Breeding and Training Warmblood Horses

When I bought my stallion, Patrick, in 2001, I knew nothing about breeding stallions. I had bred a mare that I owned a few years earlier to see if I liked breeding mares and raising foals. I liked it even though I did a lot of things wrong, (I always learn more from my mistakes!). So I decided to try and do things the "right" way. To me the "right" way is the responsible way - breed an approved stallion to an approved mare that complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, and take the foal to an inspection and get registration papers. I went to Holland to import a stallion. Then I found some mares that were already approved in the same breed registry as my stallion. That is the "right" way as far as producing a quality foal, but what about the pure business side of this? Eventually I want some income from this venture, right?

The first step is marketing the stallion. He is the most profitable side of this business - or so everyone told me. Using artificial insemination (A.I.) you can breed 100's of mares a year. Yes, you can, but you won't! Not if you are breeding warmblood horses. Some of the top stallions in Europe have those kind of numbers, but very few in the U.S. do. In fact, from what I have been able to to observe the number is less than 100, less than 50 even, and more frequently less than 20! The costs involved in marketing and promoting the stallion and his resulting foals usually exceeds the stud fees the stallion brings in for the first several years. If the offspring are promoted well and they perform well, more breedings will come. It is what the stallion produces, not what he does that is important to prospective breeders.

The mare is 50% of the breeding equation. Some people think that they have even more influence than that, but the study of genetics says that the male and female each contribute 50%. Some traits are dominant, so if you want to get really scientific you could study the genetic make up of each horse and be more accurate. Certain traits show up often, so those can be evaluated. My stallion produces only grey offspring because the grey color gene is dominant and he only has grey genes. His friendly, gentle, and kind personality frequently shows up also, I don't know if anyone knows if that is dominant, but his offspring would indicate that it is.

The mare should have papers from one of the recognized warmblood registries and be approved for breeding in at least one or eligible for approval. The approval process ensures that her conformation, gaits, and overall impression as a breeding horse has been accepted by a qualified judge in the breed registry. For more information about these registries see the World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses.

Another important thing to consider is her disposition. Be very careful about breeding a mare with bad, nasty, or dangerous behavior. Not only will you have to be handling her a lot, but she could pass this behavior on to the foal. (Unless you breed her to my stallion ;>)

Finally when choosing the stallion to breed to your mare, look for one that will strengthen her weaknesses. Look at her with a critical eye and see what could be improved upon. Could her neck be a little longer? Would you like for her to be more uphill? Find a stallion that has what you would like to improve. There is no guarantee that the foal will turn out exactly like you envision, but you have no chance of it if you don't at least try to match up a stallion and mare that will compliment each other.

A quality stallion + a quality mare = a quality foal!

A mare will only produce one foal a year (you don't want twins!). This foal is rarely sold in the first three years, unless the stallion has established a track record of successful offspring and someone wants to buy one of his younger colts or fillies as a prospect. For an idea of what it takes to raise a foal see Successful Foal Raising. Most people want a horse that is already started under saddle and preferably also done some successful showing. Once several of these offspring start becoming successful it helps to sell the younger ones and the prices will also increase, but this takes at least five years depending on how many foals were produced during those first years.

The stallion can produce 100's of offspring a year. If you get mares from other breeders to breed to your stallion it increases the chances and opportunities for marketing the offspring and stallion. Some of the breeders will be breeding for a foal for their personal use. If they eventually show that offspring successfully, it will help promote your business. If they do nothing with it or worse, your business could suffer. The best scenario is that you breed lots of quality mares to your quality stallion and produce quality offspring that are successfully trained and become successful in their careers. Unfortunately this is not completely under your control if you breed to outside mares. You can only try to educate and offer help or other services to the breeders in hopes that they will do what is right for the horse.

So I've been doing this since 2004 and I am just starting to be able to promote the offspring and I am pleased with what Patrick is producing. I think that people are going to want his offspring and so I am going to continue and have actually decided to invest in more mares so that I will have more offspring to market in the future.

Maybe I should have done this earlier, but my farm wasn't big enough. I bought a bigger one and hired more people because I discovered that it is not profitable to be a small breeder. I need to expand and offer more services to the people that breed to Patrick. Many mare owners need a place to keep their mare as her pregnancy progresses. Most show barns and boarding facilities don't want pregnant mares or foals. Not all people who own a nice warmblood mare that they want to breed have their own farm, so I am providing a place for them. I can deliver the foal, provide a safe place for the mare and foal to live, start halter training with the foal and several other basic lessons necessary to ensure that the owner can safely handle her foal. I can also keep the weanlings, yearlings, etc., continue necessary training, and finally get them started under saddle.

We are also offering boarding and training with a hunter/jumper trainer and a dressage trainer. We have indoor arenas, outdoor arenas, lots of stalls, an observation room, and a trail around the property. We go to shows and offer services to our boarders at the show while promoting the stallion and his offspring at the same time. We will be holding clinics and inspections for further education for our clients.

Many horse people have busy schedules and a limited amount of time to spend with their horses. Whether they are interested in breeding their mare, raising a young horse, learning to ride, or showing their horse, we want to offer them services that will make the time they have to spend with their horses more fun and enjoyable.

The business of breeding warmblood horses is not easy and does not produce quick or even high amounts of income. Most of us have to find additional services and businesses just to stay afloat (someone willing to fund you for a few years really helps, also). It takes tenacity and patience and a huge love and appreciation for the warmblood horse. Confidence in yourself and your horses is essesential to getting others to believe in what you are producing. I recently joined Equestrian Professional website because it offers so much information about the equestrian business, marketing, attracting and keeping customers, and so many other things that I had not considered. I think the articles and information I have access to are worth much more than the price of the membership. This site is a great source for information about horse business.

To supplement our income I have started looking to the internet for marketing our horses and farm, but I am also looking at ways to make money online marketing horse related products and services. More and more people are doing their shopping, learning, and sales on the internet - why not use it?

For those who have the place and desire to take care of their own mare and foal, I have been considering another product. I get lots of questions about breeding, foaling, breed registries, breed inspections, choosing a stallion, training young horses, etc. So I was thinking of writing a book answering all these questions about warmblood horse breeding from a the point of view of a stallion and mare owner. There are several books by vets about breeding, but a lot of them are aimed at the Throughbred horses and while the basics are similiar or the same, there are some differences. I am not a vet, nor would I want to present information that is already well covered by vets about breeding horses, in fact, I would be recommending some of their books. I just want to help the new breeder get a good idea of what they are getting into if they want to breed warmblood horses. So I decided to take a poll. Check out the poll below and let me know if you think this would be something you would like to see and if you would buy it. I already have an outline and could produce it fairly quickly if there were enough interest - or maybe I'll do it anyway and give it away to people who breed to Patrick.