Feed Me!

This is my friend Sue's colt. He is really friendly and is always hamming it up for the camera. He is really smart too. He insists on being the first one to get petted and fed. Babies are so much fun! Then they grow up and you have to train them. It's okay for the people that train their own,like she does. Too many people watch a series of tapes and think they are capable of doing it. So many of the unwanted horses are the results of owners not being able to handle the horse. You can get babies cheap and people are giving away horses that are not broke. People do not understand that it takes 60 to 120 days if not longer to have a horse trained, it depends on your abilities. The average trainer in our area gets $550 to $750 a month to train one. That is a lot of money to put in a "free" horse. When you buy a baby, you feed it for a year to year and a half before you can have it trained. Add in the vet care and farrier and you have so much money invested before you can even ride it. There are so many good older horses out there to buy that are trained. If the market keeps falling like it is, the backyard breeders will be starved out. These problems will start showing up as the year goes on. High hay prices, land prices and the beginning of taxation on horses will have rescues overloaded with horses. Is one answer to raise the price of registration? Not for the association to profit from, but to use to help with the unwanted horse issues. It could help the people that cannot afford the high price to have the vet put them down and calling the rendering plant. It averages $350 around here to do that. It will only work if the breeders pay that higher fee, and not sell the foal on breeders certificates. If they do not think enough of what they are breeding to pay the fee, maybe they will stop.