You may well wonder what sort of a heading this is and what it refers to. It is a general observation of the habitual bad, stupid and thoughtless breeding within the Australian warmblood industry. For that matter it is within the total general performance horse industry including the racing industry. What is starting to take place in Australia has already been taking place in Europe for a number of years. It is the overproduction of Warmblood and performance horses far in excess of what the market can manage. It is becoming obvious that this is happening here in Australia and what is the logical solution.

Over on the continent part of the solution is that (with the exception of England) horses are used as meat for human consumption. This accounts for a fairly large percentage of over produced and unneeded horses. This market however is limited to live stock, healthy clear of medically treated stock. These horses have a value of 4 dollars per kg live weight on average. The remainder that are used for pet food do not get such a high price. The rest of unwanted stock is usually turned into blood and bone or is cremated. This is exactly the same as the beef and pork or mutton industry. In Europe the equestrian people have, over the years come to the conclusion that the cost of breeding replacement stock for personal use is, due to the cost of land and the risk of losses over time, far too high. Their small acreages are used for agistment/equestrian centres or leased out for food production.

However here in Australia it is a different situation. There is no local human consumption horse meat market as yet and it will be many years before there will be one of significant size – if ever. There is a small export market for this product. It is not very large and export the meat of some 30,000 horses annually and almost half of this is supplied from feral stock. There are only two licensed export abattoirs in Australia and they only pay 40% more than the petfood producers. There has just been a news item stating the NT govt has approved the culling of 60,000 feral camels which will go to the canned dog producers and this in turn will reduce their requirement for processing meat. In other words there will be less demand for horses for that purpose.

We are now slowly starting to experience a change in the way how people look toward replacing their current riding horse. Up to three years ago we sold about seven youngsters (less than 2 years old) annually. Last season it was two and this year it could be one only. We have sold some unbroken but ready to start rising four year olds, but otherwise only horses that have been ready to start in completion. The reason for this is the same as what started the change on the continent. People’s time is valuable and costs are rising fast. So it becomes quite a large aggregated sum for the handling and growing up a weanling, then add to that the breaking in and training cost until the horse is ready to go out and start a competitive life and you have spent a lot of time and money.

Competitive riders now realise that it is much more realistic and easier to purchase a horse that is ready to go. This way you can make up your mind on how much to spend and choose what you want.  No more wondering if the youngster is going to turn out suitable for the sport which it was bought for. A lot of studs in Europe now only provide or rather, have converted to supplying ready to compete horses. They will of course sell young stock but are no longer dependent on selling young stock as their primary source of revenue. We have now at BFD taken on the same policy. We know will prepare our horses till they are ready to compete in the lower grades of competition.  Morgan Bfd has just been sold after having at various venues in beginner dressage, showjumping up to 90cm, done beginner one day events and did a full day hunting finishing the day jumping full size panels.   

We have a couple of others coming on and are ready to break in an exceptionally talented gelding. A number of associated breeders are also changing over to this manner of providing horses. This of course is going to present a problem of diminished income for those breeders who for years have totally relied of income from the sale of young stock. This will mean that they will have to keep the horses till they are getting to be four year olds. The next step is to get good breakers for their stock and trainers to bring them on into the competition world. It also means that these breeders will have to keep almost twenty  extra horses from birth  of at least five a year every year till they are of an age to be broken in. This will be a very major change in management for most of them.

Stallion owners  and semen providers will find that less services are going to be sold as the marked gets smaller because of the rising costs and in order to be competitive the training & breeding studs are going to be much more involved of keeping their own stallions. As the bloodlines are now so highly impregnated with high quality genetic material the fashionable pretty horse will take a backseat as the preference will be on performance.  So what will happen in the equestrian industry?

The better performing horses and those that show a clear ability will most likely be sold before advertising. Those that are ideally suited for any given field when advertised will be snapped up fairly quickly. Horses suited for adult riding club competitions or able to compete in the top range of pony clubs will find a ready market also. There are a few more fields where bigger quality horses of ability and good temperament are required but I cannot name them all.

It is no good saying that this will not take place here for it is already taking place. There are going to be a lot more horses overproduced of a standard well below what is required. They will be superfluous to the national requirement. What to do about that has been discussed. What should be done with them is mostly in the hands of the producers. I can come up with number of suggestions of suggestions but they will mostly fall upon deaf ears so look how they try to solve the problem on the continent.