This message is from: Michele Noonan <fjordl...@hotmail.com> I have to agree with most of the comments made about the reasonable horse prices and the horrible seller's market.. We didn't see this coming ourselves until all 4 mares were bred (and one more bought bred) for 2008 babies. Now we have 4 remaining yearling colts that have not sold and we have them priced for just under $1000. Not even breaking even. We are hoping to sell them before I have to spend another $6k on hay this summer... We bred only two mares last year and both of those babies we are willing to keep and not sell. We probably will only breed one, two tops (and that will be to sell her) this year.
We have to re consider how many mares to keep and we have decided to keep our main mare Tone and only Evaluated mares. Of course our young stallion OFI Skogen too. but he can't contribute much for a few more years. Hopefully things will improve in the market or we will have a very flashy gray gelding. We have to consider the cost of keeping the yearlings another year, versus selling them now at a loss. or next year at a bigger loss. This is a good year for trades for sure... I'm looking for a Meadowbrook cart... Anyone want a few yearlings in trade LOL Heck take them ALL! I don't even want to spend much on advertising at this point! Our hay prices, although low compared to everyone else, still doubled last year. That's hard to swallow when you are buying 30 tons of hay. We also had over 3000 in vet bills last year with the loss of our stallion Soren. Considering we do all our own worming and vaccinations I rarely have to pay the vet more than $500 for Show Exams (Coggins and Health) Overall a tough year here in Montana.. like everywhere else I am sure. We all learn from our poor planning.. (The ENTIRE United States I hope) Michele Noonan Western Montana _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_70faster_032009 Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
