Selling horses - Can you really find a forever home?
Horses which end up at slaughter are a sign of irresponsible breeding.
How to make sure your horses don’t end up in the wrong places?
You cannot control everything that happens to a horse once it is sold, but you can do your best by vetting all sales to “responsible” persons, tracing horses after they pass out of your ownership, and generally keeping in touch with buyers.
Good breeders keep records!
This also applies to horses that you might sell by auction; though you don’t have control of buyers, you can still in most cases, follow the progress of the horse.
There is no excuse not to keep records if you are a small breeder or even if you are a large breeder.
No excuse!
God-forbid that you expect to find a “forever” home.
A forever home is impossible. No matter what someone says, even if in good faith, this is not something one can guarantee, and something bred by you can disappear in the blink of an eye, due to all sorts of circumstances.
These include marriage breakup, death of an owner, horse stolen and never recovered, financial woes, ill-health, horse being “wasted” and the like.
Many sellers do not even keep a record of who purchased a horse, least of all their contact details.
In this day and age, social license has become an increasingly important part of responsible selling.
(And buyers, this includes you taking responsible ownership. Please inform a breeder that you are now caring for a horse they bred.)
The Racing Industry has taken this on board, by introducing traceability schemes, such as that through HorseRecords, upon off the track retirement with schemes and funding. The equestrian scene should be no different.
Why is this important?
Tracing a horse you bred for its lifetime, is not just something you do for the fun of it. It gives you an idea of how the horse is perceived by the owner as something fit for purpose, why they bought it in the first place (feedback) and what the owner does with it. (Possible promotion or photos).
But it also ensures that if that owner is forced to sell for whatever reason, they can contact you first out of courtesy.
This enables you to decide if you wish to buy it back, or if you can help the seller to on-sell by promotion to your own clients.
If you have been breeding for a while, you should have an email list of past clients who may be likely buyers.
And you can put up a post advising of any horse of your breeding which might be coming up for sale.
This makes people feel part of a like-minded community of responsible horse owners. If buyers are proud of the horse they bought, they are often proud to be part of your stud “community.”
Record keeping and follow up are important tools for this purpose.
We know there are unscrupulous people out there, and people who won’t spend the small amount of money to have their horse euthanized if it has passed quality of life - it’s old, perhaps it is crippled up, or unable to hold weight due to having lost all its teeth.
Think about it.
The cost to put a horse down and dispose of it is somewhere around $300-$1000, which translates to 0.60c-$1.90 a week over the life of the horse, if you have owned it for some ten years.
Halve that again if you have owned it for 20 years.
Is that really too much to pay for the years of service he has given?
For a horse to end up at a low-end auction yard, to be bought by doggers is the most inhumane and irresponsible end to a horse’s life.
Don’t give the horse away as a “companion” unless you know exactly the care it will be given and you can take it back if necessary to euthanize it yourself. No horse deserves to “rot” in the paddock of a negligent owner.
Responsible breeders take accountability. Doing this is work, and can take an emotional toll. If you can’t see yourself ever being able to do this, don’t breed.
PLEASE. DON’T. BREED.
*** Please share this post to groups you might belong to. Spread it far and wide. Our horses deserve it. ***
Did you know?
Q: How long do horses live for?
A: It depends.
The average life span of a horse is approximately 25 to 30 years. However, it varies based on diet, health, and environment and can range from 20 to 40 years.
Click on this link to find out more.
Forever homes are not impossible. I almost always give horses that I have bought a forever home. As a buyer I’ve only ever sold one horse on. But I do now understand that as a one time breeder (to date) this is impossible to guarantee from a sellers point of view. That troubles me.
Agree that finding a good home for a horse one is selling is important. However, sometimes this can't be guaranteed as in the cases cited of divorce, death, bankruptcy, illness, sudden relocation, etc. The flip side of this is in some places the 'horse world' is such a closed system that it is hard to buy a horse. I just spent nearly a year looking in Tassie. Since I am an older rider who last had a horse in New Zealand, no one here knew me, so the only people who would respond to my inquiries were selling half trained race horses or horses with injuries. I eventually went to a reputable performance horse sale out of state and purchased, to my satisfaction, two broke and decent mounts. One seller wanted to meet me and her daughter cried over the sale. The other left immediately after the sale and I found my prize wearing a hessian string with a sale number on it around the neck. So differing attitudes to parting with horses. If a horse is unsuitable for use, whether by injury or age, etc, the responsible thing is to put it down. Selling it on will only be cruel to the horse and buyer and it will ruin one's repute.