1969 Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1969 January Voice RS | Page 36
ION colt in 1967. A dead foal in 1968, and here we
are trying again in 1969.” "The market is being
flooded with average and poor quality colts. Breeders
should be more selective in their choice of a stallion.”
"They are attempting to breed too many mares to
one stallion thus getting a low percentage of mares in
foal.” "I think there are too many low grade mares
being bred to our top stallions. More emphasis should
be put on the mares.” "At the big breeding farms I
got only 10% in foal. With my own stud I get 100%. I
have spent as much as S700 on one mare and didn’t
get a colt. I can breed to a lesser stud, sell colts
cheaper and still come out better.” "Return to natu
ral breeding and geld more stallions. Other people’s,
of course.”
CARE OF MARES: "I think the breeding business
is one big mess. Folks can’t take their mares to good
studs and depend on them being well cared for or
even get them in foal. We have had to take our good
mares to lesser stallions as the results were so poor.”
"I would like to see mares better cared for at many
stallion stations, but have been pleased with the rate
of conception we have had. Glad a survey is being
made.” "I believe that 95% of stallion farms are
poorly managed, breeding poor stock and are taking
poor care of expensive mares.”
ETHICS: "Something needs to be done as I am sure
that many horses aren’t registered honestly. I bought
a stud that was supposed to be a coming three-year-
old. When we got home I discovered he was cutting
his canine teeth.” "The Walking Horse business is
on the move and is now beginning to open up for the
small owner. Let’s hope this business continues this
way.” "I favor any rule that will stop the practice of
false registrations. You cannot expect to plan your
breeding program and get the desired results if you
have to contend with false papers.” "All registrations
should be notarized.” "As a mare owner I wish there
was a way to assure that our mares were bred to the
stud we request so that people would not question this
upon purchase of our colts.” "The T.W.H.B.A. should
keep records of mares bred to each stud. A regular
report by stud owners would stop many illegal regis
trations at large farms.”
LIMIT ON COLTS: "A stallion should be allowed all
he can produce by natural breeding. Artificial breed
ing is going to wreck the business.” "Few stallions
have the outstanding characteristics that we need . . .
that is why I would be opposed to a rule limiting the
number of colts.” "It would be obvious that a stallion
- ith but 100 colts would be of more value than a stal
lion with 300.” "There is no substitute for good
breeding. If a limit is set you eliminate a lot of little
men with good mares. No limit plea se!”
TATTOOING OF COLTS: "I favor tattooing colts;
however, this is not the answer to honesty. It would
help!” "I do not favor tattooing colts as it would be
an added expense to the mare owners.” "Tattooing
colts is something I favor very much. At least a year
later you could tell what horse it was.” "Markings
should identify a horse . . . anyone can buy a tattoo
set.”
I would favor tattooing of horses. I have seen
many horses for sale that I believed to have false
papers.”
SI UD FEES: "I feel that a stud owner should collect
!/2 of stud fee when mare is bred and remainder when
mare^ is declared in foal, but if mare does not produce
live foal I should be given a return privilege on the
same or a different mare.” "Stud fees are just about
high enough. I have known of many people going to
cheaper horses because they cannot or will not pay a
high fee or V 2 at time of service.” "I believe the only
way to improve the breed as a whole is to keep the
stud fees down so people can breed average mares to
good World Champions.” "If mare is bred, stallion
owner should receive half of service and balance when
proven in foal. Too much may happen to mare, how
ever, therefore no guarantee for LIVE foal should be
given.” "If a man doesn’t get a foal, I feel that the
stallion owner should re-breed the mare if he gets a
full stud fee. But I also feel he should be paid for his
trouble if the mare doesn’t get in foal.”
GENERAL COMMENTS: "We have something great
in the Walking Horse. The future lies in all owners’
and trainers’ hands. Your magazine is doing your
share and more. Keep up the excellent coverage.” "I
feel that there is too much weight put on breeding to
a World Champion stallion and not enough on the
natural walking ability of the stud. There are lots of
little-known studs that produce better colts than 75%
of our World Champions.” "I would like very much to
see certified artificial breeding stations established so
that people far away from Middle Tennessee could
take advantage of top blood without hauling mares
over a thousand miles. I emphasize 'certified breeding
stations’.”
STINGING COMMENT AWARD: "Item No. 16 is
the only thing in your survey worth a —. (Limit the
number of colts to a given stallion.) Until the Breed
ers’ Association gets into the hands of people interest
ed in horses we will continue as the slowest growing
breed in the nation. The prices will have to continue
to be fixed. If there were only 50 colts this season by
a good stallion the prices of Walking Horses would be
gin to get into the figures where it would become
worthwhile. Our registrations would triple and the
average horseman would start making some money.
The VOICE has the capacity to get the job done but
I know you won’t tackle the situation because of a
certain amount of advertisers now supporting your
magazine. So away we go with 500 colts registered
to certain stallions with artificial breeding.
"Run a survey on WHY people get out of the Walk
ing Horse business. I do not think you will have the
stomach to publish the facts. You are on the right
road but do you have the backbone to continue?”
SURVEY RESULTS
The following tabulations were taken directly from
the results of our "Breeders Survey.” We have ar
ranged each category in the best form possible in
order to make percentages readable and logical. We
hope you will find the time to digest these results for
yourself and to apply these findings to your own activ
ity in an effort to better your own breeding operation.
We fully realize that we have presented some rather
disheartening problems for which we have no solutions
but perhaps together we can improve conditions to
to our mutual benefit.
Percentage of mares bred as compared to mares in
foal:
44% reported that they got all their mares in foal
10% reported that they got three out of four in foal
14.5% reported that they got one-half their mares
in foal
(Continued on page 70)
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Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse