Page 192 - Equine Chronicle August Select 2020

country sitting out the breeding season entirely. He reasons, “We can’t even have normal horse shows at normal times. No one knows what tomorrow brings, so people are definitely pulling back a little. On the other hand, I know some stallion owners are breed- ing a lot of mares, but it’s only because they are giving the breed- ings away. Everyone wants a deal, and ‘free’ can be very attractive to some mare owners in this climate.”
BSB Quarter Horses
BSB Quarter Horses has decades of experience breeding and raising AQHA, APHA, and NSBA show horses. Shelly Donovan proudly calls their operation “old school.” She offers insight both from a stallion owner’s perspective and a mare owner’s perspective when it comes to discounted or free breedings. Donovan’s funda- mental belief is that, “bloodlines and the right crosses for our mares are more important to us than the stud fee. Some people go with popular; some breed based on cost.
We always go with making the best horses we can.”
don’t make money breeding your mares. You make money selling your babies. If you’re not breeding to quality, you’re not going to get the price you need.”
BSB does give some discounts, though. Donovan says, “Our dis- count starts at the Congress with a $500 off early booking fee. That gives folks a few months to plan and still have the opportunity to breed to a top stallion. We also offer discounts to certain mares that have Championships because we want to get that quality of mare. But we don’t offer it for free. We never have and never will.”
Donovan adds that other than stated discounts, it’s just smart business to keep stud fees the same for everybody. She reasons, “You start doing different deals for everyone just to get your num- bers up, and it will turn around and bite you. People talk and even- tually they’re going to find out you charged this guy $1,000, another one $1,500, and they will be wondering why you charged them $500 more than that.”
BSB participates in several stallion service auctions where mare owners may end up paying less for a stud fee. Stallion owners participate in auctions for various reasons. It’s a great way to support the industry and certain programs. Like many own- ers, Donovan says, “We do it to make all our babies eligible for the futurity to which we donate the breeding. Then, our customers can show their babies there and win
some money.”
Donovan states, “The main pro-
gram we sponsor and donate breed- ings to is the NSBA Stallion Services Auction. We’ve been part of that since the beginning. We al- ways had at least two studs in it and, for the last 10 years or so, we have had four studs enrolled. Too Sleepy to Zip has been in the NSBA West- ern Pleasure Super Sire program since its conception. We donate a lot
Donovan says, “When we look at
breeding a mare to an outside stal-
lion, we have always felt it was wor-
thy of paying a stud fee. If you don’t
think a stud is worth putting your
money into, then breeding to it is not
a good investment.” She has seen
lots of deep discounts or free breed-
ing offers boost a farm’s total num-
ber of bookings over the years. She
feels the risk is that you don’t know
what that horse reliably produces,
and you may invest five years of
time and money to find out if it was
worth it. She continues, “The stud
fee is the least of your cost in raising
a baby. In our world, there is no such
thing as a deal or a free breeding. It
has been our experience that the ones
that were ‘free’ ended up costing more for everybody. But a lot of mare owners think they’re getting a good deal. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.”
She related that even in cases where they were offered a free re-breeding due to not producing a live foal, they ended up paying so much in other fees that it was not worth it. She lays out another scenario where ‘free’ was very costly. “For example, we were going to trade breedings with another fellow breeder. There wasn’t a stud fee, but by the time you added on the farm fee, the chute fee, shipping, and all, the bill was nearly what the stud fee would be.”
As stallion owners, Donovan says they learned early on from the old timers how to value stud fees. She says, “We feel that if you give away too many breedings, you’re downing your horse. We don’t offer free breedings or big discounts, because we never set out to breed 150 mares to each stud. We’ve never been a numbers operation. We have chosen quality over quantity the whole time.” She believes that the mare owners who come to BSB, basing their decision on bloodlines and reputation rather than cost saving, help to ensure a level of quality control, too. “We tell our customers you
BSB Quarter Horses
186 - August/September, 2020
to make those babies eligible.” If you do the math, their donation of cash and stud fees to various futurities probably tops $1 million over the years.
While some breeders have resorted to deeper discounts to offset the loss of breedings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BSB saw no reductions this season. She says, “Our customers all still bred. They all had their plans made and money allotted. The only thing that affected us was we couldn’t ship semen via the airlines for a while. I think the industry will see a decline in the number of foals next year because a lot of other people did hold back on breeding. In fact, we have been telling customers our babies are going to be very marketable down the road because of that.”
A solid reputation leaves BSB’s customers knowing exactly what to expect and it keeps them coming back year after year. Donovan concludes, “Breeding is not for the faint of heart. You can have the highest highs and lowest lows, and they might be in the same day. We’re fortunate that we’ve done very well. We have five horses in the NSBA Hall of Fame, and we were inducted last year as breed- ers. We’re pretty black and white–old school. There aren’t many old school breeders out there anymore.”