would make the horse suddenly more valuable.

[Demerara_Stables]

There are bad trainers in every discipline, but overall having someone in your discipline that specializes in young horses start your horse is better than someone in a different discipline.

[skydy]

@Demerara_Stables

There are bad trainers in every discipline, but overall having someone in your discipline that specializes in young horses start your horse is better than someone in a different discipline.

Not necessarily. The qualifications of a trainer matter, no matter what the discipline. An unqualified young horse trainer (not necessarily “bad”) in ones own discipline is not better to use than a well qualified colt starter from another discipline.

People need to do their due diligence, be more involved, and choose someone with a proper CV and verifiable results.

I started my own, but I took the time to raise and train them, and they never became “problem” horses.

[Demerara_Stables]

@skydy

The qualifications of a trainer matter, no matter what the discipline. An unqualified young horse trainer (not necessarily “bad”) in ones own discipline is not better to use than a well qualified colt starter from another discipline.

IF both trainers are of equal quality, it’s better to have someone in your discipline.

[skydy]

What has your experience been with young horse starters? Did you send yours out to be backed?