Addressing A Few Concerns

I am proud to announce that Winchester Performance will be taking part in a showing initiative that will provide many benefits to the community in which we live.

A recent discussion with other Quarter Horse breeders has yielded a general and popular consensus that there are TOO many stallions and not enough geldings.  The wrong stallions are being bred to the wrong mares over and over, and it is resulting in sub standard stock that is too greatly deviating from what the purpose and mission of the American Quarter Horse.

In short, the Quarter Horses are slowing down, thinking less, and reacting more.  The American Quarter Horse has long been the standard for versatility.  They do it all.  They can anywhere and do anything at any given time.  A horse that has been used to tame the West and capture the hearts of dreamers everywhere is dwindling down to a sorry state of being.

I have been struggling with this issue since Sage passed away.  Sage was the last Quarter Horse I bred to fly through the ranks and achieve his National Championship title.  The several generations of foals since then, haven't been nearly as good, so it prompted me to reach out to the Quarter Horse community and voice my concerns.  What I got was an incredible response from established, newly re-started, and fledgling breeders who had the same concerns.  You can get in on that discussion here. 

So, getting to the GOOD news, for my part I thought it would be great to start taking a critical look at my own crew and making hard decisions with regards to gelding and spaying.  I am largely to blame for the state of the Quarter Horse because a lot of my foals are out there, breeding when in fact, they should have been gelded, then sold.

How do I plan to rectify this?  My first step is to geld all of the babies who I KNOW aren't going to be good breeding stock.  The next step is to put a really solid foundation of groundwork and greenbreaking on them and move them into a discipline.  My final step is to market these horses to people who have just moved to ER and allow them the opportunity to own a really nice gelding or spayed mare in hopes that the young horse will help them earn money towards kick starting their ranch into overdrive.

Sounds great huh?  I know this isn't going to be all rainbows and butterflies.  I do realize that there is a risk associated with this, to include new players getting bored and leaving, or not knowing how to care for their horses.  But as a breeder, I can't spend all of my time worrying about what happens when the horse leaves my ranch.  As a breeder and competitor, my focus should always be on breed integrity and performance excellence.  If that sounds callous, that is just where I have to be right now in order to believe that I am doing this in the best interest of the breed as a whole.

I am anxious to hear your thoughts!