The Day of the $50 Colt
Some 60 years ago, when the recreational horse world was freshly re-energized after the end of World War II, a horse magazine editor penned an editorial in which he declared, "The day of the $50 colt is over." Lauding the explosive interest in all things horse, he claimed (with good justification, considering how the war put most horse activities on hold) that there just weren't enough good horses to go around and that breeders were in for some golden times.
I've re-read that editorial many times, always marveling over the notion that there could have been a day when $50 would buy a colt. But now I'm marveling for another reason: The day of the $50 colt is back. I learned this after downloading the price results of a recent regional registered-horse auction--one that's an established market venue with a loyal clientele of sellers and buyers. Fifty-dollar colts? Yessirree. These in particular were unspotted weanlings culled from a color-breed farm, hauled far enough to make the fuel bill for getting them to the auction ring greater than what they brought.
I like to think they went home with thrilled 4-H kids. Kids who'd saved chore and allowance money so they could buy a horse of their very own. Kids who couldn't believe their great good luck in having their dream of horse ownership come true for such a tiny price. I like to think this even though I know these $50 colts could just as easily be standing in a horse feedlot in northern Montana, eating and growing until they're worth sending to the slaughter plant over the border in Alberta.
The day of the $50 colt. Is its return a good thing, or a bad thing? Seems like a two-edged sword to me, and one of a sort that I never thought I'd live to see.
posted by Juli Thorson @ 11:24 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Fifty dollar colts aren't that shocking to me. What I'm having trouble coming to grips with is the couple of "free to good home" horses that I've seen advertised in newspapers over the last couple of months. With all the No Slaughter discussions, people calling their dogs "fur kids," their horses "companions" and the cost of hay this year I wondered how long it would take until such ads cropped up. Answer-- about 3 months after it occurred to me that if horses are pets now, the industry will have the same problems as the other pet industries. What also occurred to me is that with the bottom out of the slaughter market, a person could lose money picking up a free horse and hauling it to a sale in the cost of the fuel to get it there. A cold-hearted notion, perhaps, but true.
This is a sad commentary on the horse industry in general and the APHA in particiular. Were these weanlings registered or registerable? I suspect they were dumped at the sale because of two factors:
1) the lack of opportunity for solids in the APHA--because these horses, although registered, are not allowed to show with regular registry and have few opportunities available to them.
2) because of the stigma associated with solids and their lack of value, it has long been rumored that breeders dump their solid stock without papers so that their stallions show a good color productin rate
The APHA leadership has long taken the stance that the owners of solids don't want to show APHA; That has been proven false by the success of the 2006 offerings at the Ohio club, where a full slate of classes for solids resulted in significant participation.
The APHA has taken a position that the only way to protect color and encourage people to breed to color is to limit the opportunities of the more than 30% of solids registered with the organization. What we are seeing, especially with the AQHA's repeal of the excessive white rule, is a decline in APHA membership, breedings, registration, etc. This will mosst likely continue.
The alternative is simple: provide incentives to reward and encourage color AND alllow solid horses the same opportunities as the colored horses registered within the breed.
I do think this is going to become a bigger issue all the time. Simply because the internet makes information so much more available than it used to be.
I feel it's a shame that lack of color seems to make it worthwhile to ship a truck of colts to a sale when a colored sibs are probably still at home or sold to a private buyer.
Will the lack of slaughter houses affect production? Maybe....and maybe I'll have to find these sales to pick up some $50 well bred fillies that have color producing "capability" to train and sell at MY profit since the market I cater to doesn't care about color but more about affordability and safety. And people need to realize that just because color isn't shown, doesn't mean the genotype for it isn't there.
It also won't surprise me a tiny bit if the Solid Bred horses become a booming business again. Ohio Paint Horse Club proved beyond a doubt that the Solids will show if the opportunity is made available. I look for the two shows in Springfield to become bigger every year and to draw .many. exhibitors.
Did you know that Washington Paint Horse Club hosted the first and only APHA sanctioned Solid Only show?
things they are a-chagin' and hopefully for the better.
I think this is a sad reflection on the Paint Horse industry. I have recently returned from the NRHA Reining Futurity in Oklahoma City and the associated Futurity prospect sales.
At this sale, 62 2-year-olds went under the hammer. These were paints, solids, Quarter Horses, whatever, as long as they were showing promise for reining.
The top colt sold for $195,000 and the top filly for $185,000. One paint that we were interested in sold for $147,000.
If only the various organizations would look at the ability of the horse and not it's color this situation where youngsters are discarded just because they are not the right color would be a thing of the past.
This is not just a paint issue. I see horses weekly offered for little to no cost. Horses at auctions are selling for $25-$50, these are trained horses that people cannot afford to feed. The cost of hay/lack of hay, plus the lack of slaughter just means more horses bounce around.
What amazes me is some friends of mine bought a Paso Fino (not registered but VERY typey) for $75. Even if this horse wasn't registered she could have contacted our association I could have found 4 or 5 people that would have given her several hundred or helped her cover her feed bill. He was taken to the auction because she could not afford to feed him, a horse she has raised since a baby (with shots, worming, farriar due dates). It makes me so sad for her, but the horse went to a good home.
As a member of APHA for 20+ years and an active member in many of the clubs in WA State I do get tired of the continuing gripes of the poor solid paint bred horse owners. I have bred for 20 years (not owning a stallion) and I have had many a solid. I have never complained about my solids as I have sold them to very appreciative people who loved the horse and were more than happy to pay less than a colored paint. The horse industry and markets have and are always changing with price and popularity of certain colors but a well bred solid now has many the opporunities to be shown and obtain the same goals as the colored horses. I myself have cut way down on my breeding because of the market and my abilities to feed and care for too many horses. I have to be responsible for my own actions. APHA and local clubs are doing everything they can to insure that the SPB horses have opportunities to earn Superiors in all events showing with other SPB. APHA is and should remain a color breed. If they do not then we become what became of the Appaloosa breed. People were shocked when the rules were changed for Appys and at their World Show all that won were solids and the value for Appys plunged. The value in Paints has and always will be in the beautiful colored horses. In the show industry there are always preferences for minimual in halter and others saying that tobianos couldn't compete or were discrimated against. Tobianos and other unusual colors in the past were not bred with quality in mind and now seem to glut the market with a homozygous anything. Not to say there are always people wanting to buy a good horse with great bloodlines and abilities, or be given the horse as a way to start their family on the fun of owning horses. Only if they understand the cost of owning a horse and caring for it. Over breeding, breeding everything that moves to your stallion at home for less than $300 does nothing to help the overpopulation of unwanted and cheap horses. With gas, hay, shavings and property prices soaring, owners can't afford to feed them and can't train them so they can't get any money for them and cry that it is APHA's fault. As far as what APHA is doing to promote SPB's; unless you have been in the closet, regional & local club's have always had breeding stock classes available, but nobody showed up. Since 2006 it is mandatory that shows offer solid bred classes at every show. Doesn't mean they will show up. I am a member of the WA State Paint Horse Club that held the first Solid Paint Bred Show with a lot of great awards, not a whole lot of entries, but we will not give up on continuing this great event. I don't believe there is a stigma on SPB horses or that all breeders dump their solids by the truckload at auctions. I have always felt that every breed of horse owner will over breed, not be able to care for and plan for what to do with any foal they have and if they have auctions then go and pick yourself up a good horse at a reasonable price. But stop the rumor has it thing and going off the results of one sale and not looking at how many un-registered other breed horses are selling for. I am proud to be a member of APHA and I choose to own the most gorgeous and well bred colored and SPB horses in the world.
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