Should You Breed? • Experts discuss the pros and cons.
By Lisa Broadwater

In the strictest sense, there are very few requirements to becoming a horse breeder. Basically, all you need are a fertile mare, a receptive stallion and about 330 days.
But being a successful, responsible horse breeder — now that's a different story. There's nothing simple nor basic about it. From the moment you select your first broodmare until you sell each foal she produces, you'll be bombarded with decisions. Will your program include both mares and stallions or will you breed your mares to outside stallions? Will you choose live cover or artificial insemination? Will your foals be born in a stall or out in the pasture? Will you sell weanlings, yearlings or 2-year-olds? At what age will you geld the colts?
Some of the decisions you make will be fairly straightforward. Others could mean the difference between life or death — especially if you aren't prepared for the task at hand. In other words, breeding isn't a decision to be made lightly, even if you just want to produce a single foal from that one dynamite mare of yours.
It might help if there were a single right way to go about the business of horse breeding. Yet there are about as many approaches to breeding as there are breeders. We recently talked to four very different types of breeders to get an idea of what they consider essential information to share with those considering breeding:
*Don McDowell has been raising racing Thoroughbreds for more than 32 years. For the past several years, his son Bill has overseen the family farm in Sparkman; it includes about 20 McDowell-owned broodmares (which are sent to Kentucky to be bred to outside stallions), and about 50 outside boarders. Bill also hand-breeds 80 to 90 outside mares to their two stallions (including Storm and A Half, a son of the famous Storm Cat).
*Gene and Laura Graves have been raising straight Egyptian Arabians since 1992. At their farm in Big Flat, they typically own four broodmares, which are artificially inseminated to outside stallions (typically, national champions); yearlings or older are sold primarily to other straight Egyptian Arabian breeders and lovers of straight Egyptian Arabians.
*Earl Pepper started breeding Quarter horses for the Arkansas Department of Corrections in 1987. The herd, which now numbers over 500, is used for working the ADC's 1,400 head of cattle (raised as food for the inmates) and for overseeing inmates. The Quarter horse herd includes stallions, which Pepper pasture breeds to about 50 broodmares also owned by the ADC. The majority of the foals remain at the Wrightsville facility, where they are trained by the inmates. Within a few years, Pepper expects to have a handful of foals available for sale.
*Leslie Carter has been breeding Warmblood performance horses at her Little Rock farm for the past 18 years. In 1984, she became the first Arkansan to use transported semen to artificially inseminate a horse — the resulting filly went on to become a top show jumper and has produced a Grand Prix jumper. Carter owns four broodmares, which she artificially inseminates to world-class European stallions to produce jumpers and dressage horses. This year, she's raising two embryo-transfer foals.
What we learned from these four diverse sources is that although the approach may vary dramatically from breeder to breeder, there are a few simple tenets that should be understood by anyone even thinking about breeding.

1. Choose wisely.
It you really want to be successful at breeding, there's really only one thing you need to do, says Laura Graves: "Do your homework. Do a lot of research — talk to to all the top breeders you can. Then buy the best mare you can afford. Breed that mare to the best stallion you can afford. Then cross your fingers and roll the dice."
Because, even with the best of intentions, horse breeding is basically a crap shoot.
"Sure it is," Don McDowell says. "Anybody that tells you it's not is crazy. "Of course, you make your own luck. You can't just buy any old mare."
Laura Graves agrees.
"Blood will tell," she says. "Pretty is always nice, but we've learned to breed for form, function and performance just to ensure that the horse has a good life. If you get a pretty horse, consider that a bonus. But breed for performance so that the horse can have a happy, productive life — his whole life — and not just go into the show ring and be trash afterward. Be sure that the horse can move out and carry a rider happily."
Granted, focusing solely on top bloodlines isn't the only consideration.
"There are a zillion Secretariat babies out there that can't ride, can't breed, can't run, can't do anything — but they have great bloodlines," Leslie Carter says. "That's not enough. You have to match the stallion to the mare. And bloodlines can be a part of the match. But you've got to look at the mare and go, 'What would I change about her? What is her weak link that I would not want to see again?'
"And it may be that she's a little light in the hind end. It may be that her legs are a little short. Or God forbid, she has an ugly head. You can find a stallion that has a gorgeous head and is known for throwing nice heads. Because if he's not dominant for that particular trait, you're gonna have a big-ole ugly-headed baby. And, gosh, it might also have short legs and a little butt. And then you've produced something for the killers because nobody wants to buy that one.
"Even if you breed it just for your own enjoyment," she adds, "you want it to have a healthy, happy life. You want it to be an attractive horse; you want it to be a trainable horse, you want it to be pleasant to be around, even if you're not requiring much more of it than eating in the back yard."
Disposition — on both sides — is key.
"One of my hang-ups on mares," Pepper says, "is that a lot of times someone will have a mare they can't ride and they can't handle, so they decide to raise a colt out of her because they want to be able to use her somehow. And that's the worst mare in the world to breed — the one you can't use. You should breed the mare that's really good at what you want to do."
"We won't breed to a stallion that doesn't have a decent temperament," Gene Graves says. "We didn't invent the theory that the stallion passes the temperament, but for the most part we've found it to be very true. So we'll examine a stallion fairly closely for temperament as well as conformation, bloodlines and all the rest that's involved.
"Because there's a reasonable chance we'll have to live with these horses. It's not a meat business for us. We had some people in from New York a couple of weeks ago who spent two weeks here. When it came time to sell, we said, 'Sorry.' They weren't dedicated enough; they wanted a toy for their child. And that's not a good enough reason for us — not for a horse that was the last of a bloodline that we loved the mother very much."

2. Have realistic financial expectations.
"I think a lot of people hear about the high-dollar horses that sell and they think they'll be able to sell high-priced colts," Pepper says. "Then they get their bubble burst, and they're stuck with something they can't sell — they can't give 'em away. They think they've got too much money in 'em to sell them for what they can get, and eventually they have no choice.
"My recommendation is don't get into breeding at all. I don't think it's very cost-effective. Up until this year, I had three mares of my own that I was raising colts out of. Well, I no longer have any of them because it's a losing proposition for me.
"For the Department of Corrections, however, it makes a lot of sense. We're breeding for a big, stout gentle horse with a lot of foot and a lot of bone. Disposition is also really important to us because these horses are used by the officers that carry the squads out to work. It's really important for an officer who's watching his squad to have a horse he can depend on because his focus needs to be 100 percent on the squad.
"The reason we're in the horse business is because we need these horses, and we use every one we raise. When the day comes that we don't need 'em, we'll be out of the horse-breeding business."
To folks who go into the business expecting to make a lot of money, Don McDowell says simply, "I wish you luck."
"That's the biggest illusion you could possibly have — to think you're going to make a great amount of money in a short period of time," Gene Graves says. "We've watched people who were driving Mercedes one week and are on the bus the next. It's a love affair — it has to be a heart-felt passion."
And for the Graves, it is definitely a passion. They've never depended on horse-breeding as their sole source of income ("Heavens, no," Gene says; "If I did, I'd be down at Harp's going, 'Paper or Plastic?' "). They do it — and have intentionally remained a small operation — primarily because they love the day-to-day interaction with their horses so much.
For example, they're "as serious as a heart attack when it comes to foaling," Gene says, "and probably 10 times more cautious than we need to be. We sleep in the barn — this time we slept in the barn six weeks; we had a mare that went 374 days. But it's not a hardship for us because we have an apartment upstairs and closed-circuit TV."
They also stay with each foal for the first 48 hours after its birth because if something is going to go wrong that's likely when it'll happen. They begin imprinting immediately after a foal is born; and when the time comes, spend several weeks gradually weaning each baby from its mother. They won't breed less than two foals at a time because they believe foals grow into happier horses when they have at least one buddy to share their first year with, and no baby will ever leave their farm before it's at least a year old.
But what if you approach horse-breeding as strictly a money-making venture? How much money should you expect to spend?
"If you bought one good mare and she worked out, that's all you'd need," Don McDowell says. "But if she didn't, you haven't got enough money. There are people who spend millions and millions of dollars every year and never get ahead. Sentimentality gets everybody. They won't sell a mare; instead they'll keep breeding her because they like her, thinking, 'Next year will be better.' But it's not going to change."
"Most people will be shocked at how expensive it is," Carter says, "but they'll keep paying out because they'll think, 'Surely it can't get worse than this,' and it will. If you want to make money, go get a job at McDonald's flipping burgers," she adds with a laugh, "because you'll probably do better with an hourly wage than you will breeding horses. It is so expensive. If you're a realist and you're saving your receipts, you will not believe how much it costs."
And if you choose a breed in which artificial insemination is standard procedure, as Leslie Carter and the Graves have, expect to spend even more money.
"A breeding is expensive," Gene Graves says. "We'll probably pay anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 because we choose stallions from all over the country and try to choose stallions that have shown nationally, preferably whoever wins at The Egyptian Event or at Nationals."
Artificial insemination is also a lot riskier — which can further add to the expense.
"We spent two years not getting two mares in foal," Gene Graves says. "And if you pay a $3,000 stud fee, you definitely want to get a baby. Or you can do what we did last year. I made the trip to our vet 10 times, and shipped semen five times and never got anything. The whole summer was a wash. That's a real head-banger. I was afraid to go out without my helmet on."
Then there are the embryo-transfers: Carter collaborates with one of the leading embryo-transfer specialists to produce some of her foals because two of her broodmares are also competitive show jumpers and can't afford to be out of commission during pregnancy. After the semen is inseminated into her mares, she transports them to Texas (where the vet is based), and the embryo is implanted in the recipient mares (which Carter then leases from the vet). Then, the recipient mares are shipped back to her farm, where they remain until the foals are weaned. Not only is the process even riskier than AI, but the cost is prohibitive.
"These embryo-transfer babies — in their first year of life, you've got $10,000 in them," she says. "By the time they're 3 years old, if nothing horrible happens, I'll probably have spent $20,000 to $25,000. Mind you, I have my own place and do all my own work, and it still costs that much.
"So, then, what if they don't want to jump? What if they're horrible movers? What if they don't like to work? It can all happen. So you stack your deck by breeding stallions that are known to produce jumpers, known to have good temperament and known to put it in their offspring. Because it's not enough that they have it; they have to be known for passing it on.
"The reason I breed to the European stallions is because every breed association there tests their stallion. They're a lot more discriminating in what they allow to be bred. You have to be licensed or you don't breed. Over here, anybody can breed anything."
Typically, Carter doesn't sell her horses until they're 3 years old, after she has started them under saddle.
"I'd love people to buy them as babies, but truthfully, in sporthorse breeding, your buyers want to see a ribbon hanging off that bridle when they come out of the show ring," she explains. "If I sell a 3-year-old, it's usually for about $25,000 to $30,000. By then, it's had quite a bit of training. At that point, without anything horrible happening to them, I can make a small profit."
There are, of course, ways to help keep your expenses down. Do everything yourself, as Carter and the McDowells do. And don't put all your eggs in one basket: The McDowells own 1,200 acres; 200 are used for horses and the rest are used to raise cattle
"We do a little bit of everything," Don McDowell explains. "We couldn't do it otherwise. We stand studs, we board, we have our own mares. We buy and sell a little. Every barn here, we've built ourselves. Bill does all the foot trimming and the veterinary work, and his wife helps him, and a brother-in-law helps. I had three kids. They worked in the barn ever since they were little. Our granddaughter was cleaning out the stalls this morning. She weighs 35 pounds and is 7 years old."

3. Don't even consider owning a stallion unless you're an experienced horseman — and truly understand the demands of stallion-owning.
"There are very few farms in the state where a stud is standing because nobody knows how anymore," Don McDowell says. "You've got to know how to tease mares and go through all the veterinary procedures and breed the mare on the right day.
"It used to be there were a lot of farms that were capable of standing studs, and they've left the business. It's a lot of work. If my son wasn't doing it, I wouldn't have a stud on the place. It's labor-intensive, it's seven days a week."
"To me, a stallion is kind of a necessary evil," Pepper says. "I wouldn't have one. Handling a stallion — I don't care how gentle he is or how nice he is — he's still a stallion. And when those hormones kick in, they can be real aggravatin'."
Pepper is one of a dwindling number of horse breeders who are going about business the old-fashioned way, letting nature do its thing. All his horses are pasture-bred and pasture-born. One reason: "This is a bare-bones deal," he says. "We don't spend a lot of money or a lot of time handling stallions. We ride them and use them to work cattle when we need them."
During breeding season, each ADC stallion has his own band of mares in his own pasture. Otherwise, the mares and stallions are kept as far apart as possible — which here — an operation that covers more than 4,000 acres — is a considerable distance. That's a luxury most folks don't have anymore. Another reason that pasture-breeding makes sense for Pepper but doesn't for many breeders: He doesn't breed any outside mares.
"If you're gonna pasture-breed most stallions, they each need to have their band of mares established maybe a month or six weeks before you put him in with them," he explains. "That way they can get their pecking order established, and it's a safer place. If you try to add a mare to a band the stallion is already in, a lot of times the other mares will whip her and the stallion won't accept her.
"No doubt about it, breeding is a dangerous business. It's dangerous if you're handling a stallion; it's dangerous sometimes for the horse."
"It's a very violent act," Carter says. "You would never imagine what a violent act horse breeding is in natural cover. People who don't know what they're doing shouldn't have a stallion because it can have bad consequences. Talk to a Thoroughbred breeder who's hand-breeding, which they're required to do— and there are often two or three handlers involved in the process. The mares are hobbled — or should be. It's very risky for the stallion because the mare can kick him — she can end his breeding life right there.
"And some stallions are so aggressive they'll savage the mare. They'll literally strip the hide right off her neck or withers with their teeth."
Stallions also require more maintenance.
"You've got to have a lot of facilities to start with — barns and paddocks and stalls," Don McDowell says. "We breed probably 20 mares of our own and about 80 to 90 outside mares, so you've got to have a place to put them. Sometimes they'll bring them here in foal; sometimes you'll have them three, four or five months. It's like having a motel."
"And if you have a stallion, you need at least a five-foot high fence — six is better," Carter says. "I would never have a horse in a stall, not even a stallion. A stallion needs a big place to run and a friend. Give him a pregnant female, which he'll never be interested in breeding because she'll never be in season and he's not gonna jump a horse that's not in season. Or find a gelding he likes."

4. Don't produce a foal because you think they're "cute."
"A lot of people get into the horse-raising business with their heart instead of their head," Pepper says. "They think a colt is cute — which they are — and they're a lot of fun to fool with. But at the same time, if you don't have the time to really tend to them and work with them, then it's difficult to make a good horse.
"They try to raise horses without having the experience they need with horses in general just to get along with them. And for a person who's not very experienced with horses, I think they need to buy an older horse and learn about the horse before they start raising any.
"If you're not willing to raise a horse that's marketable or raise a horse that you have a specific purpose for raising and you're not willing to follow the care and attention that it requires to make sure that horse has a useful purpose in life, then I don't think you should be in the business. It isn't enough that your goal be 'to sell a horse' — especially given today's horse market. Because you're gonna fail.
"Instead, you should have a market, know the market and breed a top-quality horse. Even then, there's STILL no guarantee you'll get a top-quality horse. You can end up with an average horse or a below-average horse. Sometimes, for whatever reason, you get a horse that just isn't gonna work.
"And if you're raising a lot of horses, that one that doesn't work is sort of a blip on the radar screen, and you go on with things. But if you've got one horse you're breeding and its baby is worth about $150 when you take it to the sale, that's not a very good deal."
"If you're not dedicated, don't do it," Laura Graves adds. "If you look outside and you've got a mare and think, 'Wouldn't it be fun if we bred her to that little stallion down the road?,' look at the realistic numbers of what will happen if you do that. Pretty much bare-bones, you're not going to be able to sell it until it's 3 years old or ride it until it's 3 years old, and by that time you've got $3,000 minimum in this baby and it's an unknown entity.
"Why would you be willing to throw $3,500 and a whole lot of time — and that's if everything goes perfect — at something you don't even know what it is? Why not go out and buy yourself exactly what you want — whether it's a riding horse, a jumping horse, a trail horse, whatever — and get the best.
"There are so many horses in the world. If you want a cute little foal, look around. Because there are so many horses owned by people who for whatever reason have lost interest in that baby horse. And that baby horse needs you."