Stallion Prospect for US

I know I've been out of commission on this whole idea for a while, but life has just gotten in the way. Nonetheless, I think I've found a reasonably priced colt, with a reasonable chance of being a legitimate stallion prospect. Buy in for 10 people would be 1000 Euro each, 2250 each more if he becomes approved. Normal monthly expenses wouldn't be more than 25 Euro per month until we start preparing him for the stallion selection. He could be a really safe start for us. As with any colt, it's a long way from weanling to approved stallion, but this is an inexpensive attempt. Let me know if you're interested.

Email from Welmoed Jansen

Welmoed and her family are the breeders of Chagall, Bretton Woods, Wynton, and colt (Wynton x Ferro) selected this year for den Bosch.  I'm sharing her latest email to me (with her permission) because she raises some excellent points for discussion and thought:

Hi Scot,

Finally time to respond to your email.

As already mentioned, I think the idea is very interesting and I have thought of it myself after the selling of Chagall and having made some money to invest.

The year after the selling I went to a couple of foal auctions in NL and in Germany to try to purchase one or two top foals. Maybe even three .

My experience was that the real top foals (out of excellent pedigrees) I was interested in, were bought by the “big money”, people you can never win from because they simply do an investment of 40,000 – 50,000 € or more for 1 foal. I wanted to have three foals for that money (plus auction costs).

The alternative was to go for the second best foals but once I had seen the excellent ones, it made me hesitate to buy the second best. And hesitation at an auction never results in anything (in my case).

I have been following a couple of the foals I was interested in over the past two years and sometimes the investment was worth it, sometimes not.

Loucky also stated this in her reaction where she mentions the fact that sometimes the foals are not big enough as a 3 year old, or sometimes their movement is not spectacular enough.

Besides, you also have to face the risk of the veterinary examination.

We only breed with elite mares and only cross them with KWPN stallions or stallions from abroad whose X-rays are good. All our horses go outside every day of the year.

But it is not a guarantee. We also have to deal sometimes with unexpected OCD (for example Bretton Woods).

Now the first selection round in NL has been completed I am more and more convinced that breeding and more specifically, getting a colt selected and approved, is a gamble. Yesterday at the late selection day a few cracks failed to be selected (horses who were already approved in Germany and other horses whom everyone believed of that it would be a walk in the park).

Having said this, I still like the idea very much.

Another point is when do you decide to sell the horse (and who is going to decide). I made a decision tree for our own horses when it is the best time to sell them or to keep them  so you can still make some money or just keep a good horse. In our case, the foals from our own breeding program, are good, but not really impressive at the age of 3 months. None of the elite auctions wanted to have Wynton for example. Even at the age of 2 ½ he wasn’t selected at the Stallion Show. At the age of 3 ½,once under the saddle, he started to impress people. I see that with other horses of our farm: once under the saddle they show their real qualities. But they are not real show horses.

Until now we just had one horse in the championships of the Mare show and none in the championships of the Stallion Selection Show.

I hope you don’t mind my remarks. I am trying to come to a conclusion:

1.      Top foals are hard to get at an auction; the big money is always after them

2.      An alternative would be to have a scout to find the foals at the breeder’s home (and try to  convince the breeder not to sell at an auction)

3.      The outcome of X-rays is unpredictable even when all the circumstances are optimal; you have to deal with the risk.

4.      Not all top horses or good horses are recognized as a foal or even as a 3 year old; that is important to realize when to sell or not.

Regards,

Welmoed

An Already Approved Stallion vs. Young Prospects

Here is an excerpt from a conversation I'm having with a jury member in regards to the short-term needs of the US:

Actually, you might consider doing both - getting an Approved stallion
in 2013 - 2014 (yes! a short term goal,) which then gives you lots of
time to raise some prospects (a long term project, which could take 5
years or more to get anything Approved, if you are buying foals...)
If you float both as possibilities, you can see where/who the interest lies -
some people would be interested in one or the other, some in both...

I would think that there are some desirable Approved stallions who
would not be too expensive, but not old - just not getting many
breedings:
maybe there are many of those blood lines (e.g. Jazz crosses,)
maybe they're not popular with the Dutch breeders (could be for many
fickle reasons,)
maybe they would cross well with our mare base, but maybe not so well
in Holland, etc.

Anyway, worth considering doing both...

Thoughts?

Money

Just to reiterate, we divide the amount of money we decide we need/want to spend on a propect(s) in a given year, and then divide by the number of people involved that year.  I through out the $5000. amount as a maximum investment.  Given the price of some of the very top foals, 10 people at 5K each raises enough money to be competitive.  We may not need that much.  We may have 20 people and have it cost each of us less.

Just Dressage Prospects?

One person has suggested we only look at dressage prospects.  Although breeding for dressage is my primary interest, we have people interested who are jumper breeders, so I'd prefer we have a decision making system in place prior to purchases that clarifies what we're looking for.  Maybe each year we decide to go one way or the other, or one of each? I'm not personally wedded to any idea at this point, so will wait to hear what the rest of you think. We have enough people interested that we can separate purchase price and colts within a given year if we need to.

Timeline

What do you think of this timeline?

-Commit and sign any legal paperwork by the end of March.


-Pay our portions of the decided upon pool of money by June 1st.

On Going Training and Promotion Expenses

There is no doubt that training and campaigning a stallion in North America is more expensive than in Europe, especially when you consider the number of potential breedings bringing in income to offset expenses.  In this situation, we all have a vested interest in ownership and all expenses are split among us.  It's also the reason I've invited three International Grand Prix riders to be part of our group.  They, too, are people I like and trust.  They can be part of an organization bringing in top talent for them to develop.  Of course, we don't expect them to work for free, but they have a vested interest in the success of our boys.

If we feel a stallion is costing us too much money for the interest he generates, then we sell him as a riding horse.

In North America, we tend to look at horse business as an oxymoron--the two words just don't go together.  It doesn't have to be that way.