Luck Plays Key Role In Successful Horse Breeding
Horses seem to be the species completely outside of God's control. Perhaps the Gods bet on horses, too and there fore never intervene to help one. Horses are magnets for all kinds of luck - both good and bad. This is especially apparent in the area of horse breeding. This has given rise to the wise horse breeding formula, "Breed the best to the best and hope for the best".
Murphy Rules
It also seems to be a general rule that the more valuable the horse, the more problems there will be in trying to breed from him or her. The best example is what happened to Cigar, the two-time Horse of the Year in American Thoroughbred racing, proved to be completely sterile. These are the kinds of things that happen all of the time to seem the best and most affluent of horse breeders.
Healthy As A …
One of the problems with horse breeding is that domestic horses are not the healthiest of animals. It really makes you wonder what dimwit came up with the expression, "Healthy as a horse". Horses cannot regurgitate, which means that if they eat something they shouldn't, they are in big trouble. They also will eat themselves to death. Many vets describe a horse as having "a digestive system built by a committee."
Another problem with horse health is with anything having to do with the reproductive organs. Horses are prone to cancers, malformations and infection of these organs. They also can have fertility problems and, in the case of mares, can grow a foal fetus that is too large for her uterus. A foal that's too big not only dies while being trapped in the birth canal, but often destroys the uterus of the mother so that she can never be bred again.
Also, horses just don't breed like rabbits. Compared to other domestic animals, their fertility rate is lower. They also can only have one baby at a time, with twins being very rare (and usually one or both dies). Horses have a long gestation rate of eleven months, meaning that in horse breeding, it can take as long as three years of planning and veterinary inspections just to get one foal old enough to be weaned.
There is also the problem of what to do with those foals. Sadly, as the human population increases, more land that is needed for all kinds of animals, including horses, is converted into homes, businesses and parking lots for people. In order to get involved with horse breeding, you must do it for the love of the horse and not for money.
