Breeding minis

[KanoasDestiny]

I am doing some research and would greatly appreciate if you could take a minute to answer the survey. Thank you.

 

[Little Wolf Ranch]

Just out of curiosity what's the purpose/goal of this poll? Curiosity has gotten the better of me again lol

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Am not a breeder of minis, but am a breeder....

 

[mdegner]

Am not a breeder of minis, but am a breeder....

Ha ha Nathan........needed a giggle first thing monday morning

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Just out of curiosity what's the purpose/goal of this poll? Curiosity has gotten the better of me again lol

I am trying to see how the responses of miniature horse owners differ from those of other horse owners.

Am not a breeder of minis, but am a breeder....

I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I read your response.

 

[Katiean]

There was no place for the person that has 1 foal every 5 or 6 years. I have bred my mares but "No, I am not a mini horse breeder".

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I just meant anyone who adds to the horse population, regardless if it is only once in a while or yearly.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Ok, I'm lost...... I breed whatever horses I'm told to by the owner, but not specifically minis...

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Nathan, are you breeding your own mares either to raise or sell the foal? Or is horse breeding your actual occupation for other people?

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Occupation

 

[Carolyn R]

I think she means breeding ones own horses to produce offspring that one will keep or sell for ones own profit. So unless you are providing the stallion service by means of a stallion you own, then your answer would be no. I think this is meant to see if peoples personal goals on breeding have changed.

Edited to add, the "profit" portion of the above statement should be meant as comic relief. LOL

I think you will get more of the breeding or planning to beard reponses on this board than you would the back porch simply because a lot of breeders seek out this forum, whereas many of the people that love this forum but no longer breed seem to transition to the back porch.

 

[Jill]

We bred no one for this year, nor next year, but we will be breeding mares for 2014 and added a very nice new stallion last year (who comes home this fall...). We will never breed on a large scale, but are breeding toward specific intensions / puposes and do not plan to quit any time soon. We have NO intention of making a profit at all but the rewards are the satisfication of producing a foal that are very nice and the embodiment of what we'd hoped for with the cross. That, I swear, is addicting. Makes me wish I had a lot more free time and 1000's of acres (oh, and a bigger staff LOL!).

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

So if you are using someone else's stallion, you aren't a breeder??

 

[ohmt]

In this case, no. I believe it was stated that the OP was comparing mini owners and "biggie" owners and how many contribute to the horse population. So for your case, the people who hired you would be the ones choosing to have the mare bred and are the ones putting more horses into the world. Your response would not fit in this poll anyway, since you do not breed minis (unless you own minis but are not breeding them or did own them at one point), but your involvement with their larger counterparts is irrelevent, unless the OP needs more stats for that area.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I think she means breeding ones own horses to produce offspring that one will keep or sell for ones own profit. So unless you are providing the stallion service by means of a stallion you own, then your answer would be no. I think this is meant to see if peoples personal goals on breeding have changed.

Thank you, this is exactly what I meant. I meant to respond earlier but we lost a very beloved fur-kid today.

So if you are using someone else's stallion, you aren't a breeder??

That wasn't exactly what I meant. My poll question was "Do you breed your miniature horses?" I was trying to find out if the majority of those who own miniature horses, breed them. I have this same poll on a "biggie" forum, and the responses by those who own normal size horses are almost the opposite of the responses here. I once saw someone on here post that those who own minis are more inclined to breed, compared to other horse owners, and so far, I'm finding that statement to be true. It's strange to be on this forum and nearly 3/4 of the topics revolve around breeding or foals. On the other forum, I'd say maybe only 1/8 of the topics are, and some of those are accidental breedings.

With the economy the way it is today, it's interesting to see how many people are still breeding. Everyone complains that horses are going for dirt cheap, but yet, people are still adding to the population as if minis are a dying breed. Out of 67 voters here, over half are either breeding or have plans to breed. Out of that same number, 80% of the voters have produced foals. Which raises another interesting question...how many of those 80% are/were breeding national winners?

 

[Jill]

I don't think there's any question that proportionally more miniature horse owners breed their horses than is the case with other horse breeds. I also think portionally more miniature horse owners show their horses than is true with other breeds.... and I've always thought that LB membership reflects a higher percentage of show homes than is true in the general population (I'm not trying to say that's good or bad, just that I think its the case -- I don't think a show home is neccesarily superior to a pet home... I'd rather be a pet mini than a show one probably!)

 

[Tremor]

Thank you, this is exactly what I meant. I meant to respond earlier but we lost a very beloved fur-kid today.

That wasn't exactly what I meant. My poll question was "Do you breed your miniature horses?" I was trying to find out if the majority of those who own miniature horses, breed them. I have this same poll on a "biggie" forum, and the responses by those who own normal size horses are almost the opposite of the responses here. I once saw someone on here post that those who own minis are more inclined to breed, compared to other horse owners, and so far, I'm finding that statement to be true. It's strange to be on this forum and nearly 3/4 of the topics revolve around breeding or foals. On the other forum, I'd say maybe only 1/8 of the topics are, and some of those are accidental breedings.

With the economy the way it is today, it's interesting to see how many people are still breeding. Everyone complains that horses are going for dirt cheap, but yet, people are still adding to the population as if minis are a dying breed. Out of 67 voters here, over half are either breeding or have plans to breed. Out of that same number, 80% of the voters have produced foals. Which raises another interesting question...how many of those 80% are/were breeding national winners?

See the bolded. Could that be a trend? I'm not going to bash "biggie" owners but the majority of breedings on here are planned. There are very few accidental breedings. I have been on numerous "biggie" forums and the majority of breedings I see are accidental with grade parents. Most are also topics led by children. That is a whole other topic in of its self (poor parenting).

On this forum, I have never seen a poor conformed, purposely bred mini. Most foals are sold or kept for showing/breeding. Most are registered; and even the grade minis are well conformed (I know there were a couple grade foals born recently on here) and could go on to show if they were hardshipped.

Unlike "biggie" forums we are VERY open about our controversial topics (abuse, training, dwarfism, gelding, etc.) Other forums are not. You get bashed on those forums and on here you do not. On many forums you have to word your posts VERY carefully as to not offend anybody. Here, you do not.

I see nothing wrong with breeding a horse/mini with a purpose behind it. Most of us research and breed conformationally correct horses. My family used to breed (stopped in 2011) and I am planning on one day breeding a couple mares in the future. Miniatures of course.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

I had a poll not too long ago asked big horse owners and mini owners when they buy horses what do they look for? It was also the complete opposite. Full size horse owners preferred the trained horses and show horses came in second, no one even voted for breeding horses. Whereas the majority here voted for breeding horses then show horses.

I think due to the fact that its easier to keep a mini vs a full size horse thats where a lot of your reasoning behind your poll. Also I think the majority of your breeders also own a stallion and many of your full size horse owners don't own stallions. I voted that I was a breeder but have stopped. I did buy a mare this year and will probably breed her in several years but she will be shown first and if I do breed her I will send her off to an outside stud, I no longer want to own a stallion and will be cheaper in the long run to breed her to something that is of great quality then buy one that is or have to show to prove he is worthy of breeding.

 

[sedeh]

I've been a mini breeder on a small scale for a few years now. But I find it gets in the way of my showing which I really enjoy so I am breeding one mare for a foal next year and then I'll be done with breeding! I want to keep a few that will be my show horses and the rest will be sold or turned into pasture pets!

 

[Magic]

With the economy the way it is today, it's interesting to see how many people are still breeding. Everyone complains that horses are going for dirt cheap, but yet, people are still adding to the population as if minis are a dying breed. Out of 67 voters here, over half are either breeding or have plans to breed. Out of that same number, 80% of the voters have produced foals. Which raises another interesting question...how many of those 80% are/were breeding national winners?

I voted that I'm still breeding, but there IS a qualifier: This year we are expecting ONE foal, when we had several stallions and over 20 breeding age mares that we COULD have been bred. The year before we had just four foals, (of which we kept three) from pretty much the same numbers, so we aren't breeding "anything and everything", even though we do have National winners and Hall of Fame horses. I've been working at this for far too many years to just throw in the towel, but I didn't want to be adding to the oversaturated market either. This year we plan to breed for more foals than we have the last couple of years, but a lot of thought is going into it, like how many can we breed for and KEEP if they don't sell? We tend to breed for what we want to keep, but we can't keep them all so we do offer very nice horses for sale as well. Just this last year we've sold a National Champion halter mare, a gorgeous leopard stallion (got to retain breeds to him which made it less painful to let him go), a Halter Hall of Fame gelding, and many others. When they go to great homes, whether show homes or not, if the new owners are thrilled with them then I'm thrilled too.