This message is from: Mariposa Farm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> There has been some good discussion lately on the list and I wish I had more time to respond. Talking about the "worth" of a particular horse is interesting. Here at my farm we have all different breeds (due to boarding) and it's interesting to talk about the value of each. I have everything form a conformationally "messed up" TB gelding that was purchased for $4,000 (that will probably take another $4,000 for Vet bills!) to a QH that's for sale for $10,000. Throw in a Tennessee Walker that kicked her owner (She lost her eye) for $1,500 and a Trakener (sp?) that's had close to a year's worth of very expensive training and should be worth $20,000 but isn't. All of this makes $5,000 for a decent Fjord look pretty normal to me but people still think that is a lot. I tell people that the horse is the cheapest part of the whole package you'll buy. Ever price a new tractor??? How about a horse trailer? We do have a bred 9 year old trained (rides and drives) mare for sale for $5,000 and two people so far have asked how much she is and when I said five they said "five hundred?". One of the people even has a couple Fjords!!
As far as microchipping is concerned, I think that we ought to head in that direction. Not only for breeding identification purposes but also to make Fjords not an acceptable breed to steal. It could be attractive to horse thieves that they all "look" the same so having it known that there is positive proof of identification would be good. All of my adults are microchipped due to being evaluated but I think that I'll start chipping even the young ones before evaluation time. Thank you Hans for the Fjord fire fighting pictures. I'm going to take them to our next firefighter meeting and pass them around. Maybe we won't complain how slow the trucks are anymore! Do you have any pictures of pumpers? And last but not least, we took our 7 week old colt Bragi to his second show and entered him in the 2001-2002 halter class and he took his first 1st place! He is very proud of his trophy. Next Sunday we are headed to another show (Spooner, WI if anybody else is interested) to show him again. You can see the confidence building in him at each show. He actually had a nice trot out this time instead of bucking against the halter. Lisa also showed Katya (Rusten x Line) in English Pleasure and Equitation. This was Katya's first show (with us) and she did great too. Need to work on her cantering to the right though... kept getting the wrong lead. She must have been a race horse in a previous life and doesn't like going to the right. Mark McGinley Mariposa Farm Washburn, WI
