Most sport horse breeders describe breeding as an addiction, rather than a business.

There’s a singular thrill in carefully choosing the perfect match between a mare and a stallion to create what you hope will be an Olympic champion, followed by the anticipation and worry over 11 months until the adorable little world-beater is born.

Even the biggest breeders in North America will readily admit that it’s a passion, not just a financial investment. But at some point the dollar signs add up, forcing everyone to try to figure out how to make their hobby at least break even so they can continue breeding.

For Willy Arts, co-owner and trainer of DG Bar Ranch in Hanford, Calif., breeding quality horses is the first and most important factor in running a breeding business. He cautions against falling in love with the product, regardless of talent or suitability.

“The quality of the offspring determines the success and the profit,” said Arts. “All the expenses are the same, so it’s the quality of the offspring that determines if you’ll be able to sell the foal, and, if you can sell them, what kind of money they’ll bring.”

Every new foal is adorable, so it can be difficult to step back and do the tough analysis on how well your “perfect match” worked out. It’s not all numbers, but “If you base your breeding program purely on emotion, then it can be very dangerous,” said Arts.

“It’s both emotion and facts. Breeding has to be based on your goals for the breed. You’ve got to select if you want to breed dressage horses or jumping horses, and then select your mare base and stallion for the discipline. Then you try to produce the best horse possible, combined with really good character and ability—a horse that’s useful for amateurs and professionals.”

The Stallion Sells Himself

Some breeders solve the quality question by standing just one outstanding stallion. Pat Limage, of Gainesville, Va., went to Germany looking for a stallion prospect and came home with the Hanoverian yearling Wallstreet Kid.

“I wanted to find a stallion to breed to my own mares,” said Limage. “He knocked your socks off, even as a yearling.”

“Kid” was champion of his stallion licensing in 1991 and was reserve champion of his 100-day stallion performance test in 1993, winning first in rideability.

Those early achievements gave Limage a jumpstart on marketing Kid. “Here and in Europe, there’s the flavor of the week,” explained Limage. “He was highly sought after for breeding after he did so well at his testing.”

Like any fad, though, that attention dies down quickly. Then it’s back to proving the quality of a stallion’s get to make the breeding business work.

Showing was one of the ways that Gail Parker Rogers of Brantford, Ont., was able to keep her stallion’s name fresh. She bred her Thoroughbred stallion, A Fine Romance, to race, then decided to try him as a sport horse instead.

He initially evented at the lower levels with Peter Gray, but Rogers worried about his safety and switched him into the regular working hunter division with Peter Stoekl.

“Fred” excelled in both disciplines, and his strong show record got people calling Rogers. “It was literally word-of-mouth,” she said. “People called me up. We marketed him by showing him.”

Fred’s show achievements attracted potential breeders, and then his progeny also started to perform well.

“A Fine Romance started out as an event horse, people saw him go and bought mares in foal to him or bred to him in his first year,” said Rogers. “[The offspring] from his first small test crops have been successful, with one going advanced and two two-star horses, so that’s made his reputation as a sire of event horses.”

Rogers usually sells the four or so foals she breeds every year by Fred. Limage does the same with Kid’s offspring. But both have experienced the difficulty of trying to run a small facility without outside help.

“I’ve always wanted to have just what I could deal with myself,” said Limage. “If I got more mares, I’d have to have more help. It’s a trade-off. I really like the personal contact I have with my mares. I really know a lot about them and can be involved with them.”

Doing everything herself means that Limage doesn’t show Kid. “It’s more than I can handle,” she said. “I’m sure getting their stallions out to show works for a lot of people and would be advantageous for us.”

When booking breedings, both Limage and Rogers are limited by how much they can handle on their own. “We have to have the vet come here, because I can’t physically move the AV (artificial vagina). It gets to be frustrating,” said Limage.

Because of this and other factors, Limage has decided to send Kid to Meg Williams at Oakwood Farms in Lawrenceburg, Ind. Williams’ full-service facility will mean more mares for Kid and more exposure. Rogers has made the same decision for the same reasons, so A Fine Romance will be standing with Hilltop Farm (Md.) next year.

You’ve Got To Do It All

The size of their facility is a big issue for breeders. As a small breeder, Limage keeps her expenses down by doing most of the work herself, but she’s limited by what she’s physically able to do.

Still, Arts would argue that even for the big breeders, being able to do it all yourself is the key to financial stability.

“The biggest money-maker in breeding is that you are not so big so that you can do it all yourself and keep control of your overhead,” he explained. “Then you have no high labor expenses. You have to be able to do a lot of things yourself. You have to have your own place. You have to be able to present and promote the horses yourself. You need a trainer to come in or start the horses yourself. Otherwise your expenses are going to be too much to make up for it.”

Arts runs a full-service facility and offers fresh and frozen semen, boarding, training and sales. Semen from 30 stallions is available, and he has more than 50 horses for sale at any given time.

With so many horses for sale, it’s easy for someone to see several types of a variety of horses in one visit to DG Bar Ranch.

“If you only have young horses, then you limit yourself to a smaller group of customers. We have riding horses and breeding stock and a small section of jumping horses; something for everybody,” said Arts.

But few breeders have the means or the ability to keep those numbers on hand. That’s why Arts offers a sort of partnership with smaller breeders.

“If people can raise five or six foals, they can send them here at 21³2, and we can start them and sell them,” he said.

“It reduces your overhead and your labor expense. Then they don’t have to find a trainer or show them to customers. Sometimes we buy them. It helps the breeder. They stay on the record as the breeder, and they can follow it without going through the hassle of trying to get the horse sold.”

Judy Hedreen, owner of Sylvan Farm LLC in Arlington, Wash., is another bigger breeder who finds that working with smaller breeders can be beneficial for everyone. Hedreen breeds Hanoverian jumpers, stands three stallions, and provides training services.

“To cover overhead and expenses, we also, on a limited basis, stand outside stallions, provide foaling services, breeding services for outside mares, and train youngsters,” she explained. “We tried to offer a low-cost, 90- to 120-days ‘starting package’ for small breeders, but no one came forward. After we raised our rates, we had several horses in training, with a wait list. If you don’t charge a high enough fee, some people think they won’t get good value.”

Promotion Is Key

Sending nice young stock to well-known stables like DG Bar Ranch or Sylvan Farm is one way for small breeders to promote their horses. The Mid-Atlantic Hanoverian Breeders, Inc. are trying another method with their annual Sales Fest. Hanoverian breeders have brought about three dozen horses, ranging from weanlings to riding horses, to the regional showcase for the last five years.

“They’re presented one at a time, and people come look at them and can talk with the owners directly,” explained Limage. “It’s not an auction, but it’s an opportunity for smaller breeders with one or two horses to sell to get them in a venue with a lot of horses that will attract buyers. We would like to see this become more than just a club thing, to have these things regionally. It gives sellers a place to market their youngsters and buyers an opportunity to see a lot of good ones at one time.”

Another component to promoting young horses is advertising. “We advertise the stallions standing at the farm in print and on the Internet,” said Hedreen. “We also run congratulatory ads on successes of horses bred on the farm, whether owned by us or clients and buy print and Internet sales ads.”

But it may not be the best use of limited advertising dollars to spend them in one big splash.

“You’ve got to be able to spread it out over several years,” said Arts. “We promote by going to the breed shows, the keuring, and the inspections. We promote by going to the U.S. Dressage Federation breed shows, and we went to [Dressage At Devon (Pa.)] twice. You get your name out. You put a lot of ads in magazines. Obviously it’s a big expense. Going across the country with a couple trailers is $10,000. It’s not that we sell that much more back East, or sell horses at that particular show, but indirectly it gives you a lot of advertising.”

Regardless of the amount of exposure and the quality of horse a breeder offers for sale, no one would say that breeding (or any other horse business) is a quick way to riches and glory.

“For me it’s a business in that we provide a product and a service—the stallion and the young horses that we raise–but for us it’s so much more than that. It’s not a lifestyle; it’s a way of life,” said Rogers.

Competing Interests

To the outsider, it may seem like a breeder is a breeder, but Willy Arts believes there are two sides to the breeding business.

“You have the stallion owner or the breeder,” he explained, and they might not be aiming for exactly the same goal. Breeders need to find the best stallion to improve each mare and will choose from a variety of stallions, but stallion owners are most interested in promoting their own stallion.

Arts said that it’s a challenge to wear both hats, by owning mares and standings stallions. Sometimes, he said, you need to send mares to stallions you don’t stand to get the athletic, marketable foals you want.

Judy Hedreen believes that sometimes neither stallion owners nor breeders are really interested in promoting their breed. Just as some stallion owners may be primarily interested in their own stallion’s success, “some breeders are breeding primarily to sell horses and, thus, use only fashionable stallions or those most heavily advertised.

“These may not be proven sires or performance horses. Then there are the breeders that want to improve the breed or breed a better performance horse. These breeders may use a variety of stallions, some not as popular,” she said.

Tips For The First-Time Breeder

The most common mistake people make is going into the breeding business without a plan, said Judy Hedreen, of Washington’s Sylvan Farm.

“They don’t have a written business plan that states their goals, marketing strategy and projected budget,” she said. “A written plan acts as a reality check, keeps you on track, and helps a breeder realize they must sell horses–not just accumulate them.”

Willy Arts, of California’s DG Bar Ranch, suggested that keeping the mare herd young and healthy is important. “You need to keep improving your breeding herd, but keep it young,” he said.

“You can have a proven mare that you keep and breed until she’s 21 or 22. That’s a foundation mare. But you have some mares that are younger,” he continued.

“You can breed them at 3 and 4, get them started, and then sell them as a riding horse. If you keep them until they’re 7 or 8 and breed them three or four times, then they pass up their sport career,” added Arts. “But if you have two offspring, then the mare is 5 years old and someone can take her and use her as a riding horse. You may even be able to get her back later. You keep your herd young and still get some income from your mares.”

Not only should the mare herd stay young, but it’s also important to stop breeding the mares that aren’t working out.

“The hardest thing is to find a different job for a mare that cannot produce reasonable quality,” said Pat Limage, owner of Wallstreet Kid. “We always hope that our stallion is going to improve any mare, and that’s the proof of our quality stallion. But no stallion can fix everything. You end up with offspring at the bottom of the market, and it costs just as much to feed that one as it does to feed a good one.”

Limage advises taking the time to become educated about what makes a horse valuable.

“It helps to have other people’s advice,” said Limage. “I watch what’s going on at the shows and inspections and try to learn. You have to develop your eye. It comes from being around them and seeing quality versus lesser quality.”