Last week a read Western's Horsemen's current issue that addresses the state of the horse breeding aspect of the horse industry. It pretty much confirmed what we've been seeing for the past couple of years: a drastic downturn in foal crops, small breeders, and now large, longtime mare and breeding operations scaling down to help reduce their costs.
Coincidentally my vet was out Sunday to check on my sore-footed mare . . . and when I asked if he had had any foals this year he told me "one" and that was the only one for this year. He then told me he'd sold off several of his broodmares last fall to cut back on expenses. I was a little surprised. At the same time it's a real attest to the state of the horse industry: we're not talking about losing the backyard horse person, or even the recreational horse owner: when professionals are cutting back to lower their costs we can't deny that the horse business is in real trouble.
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