I've always been curious, and for plans down the road in which I would like to own my own breeding stallion, how to you make a great horse?
These are all purely curiosity questions, I'm sorry if they overlap with one of the current threads going on.
Of course, if any of this ever happened, I wouldn't have it be my primary source of income. I don't want to run a huge operation like the 6666's, just have some extremely nice quality horses that hold their own against others. Tear me apart if you want, its not like I am planning on breeding 5 trillion quarter pony/mustang/TWHs. Just a few nice foals a year.
I understand that the horse market is crap, but there are still places for nice horses.
These are all purely curiosity questions, I'm sorry if they overlap with one of the current threads going on.
- Obviously he has to do something great, but do you wait to bring him into the show world until he is fully mature, or do you futurity him a lot as a youngster?
- You gotta get your name out there somehow. Where do you start off? Shows, or progeny records?
- He's probably going to need a pedigree to back him up (yes there are plenty of horses with bland records that have done great things, but people are gonna look for names).
- How much does your brood mare herd matter? Obviously if people want horses bred by you, your probably going to want to be producing nice babies. But do you look for mares that are similar in breeding lines and conformation, or do you mix it up? What about their performance record? I really wouldn't want broodmares that haven't really gotten out there and done stuff, but is it important to you? Or how well their babies have done if they have not ever shown?
- What about outcrossing? I'm particularly interested in barrel racing and performance appaloosas, but quite frankly there are so few to pick from, and if you want to do good, you want to be able to compete with the big guys, which is dominated by QH's. Is it frowned upon to bring TB or QH lines in?
- Some breeders breed their mares right when they go into foal heat. Would it be bad to go in rotation? Like some mares breed one year, get a year off then breed the next. The year they aren't having foals, the other set is.
- Also, should you stick to one major bloodline? I see lots of QH Ranches that are strick on Blue Valentine or Paco Beuno lines and what not. Is that a wise decision?
- At one time do you decide to maybe purchase a second stud, or keep a homebred baby to become your next? Also, how important is it to show your own babies?
- How important is it to have a stud trained to a dummy?
- Taking to consignment sales. Yes, no?
Of course, if any of this ever happened, I wouldn't have it be my primary source of income. I don't want to run a huge operation like the 6666's, just have some extremely nice quality horses that hold their own against others. Tear me apart if you want, its not like I am planning on breeding 5 trillion quarter pony/mustang/TWHs. Just a few nice foals a year.
I understand that the horse market is crap, but there are still places for nice horses.