Watching Anastazia take the best young horse title at the Devon (Pa.) Horse Show & Country Fair (see p. 36) was extremely bittersweet for Ray Francis. The Pennsylvania horseman had bred, foaled and raised the 2-year-old filly. Seeing her go on to win the prestigious honor was a dream come true for Francis, who has had Devon’s best young horse title as a goal for many years.

But Francis wasn’t holding Anastazia’s reins that day, and his name wasn’t announced as owner. He had sold the elegant bay filly six weeks prior to the horse show to Kenny Wheeler of Cismont Manor Farm in Virginia. Wheeler’s win with Anastazia reaped him his 32nd consecutive best young horse win at Devon. Francis was emotional about Anastazia’s success but pragmatic about the transaction. “I’m in the business,” he said simply.

Living with horses is a precarious dynamic between passion and business. They’re an all-consuming love for most people who make them their life, but a horse is also a commodity. And those people who own them all too often have to make heart-breaking decisions to balance those two aspects. A much-loved horse can feel like part of the family, but reality can also turn that same horse into a potential profit. It’s never an easy decision to sell a favorite horse, and you can second-guess it forever.

The horse world has always supported two general types of owners-hose who make their living selling horses and those who have the wherewithal to buy them. It’s easy, but wrong, to declare that the process is unfair, and that the people who can afford to buy the best horses shouldn’t take them away from those who produced them. As Francis points out, one of the reasons he raises horses is to sell them. He needs to support himself and his family. Without people who can afford to buy them, he wouldn’t be able to continue.

It’s a sad, but necessary, reality that beloved horses get sold. And there are many reasons: ponies are outgrown; children lose interest; financial troubles demand the sale; there’s an offer you can’t afford to refuse. These are just a few of the reasons why a treasured friend can morph into a check. But selling a horse doesn’t diminish the love, work and dedication that’s been put into that horse, and it doesn’t reflect badly on whoever buys them.

Consider this: when a person buys your horse, the one that you’ve invested in with your heart and work, they’re agreeing with you on its worth and validating all your effort and belief. And don’t think that they won’t treasure the horse any less.

So, Ray Francis can always look back on Anastazia’s win as his stellar accomplishment and as a sound business decision. He can remember Anastazia’s first steps, her first canter strides in the paddock, and the first time he looked in her eye and knew she was a winner. On top of that, he has the financial ability to breed more like her. It’s a strange double-edged sword.

In a perfect world, we would all be able to collect all the horses that have captured our hearts and never sell them. But, then again, we wouldn’t have shared those wonderful creatures with others. And our fields would be very full.