I do agree with you Diane - less would be more! We could really do with a big cut down, but luckily with all this land we can wait for the perfect homes to come along. Very few of that 41 are actually bred from - three are retired and Nutty retires after this coming foal. One mare has never bred and we dont bother to try any more, neither do we breed from several others which I consider too small. Others are yearlings/2 and 3 year olds that we might breed from in the future. We do have two 4 year olds and one 5 year old that we might breed from next year and give the other regular breeders the year off (actually we usually only breed every other year or every second year from our older girls, but we have been known to have two foals on the trot from the younger mares before their year off).
So you see, most of those 41 are just a 'waste of space'/living the natural life with no effort on their part! LOL!! But breeding is such a long term thing - you get a foal you think might have the potential to be allowed to carry on the line, then you wait years to see them as 'adult', then you perhaps want to try using different stallions to get more foals with the possible potential to carry on with - a never ending circle!!
So you see, most of those 41 are just a 'waste of space'/living the natural life with no effort on their part! LOL!! But breeding is such a long term thing - you get a foal you think might have the potential to be allowed to carry on the line, then you wait years to see them as 'adult', then you perhaps want to try using different stallions to get more foals with the possible potential to carry on with - a never ending circle!!