Breed to Sell?

[martoon]

Did you see this quote in the Bloodhorse from a prominent breeder consigner in Maryland after this week\'s yearling sale.  He basically says the breed to sell market is so bad He is going to Kill some of his broodmares!  This pig has sold many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of horses in the good times.  Now that the bubble market is over he wants to kill them?  I thought horse breeders were supposed to love horses.   No wonder Maryland racing is a disaster with idiots like this involved.  Not only is he cruel and criminal but even if you are thinking that, how stupid do you have to be to quote it to Bloodhorse magazine!!??  
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According to Charles McGinnes, whose Thornmar operation is located near Chestertown, Md., the situation has reached a crisis point financially for many of the Midlantic region’s breeders.

“Basically, what the problem boils down to is you can’t sell horses for more than it costs to raise them,” he said. “I\'m comparing the situation to the war in Afghanistan; there is no solution to it. You’re stuck and mired in it, and you can’t get out if it. We’re going to sell some mares in the sale here in December and hope somebody will pay $1,000 (apiece) for them, and some of them we’re going to put down. What else are you going to do with them? It’s the kindest thing to do.”

[richiebee]

Martoon:

Despicable but rather ingenious.

He has just created a market for these mares. He\'s basically \"shouted out\" to a
lot of horse rescue groups and animal lovers and I would be very surprised if any
of these mares meet the cruel fate he has discussed.

As to the compassion of thoroughbred breeders, it reminds me of a story Woody
Stephens told in his bio \"Guess I\'m Lucky\", how when a mare foaled twins (not
desirable)one of the twins was quickly and quietly disposed of.

Hard times for all animals who rely on human kindness during tough economic times,
the only good news being that there is a large group of people who show more
compassion for unfortunate animals than they do for unfortunate humans.

As the iconic Gordon Gekko said (why they are remaking this movie I don\'t know):
\"I\'m a typical WASP-- I love animals and I hate people.\"

[martoon]

Richie...


Yes I almost forgot that horse traders have a reputation ranking below Used Car Salesmen and Nigerian Banker Internet Scam Artists on the integrity scale.

If it wasn\'t so sad it would be hilarious.  At the tail end of the PETA Eight Belles firestorm, a noted horse breeder telling the leading horse magazine that he is going to kill some horses for purely economic reasons.  And they actually print it!    Horsemen really need to learn to play the political correctness card better.  Take a lesson from the master Richard Dutrow and how he handled the steroids question.

In fact the Jockey Club or whoever is in charge (gulp!) should enforce a gag order on all horsemen.  Better not to let people go backstage.  Because there is so much ugly stuff behind the curtain it is frightening.

[sighthound]

I have no problem with people who can no longer afford to feed their horses, choosing to humanely euthanize them.  Rescue orgs can\'t take them all.  There are more \"free to good home\" horses nowadays than possible homes.  The TB business isn\'t the only horse business that has crashed.  Horses are a dime a dozen nowadays.  The alternative is the killers.  Kudos to the guy for not allowing the horses to go that way.  Plenty of far less responsible horse owners have just \"turned them loose\" in the past five years, in other people\'s fields, out west. Those folks are the irresponsible scumbags, IMO.

[martoon]

Sight, there is a big difference here.  This guy has sold lots of horses for lots of money to the suckers in the inflated bubble horse market.  This is not little Jimmy\'s family on hard times so they can\'t afford their pasture pet riding horse anymore.

This is a guy who is advocating killing his living breathing investment vehicles because they have no economic worth anymore.  If you are going to reap the benefits of the ponzi scheme, you should have some responsibility and decency when it starts turning the other way.  I am quite sure this guy has assets and connections so I was just so surprised to see how quickly and casually he played the \"we\'ll just have to kill them\" card in the press instead of advocating every possible alternative first.  You guys are painting a pretty broad stroke between humane euthanasia and slaughter.  When it is actually a fairly thin line.  Especially when it is such an obvious businesslike situation like this.  That\'s just giving them more cover to so casually kill them.  If he kills one now at the first stages of a race horse recession for economic reasons he should never be allowed to own a horse again.

[sighthound]

That might not be your choice, or my choice, but if one doesn\'t want the horses any more, and there is no other outlet for them, it\'s absolutely a responsible choice in my book.  Far too many refuse to take that responsibility.

[TGJB]

I have heard that people are waking up to find horses in their fields that are not theirs. No idea whwether it\'s true.

[magicnight]

It\'s true. This is from 6 months ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/07horses.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=horse%20abandonment&st=cse

[BH]

This article was written BEFORE the economic downturn:


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-14-kentucky-horses_N.htm

[miff]

Problem could be subsatntially alleviated if in future those with a garbage mare a patch of backyard grass stops breeding.

[martoon]

I met someone who drove their horse somewhere for a trailride and when they got back to their horse trailer there was another horse in there!  I actually heard this happens at the horse sales too and they had to put guards out in the parking lots where all the trailers are parked.

[sighthound]

Yes, and out west there are horses are being turned loose on BLM land all over the place.  At least there should be hay this fall in most places in the US, compared to drought years.

We don\'t need 30,000 TB horses born a year.  20,000 would be more than enough.  I agree, we were spoiled these past years, where we could breed any filly that couldn\'t make it on the track to a halfway decent horse and get $20K at Keeneland fall and make a little money.  No more.  Those horses are free to good home now.

The minimum bid at Keeneland fall is $1000, because killer prices still top out at about $500 max.  Keeps the killer packagers away from bidding in the auction ring.

[sighthound]

Update on some of the Paragallo horses in Bill Finley\'s ESPN column:

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/columns/story?columnist=finley_bill&id=4536990

[P-Dub]

Sight,

Thanks for the link. Thinking about what these animals went through should make anyone angry.  Thankfully, it sounds as though several of them are receiving the care they deserve.

As I write this my 2 little dogs are sitting on the couch with me. We adopted the younger one (2 1/2 yrs old) from a rescue foundation a couple of years ago.  She was found abandoned in Oakland, roaming the streets at about 4 months of age with a terrible case of mange and other assorted maladies. She was picked up and taken in by a rescue group. This rescue group nursed her back to health after a lengthy rehab (they weren\'t sure if she was going to make it, the pictures of her back then were terrible). Today we have a beautiful, healthy, happy chihuahua mix with the sweetest disposition you can imagine. We absolutely love her. I don\'t understand how some people can treat animals with such reckless disregard. We can\'t save them all, but thankfully there are many people out there willing to do so. Many thanks to the people taking the time to rehab these neglected horses.