Commercial Viability or Death by Greed?

Commercial Viability

At the start of writing about the plight of the Hispano-Arabe and the steps being taken with the breeding expansion plan, I talked about the need for the breed to be bred and produced for the appropriate commercial market according to its functional use as a horse in modern times.

In Spain there has never been any doubt about the abilites of the Hispano-Arabe and the role it has in the agricultural market as a versatile working stock horse. In the same way that equine breed regeneration programmes here in the UK have looked at the modern commercial viability of endangered native equines and targeted their modern market to help perpetuate demand and thus support the survival of the breed, so the Spanish have looked at the adaptability of the Hispano-Arabe to other roles outside of ranching.

 Ranching at Alvaro Domecq's Acampo Abierto

by Cathy Spearing

www.equinart.co.uk

Here in the UK unlike the USA and Australia we do not have an agricultural use for the Hispano-Arabe stock herding cattle over vast countryside. Our interest in the Hispano-Arabe is for the versatility of the breed as an all around sports horse in the leisure riding industry. It is from this area of non-professional horse riding that nearly all our successful professional competition riders started out, learning and developing their skills with the assortment of Native breeds and partbreds capable of multi-sport diversity.

Despite the UK having the highest number of horses than any  one European country, it lags far behind these countries in the development of the sports horse, which is the role for which the Hispano-Arabe is well suited. Our horse industry is strangling itself by funnelling all its effort into breeding for the tiny minority of competition riders wanting expensive, big, powerful horses designed with high level capability in one specialist area of performance!

There are excellent horses being bred and produced for the specialist competition market, and the stud fees and youngstock selling costs reflect the high performance achievements of the stallions used and the potential or expected career attainment level of the progeny.

The insanity that holds back the development and growth of the non-horse-racing industry is the belief by some stallion owners that all stallions regardless of breed or ability should command the same phenomenal fees as successful proven performance horses.

The Hispano-Arabe is not a high performance 'mono-sport' horse; it is an extremely versatile, intelligent all round riding horse. Outside of horse racing the UK horse industry ranges from professional through to leisure with many semi-professional riders in between. Of the 2.5 million plus horse owners, nearly 80% of these participate as owners and riders interested in the leisure industry side of horse owning; ie they enjoy simply riding, hacking out and attending shows at the non-professional level of competition. Research a few years ago also showed that a quarter of these horse owners annual household income was under £10,000.

While not discounting the fact that it is not cheap to breed and rear horses and the old adage is that it costs the same to breed a good horse as a bad one, breeders and owners do have a responsibility to be realistic about the costs they are expecting when taking into account the capability of their horses and the market into which their horse belongs.

In the case of the Hispano-Arabe, fortunately, there are sensible owners of both Arabian and PRE horses that understand the need for co-operation to negotiate sensible stud fees (taking account of both the type of market these horses are to be produced for and the necessity for expansion of the breed) to aid in the regeneration of the breed through the first generation out-crossing programme.

Mary Parton Wright's Hispano-Arabe mare and foal

In this country we have seen just about every one of our own Native horse breeds at some point teeter on the edge of extinction and in every case the owners and breeders have pulled together constructively to save their horses from extinction. They have not been confronted by the vulture mentality of owners delighting in claiming 'rarity' as a justification to bump production costs up and drive the knife of extinction further into the heart of the breed!

Before a foal is even born the mare owner has to invest in veterinary fees to swab and clear the mare fit for breeding, this can be in the region of £200. There is then the stud fee to the stallion owner, if AI is involved the mare owner is looking at another £200 in insemination and veterinary costs. It is easy to see to see that before a live foal is even produced a mare owner if having to pay out extortionate stud fees is looking at nearly £1,000 outlay. This has still not taken account of any transportation or keep fee costs for the mare.

If you then factor in the cost of maintaining the mare till foaling, any veterinary fees that may arise if there are foaling problems and routine vaccinations for foals. Then there is breed registration with DNA typing, micro-chipping and passports; all of which can add to another £400. It is easy to see how production costs in the breeding industry can mount up, but while certain expenses can not be avoided, the extortionate rates of stud owners for non performance untested stallions can be avoided when breeding for the leisure market.

If the stallion owner takes time to think constructively about the horse industry, they will see that the high money spending market is very limited, so while they may get a few mare owners able to lay out high stud fees for riding horses, the bigger market in the long run is the 80% leisure industry.

Without breeders being sensible young riders..

our potential future competition riders like Lucy,

can never hope to afford good horses to learn and train on.

Or are we in an age where only the elite wealthy may own horses?

The stallion owner has to have the common sense to assess the quality of the mares being sent to stud no matter what level the stud fee is. The decision to turn down unsuitable mares and be selective is far more likely when the stud fee is not prohibitive and the market bigger. Mare owners having the funds to pay high stud fees has no correlation to the quality of their mare, the market is full of horses boasting outstanding paternal pedigrees but the resultant stock exhibiting nothing of that stallion in conformation or abilities!

The intention that we strive for, is the expansion and production of good quality Hispano-Arabe riding horses for the leisure industry; and perhaps one day its influence being seen in the development of the UK sports horse. We are not interested in the production of horses no one can afford to buy and whose production is for the novelty 'rarity' value.