• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Torn

T

Team1roper

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
269
Location
South TX
I have been breeding Quarter Horses for almost 20 years now and I am debating on gettin out of the buisness and just running cattle and few horses.
This has been coming for some time I have gradually been seeling my brood mares and am down to 3 now and my Doc O Lena stallion
He is 19 now and I have had him since he was 6 months old.
 
:( I understand Team1roper. I had to come to that decision back in 2000, different reasons I am sure. I ended up selling everything but my old show mare...Then in 2002 lmao..I bought a few more to just resell, ended up keeping them for awhile. Now I am back to just 2 mares and thats where it will stay till I am done with college. I guess I just decided to get down to a few, when I lost the fun in them. When it felt like work and I resented them, it was time I did something different. We still have the cows...

Life changes and I do really understand that torn feeling. Good luck in your decisions.

Easty
 
Team1roper said:
I have been breeding Quarter Horses for almost 20 years now and I am debating on gettin out of the buisness and just running cattle and few horses.
This has been coming for some time I have gradually been seeling my brood mares and am down to 3 now and my Doc O Lena stallion
He is 19 now and I have had him since he was 6 months old.
Click to expand...
Thats a hard decision teamroper,hopefully you'll be happy with it,if not just do what gregs brother did when he also came to your desicion....Bye back. :lol: he has way MORE Appys they he ever did. Good-luck whichever way you go :)
 
Same deal here team1roper. Down to three mares and I'm looking for a good home for one older mare.... What I'm going to do is just breed one mare. That way I will have time to work with the colt and not get into the mess I am in right now with colts needing rode and not having the time or interest to do it..... IT's a tough descision. And I did alot of soul searching. And I felt really bad for along time, but a person changes and sometimes you have to go with what works for you.... There will always be horses to buy and really good ones. Plus if this horse slaughter thing goes through, horses are going to be pretty cheap.......
 
About the same here- Sold a lot of the mares a year ago- kept only 7 mares- two studs, which I have leased out- and couple of old saddle geldings...

Part of it was speculation over the horse slaughter ban and the changing horse demand, partially because I lost all my cheap help I've had for years when the kids moved away- didn't have the help to work with and ride down a bunch of young horses like they should be... Decided just to keep enough of the mares that I can raise a few for some of my old local customers that bought them as colts or yearlings-- most now go for 4-H projects.....
 
I am glad to see that its not just me, When something I love so much has turned into such a job. I mention to people here and the only thing I hear is "oh let me get a free breeding before you sell" they do not realize all the years I have put into breeding cow horses and working horses.
and the bloodlines I have built for me

And they Darn sure don't come around unless they want something.
that is one of the things pushing this decision.
that and the kids are getting older now. Boyfriends and girlfriends on the brain.
I think I would like to keep just a couple roping horses and do more roping than training now.

thanks everyone for your input
 
I think you have it figured out. Do what makes you happy.
Sometimes that changes, so if more roping and less raising/training
makes you happy, go for it.

Having kids interested or not interested can sure make a difference.
That much I can tell you for sure.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!
Maybe some of your kids will decide to rope with you!
 
Team1roper, Why don't you lease out your mares for a year and see how you feel then? That way you still own them, you are just not paying the feed bill. You may feel very differently next spring :)
 
If the grandkids get old enough to start helping me I may have to save a few filly's and build back up again...I just found out my cousin is building a monstrous indoor arena a mile and a half from my house :D ...I was wondering what all the dirtwork the last couple weeks was for- he's been busy moving cattle so I haven't had a chance to talk with him-- but I understand from some workers that it will be 1 closed in building with 4 arenas inside...His son in law is a pretty sharp team roper, so I'm sure it will have a nice roping arena....

Make working colts in the winter a lot more enjoyable.....
 
Well around here there are tons of QH breeders who will complain that they cant make a decent buck. And they are right, they cant make a decent buck.
However there are others right next to them breeding QHs who do really good at it.
The difference as far as I can tell is the ones who do good at it are using proven breeding stock. They showed their stallions, used really good show proven mares. They are fussy about who the sell to. They sell to people who are going to train, show and promote their horses.
These people have no trouble getting great prices for their weanlings. BTW Really good horses are in so much demand up here that a lot of them are sold before they are even born. You have to buy good prospects young because most are sold before they are yearlings.
Good horses are not affected by what average horses are selling for at the local cattle auction mart when they have their monthly horse sale.
Good horses are not effected by the price of feed.
Good horses are not effected by slaughter prices.
Even though you might be breeding really good horses, if your horses are not getting shown and promoted they will be considered average by potential buyers. You cant make any money with average horses around here. If your breeding average horses you would be better off with cows or renting your grass out to somebody else.
 
OT that sounds real nice
there is an arena here I like competing at and it has 2 indoor arenas
real nice place

RoperAB
I have to Agree with Katrina, in all the years I have been raising and breeding horses A lot has to do with location location location.
We have had a few PRCA stars move down where we are at and try to get things going but do to the fact I live where everyone rides grandma & Grandpas farm horse and doesn't want to pay for anything else, the horse buisness never really gets good publicity.
Now 2 counties over from me is good horse buisness. Most of the folks work in the city and own hobby farms and want the expensive horses to compete on.
I am not doing bad in the horse buisness and I am not getting rich at it either. Just making ends meet and can't get the knot tide.
 
Selling horses is hard. I was to a sale where they were going for dirt. But ..... Most of your high selling horses don't go thru the ring. Most are sold privately. eg. my sister has a 1/2 arab.1/2 qh couldn't get 1200 bid on him thru the ring took him home advertised on the net and sold him for 4500. It's hard to sell at the market because your buying pool is limited to who was able to show up that day. My mother never sells anything via market it is all private treaty, and your jaw would drop if I told you what she is able to get for a Morgan weanling. But she is broadining her market and I think to be competitive on a smaller scale( meaning only selling a couple colts per year instead of a production sale) you really have to advertise. And have proven stock. You don't need to win the worlds. Even pictures of what the dam and sire can do on the ranch will help sell.
 
Katrina its people like yourself that has me disgusted with the horse business. The thoughts of one of my horses being resold to somebody like you depresses the heck out of me.
TeamRoper
Think or say whatever you want. Was only giving you my perspective from my area. Example just a few days ago a member from this forum that we all know who lives in your country contacted me through private message about buying a horse from me.
 
Wow ya'll lost me. I guess I was agreeing more with what RAB had said about selling horses. I missed Katrinas post, was that supposed to be taken the way it sounds???? :shock: :shock: We're all friends lets not take our opinions and beat eachother with them.
 
RoperAB said:
Well around here there are tons of QH breeders who will complain that they cant make a decent buck. And they are right, they cant make a decent buck.
However there are others right next to them breeding QHs who do really good at it.
The difference as far as I can tell is the ones who do good at it are using proven breeding stock. They showed their stallions, used really good show proven mares. They are fussy about who the sell to. They sell to people who are going to train, show and promote their horses.
These people have no trouble getting great prices for their weanlings. BTW Really good horses are in so much demand up here that a lot of them are sold before they are even born. You have to buy good prospects young because most are sold before they are yearlings.
Good horses are not affected by what average horses are selling for at the local cattle auction mart when they have their monthly horse sale.
Good horses are not effected by the price of feed.
Good horses are not effected by slaughter prices.
Even though you might be breeding really good horses, if your horses are not getting shown and promoted they will be considered average by potential buyers. You cant make any money with average horses around here. If your breeding average horses you would be better off with cows or renting your grass out to somebody else.
Click to expand...

Roper,you confuse me by your statement"Really Good Horses" over the years greg and I have bought horses for use on the place,we've often found papers don't nessasarly make a good horse.The best horse greg ever owned ,and misses to this day was an unpapered pinto gelding we bought at"shock of all shock" an auction sale.
Gregs brother raises Appys...damn good at it too,makes money off his horses,has good breeding BUT he tried the show ring...did not like it and also says just a friggin political forum. before you say "Ya well"....he won LOTS of awards with his horses so thats no excuse. Says a good horse sells itself doesn't need to ever be shown.
My point being a good horse is just that a good horse!!!
 
Heel Fly said:
Wow ya'll lost me. I guess I was agreeing more with what RAB had said about selling horses. I missed Katrinas post, was that supposed to be taken the way it sounds???? :shock: :shock: We're all friends lets not take our opinions and beat eachother with them.
Click to expand...

I know that. Thats one of things that annoyed me about her. If I say it/Its wrong. If you say the same thing /she is cheerleading.
Like I will admit Team Roper has a point about location. But its not all about location. Example to move from Alberta to a place like SK to sell horses would not make sense because there just isnt much of a market there. However if somebody like Carl Gerwin or Gerry Hansma moved there im sure people would seek them out to buy from them.
But hyorses are bought and sold over large distances to people from all over western North America all the friggen time and I cant believe anybody would think differently. I know one girl who imported here Warmblood from Europe and paid over $20,000 US for him and he was just a yearling. There are lots of reining trainers exporting to Europe. Now these are real high end horses. But any type of trainer or breeder has to promote his horses.
I mean look at team ropers. Its nothing for them to go 500 miles to a roping. My neibhor goes all the way to AZ just to rope. You mean to tell me they wont go a few miles to look at a horse? I know I have traveled quite a few miles to buy prospects :mad: I know there are a hell of a lot of QHs imported into Canada from as far south as Texas. Look at Douglas Lake! They are about as remote as you caqn get but people will travel thousands of miles to get one of their horses. These are just ranch horses! My neibhors kid rids for them! Its not like we are talking about Grand Prix Dressage horses!
This conversation is silly!
 
Mrs Greg reread this part

RoperAB said:
Even though you might be breeding really good horses, if your horses are not getting shown and promoted they will be considered average by potential buyers. You cant make any money with average horses around here.
Click to expand...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top