The Lack of KWPN Stallions in North America, cont.

If you're new to my blog or haven't read all of the entries, scroll down a bit and find the earlier post about the lack of KWPN stallions for US and Canadian breeders.

Rather than rehash my impassioned speech, I want to pick up where I left off in the post: It's time for another collaborative effort to bring new stallions to North America. I know that Carol and I aren't willing to afford the time or expense we incurred with DBNA or WBNA, but I also can't stand by and do nothing. North American breeders need stallion options. Our breeding programs are suffering because of the lack of genetic diversity, our studbook is suffering because we're not producing more horses or attracting new members, and our pocketbooks are suffering because we have to shell out way too much mula for not only frozen semen with no guarantee, but also the breeding and shipping costs that are an unavoidable side effect of using frozen semen.

In the past, for our personal program and for DBNA and WBNA, we leased already approved stallions. This is still an option, but it's not as easy it seems. One, you have to find a stallion that is a quality producer but not breeding that much in Holland or Germany; two, you have to be able to afford this stallion (one stallion I inquired about in the past six months came with a price tag 60,000 Euro/year, even though he had bred fewer than a dozen mares last year); three, you need to find a retired stallion or a deal with a good rider to compete the stallion. So, finding an already approved stallion is possible, but not as easy as I've made it look in the past.

A more longterm and affordable approach, from my perspective, is to buy promising colts and take them through the approval process. Is this a gamble? By all means. That's why a group purchase of 10 or more people makes it more palatable--the risk gets split 10 or more ways. Have I got all the details worked out? No. Do I have a first colt in mind? Yes.

I saw this colt on my recent trip to Holland. He has a number of things in his favor as a potential stallion: he's from a first crop of a newly approved stallion who did not breed that many mares; he's out of one of the top marelines in Holland; he's a gorgeous type with excellent conformation; he has no Jazz, Ferro, or Flemmingh. I can get him for 10,000 Euro, but the breeder wants a 25,000 Euro bonus if the colt eventually becomes approved. This is a common practice among the top breeders who regularly have foals from their programs approved. The cost of boarding this colt for two years averages 150 Euro/month or less. The prep for the stallion approvals is approximately 500 Euro/month. The colt will have to go through the xrays, semen analysis, etc. I don't know how much all of that costs. So, you can do the math. totaled, it's not an insignificant investment, but month-to-month, it's minimal, especially in a group of 10 or more. Four or five people I've told about this colt are already interested in participating. If you want to know more about him, drop me an email.

What I'd love to see happen eventually is that we buy a colt every year, maybe two. With the right kind of selection, the odds of getting a horse approved can be shifted in our favor. It's still a long shot, but it's an action plan for alleviating our reliance on frozen semen.