HGG Community Forums

I completely understand. I am trying to do the same. I guess I am going to have to get realistic with my lines and stick to my guns. Easier said than done.

That is what I am thinking to.

@RoseFlute You always need more show ponies, until your ratio of neuters is at least 3 to 1, neuters to intacts. I think somewhere Ammit has said that a 5-1 ratio is even better.

Do I manage that? By no means, I'm lucky to keep the numbers about equal, but at least I show all my horses, both neuters and intact.

I'm in the same boat. I selected a few mares that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of (my first mares and their daughters) and went through and spayed all the rest. I now use my left over uneven mares for surrogates and show pony producers.

Always go the show pony route if possible.

My problem is keeping up with it now. I produce around 100 foals each season and it's so hard to pick and choose who gets cut and who doesnt. Now I mostly struggle with stallions

There are many different ways to play the game and be successful. While I maintain a show string now, as it is a lower maintenance way of earning an income, for the first two years I played I didn't keep a single altered horse. All of my stock was capable of breeding. As I moved away from breeding a generation the mare was retired to profit breeding. She would spend most of the month in a barn showing and I would cycle about 300-500 mares through a pasture to breed them for profit babies. These babies were pulled from the pasture and put straight into the auction. I made far more HBs through the sale of babies than I ever did showing.

I made enough HB's with that method that my barn was one of the barns that had to reduce it's funds when we went to the 10M cap.