Doggone It! Highs and lows of breeding horses

To buy a good horse, it only takes money and at least a little bit of brains.

But to breed a good horse, now that's completely different. It takes blood and sweat and worry and sometimes grief and sometimes joy.

And most of all, it takes heart. Boy, does it take heart.

We have found this out the hard way, but it's the only way to learn, I guess. Sometimes we've been lucky, but other times breeding has left us heartbroken.

A dead foal is devastating, and a foal with lethal defects gives all of us pause. When we have tragedy on our ranch, I think that all of us pull in a bit, and ask ourselves if this is really all worth it.

My friend is going through that right now. She has a yearling filly that has had nothing but bad luck for the past six months. The filly is in pain, and she is probably not going to get better. It's going to come down to a hard decision for my friend -- a decision I don't envy.

So why do we keep doing it? I'm not really sure.

Maybe we're crazy. I certainly know some people who think that about us. They think we're looney for having a stallion, and they think that we spend way too much money on our horses.

They are probably right. Every payday, the first thing we do is buy feed. Sometimes we eat cheap because our horses don't. And those feed prices keep going up, while our salaries stay the same.

So, what is it that makes us look forward to every spring? After all, every spring we lose sleep by staying up with mares ready to foal, and we wear out tires on the truck and trailer taking sick or injured horses to the vet. I hate to think how much money we have spent on vet bills -- I know that if I figured it out, I would probably cry.

And those horses are out there every day. They don't care if we are tired or hot or sick, they still need to be fed and watered and cleaned up after. The horses don't care if it's a holiday, in their world, there are no holidays. And believe me, they never take a vacation.

The foals are an even bigger job. They need to be halter broke and they need to learn how to stand tied. We have to watch them closely, because foals can kill themselves without even trying.

Yet we keep breeding mares, and we get excited about what foals are going to be born in the spring. During the long, cold, foggy days of winter, the promise of green grass and brand-new babies helps keep us warm.

For 30 years, I have raised horses. I have watched horses get old and die, and I have had the heartache of putting down one of the best horses that ever lived. I have lost foals, and I have lost broodmares. I have seriously thought about getting out of the business, but I have also convinced myself that these horses can eventually make us money.

But it sure is hard sometimes. When a horse you love, a horse that you watched being born, is sick or hurt, I think it hurts us almost as much as it hurts the horse. These animals aren't just a business to us, they are our friends.

We are now headed into the hazy days of late summer, with the promise of fall not far behind. Our broodmares are getting big with their unborn foals, and Willy is lazing in the shade, swishing flies and dreaming of next spring. The foals run and play in the cool mornings, and are better than any show on TV.

And we keep spending money and feeding mares and working with foals and sometimes wondering why in the heck we keep doing this.

But when we see the wobbly, wet new life that a mare brings into the world every spring, it feels pretty darn good. If the mare and baby are both healthy, we consider it a miracle.

The foal that was born last this year is one example of a miracle. Her mother was extremely sick, on massive doses of antibiotics and pain medications, and was expected to abort any time.

But she held onto her foal, despite her pain and stress. She foaled with no problem, and when we saw that baby, that beautiful white-splashed foal, we knew without a doubt that there are miracles, and that filly was one.

Her name is Hope, because that's what we did. We hoped and prayed that the foal would be all right. We put our hearts into it, and it all turned out OK.

Horses like Hope and her mother are what keeps us going. They remind me that no matter what, life goes on and there are miracles everywhere if we just look in the right places. Thanks, Hope, for reminding me of that. You truly are a miracle.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com