A Good Book - "Horse Heaven"

Sometimes it is healthy to give yourself permission to take a step back from everything you do with your horses and try to see it from another perspective.  It would be great if you could do it from the horse's view as well as the other people that are involved with them.  This book by Jane Smiley - Horse Heaven - does just that.  It is funny and sad, and I'm sure you will find some of your animals and associates in her pages.

This book made me laugh a lot and I really enjoyed reading the chapters that were from the animal's point of view - the dog is hilarious - and the horses' thoughts and feelings are what I think most horse lovers would expect.  It is a long book, but when you finish it you will wish there was more.

Starbound - A Very Special Mare

On Friday, May 27, 2011 Starbound, aka Libby, was released from the pain she had been suffering as a result of laminitis brought on by the Cushing's Disease she had.  She was a wonderful, sweet mare, and a loving mother to 6 foals by Patrick and grandmother of our filly, Felicity.  We will remember her always for her unique and funny personality and through her offspring, as she left behind something of herself in each one.

Here is Libby's Legacy:

Polaris - April 21, 2004 - Premium Colt

  

Pulsar - April 27, 2005

Pleiades - April 27, 2006

Providence - May 2, 2007 - Premium Filly

Paristar - May 27, 2008 - Premium Filly

Pluto - May 17, 2009

Felciity - April 15, 2010 - Premium Filly out of Pleiades by Festrauch

Libby can never be forgotten for she has left behind so much to remember!

Starbound (aka Libby) 1993 - 2011

2011 Foals at LWF Sport Horses

Wienna and Presley

Presley - 2011 Colt

The 1st foal of 2011 was born shortly after midnight on May 1.  Some of the boarders and friends of LWF Sport Horses were on hand to welcome the beautiful chestnut colt - Presley.  It was especially exciting for several of the people because it was their 1st time to see a foal being born. His dam, Wienna, did not seem to mind the audience, and was probably relieved to have help foaling out the big colt.  The traits from his sire, Patrick, were already obvious in his sturdy legs, cute head, and grey rings around the eyes.

We had been expecting 3 foals by Patrick this year and 1 grandfoal (by Cor Noir), but sadly we discovered that two of our broodmares had evidently absorbed their fetus sometime in the months prior.  Neither had exhibited any signs of miscarriage and we had previously confirmed heartbeat on both.  Starbound aka "Libby" had recently been diagnosed with Cushings Disease and that probably was the reason for her loss and we were worried about a high risk pregnancy with her anyway, so I think it was nature's way of solving that issue.  Hulane aka "Sasha" is 22 years old and we had not been able to get her in foal since 2004 so it would seem that her body has told us that there will be no more.  We had hoped for one more since we lost the 2005 premium filly, Porsche, a couple of years ago.  Happily, Patina, Patrick's 2006 mare is still in foal and we are expecting to welcome his 2nd grandfoal in late May or early June.

Pictures and information on Patina's foal will be posted shortly after it arrives to be sure to check back then.

Selling the Young Horse You Bred

This post is not about how or when you will sell the young horse you bred, but rather about how it is different selling a horse you bred than a horse you bought.  After waiting 11+ months for the foal to be born, attending the foaling, raising the foal, and then starting the training at 2 years, continuing with the under saddle work at 3 years, and showing and promoting your wonderful young horse, you have a buyer.  You are excited and sad at the same time.  This young horse is something you made and when she leaves a part of you leaves with her.

I have sold several horses that I bought from ages 3 months to 14 years that I eventually sold and I loved them all and was sad to see them go.  However, none of them were as hard to part with as the ones I bred.  Yes, I am breeding to sell, but while I am raising and training them we are forming a bond.  A bond that started the day they were born and gets stronger every year.  I am proud of my young horses and I think they are all wonderful, just like a mother.  I am raising them to go to a new home some day so I try to be certain that the home they are leaving me for is as good or hopefully even better than the one I have given them.

I know that everyone who has had a special horse they sold for whatever reason knows what I am talking about, but most breeders would probably agree - it is kind of like when your kids are grown and go off to college, get married, or move away.  You are proud of what they have become and want them to go and become the best they can be, but part of you would like to keep them with you forever.

Today we said goodbye to Providence aka "Pia".  She has always been one of the "special" ones and I knew it would be hard to let her go, but the home she is going to is wonderful and I couldn't be happier about her new owner.  So "Goodbye Pia! We are excited about your new life!"

Young Horses Bred in the USA - Part 2

Last year I wrote a post called Young Horses Bred in the USA where I talked about needing to get more of our USA bred Sport Horses in the ribbons at competitions here and internationally.  One of the biggest problems faced by Sport Horse breeders in the USA is that we are competing with the big market in Europe.  It is easy to see lots of quality horses in a small geographical area over there while here people have to travel all over the country and usually see only 1 or 2 horses at each site. The big breeders in the USA are often able to show multiple horses, but what about the rest of us?  How can we get our young Sport Horses in front of more buyers?

In my post Horses For Sale in Michigan I talked about one idea I have for getting sellers in a close geographical area to collaborate their efforts so that buyers could go to one site and see multiple horses.

Another idea I recently came across is to use the breed shows that are held across the country to promote young horses for sale.  These breed shows are for Dressage and Hunter prospects and include weanlings up to 5 year olds under saddle. Dressage Today recently published an article called Sport Horse Breed Shows Provide Alternative to European Buying Trek that talks about this idea and describes how they are doing it at the Dressage at Devon breed show.  If more breed shows would promote the young horses like this, not only would they get more horses in the show, but they would also have more spectators.  It would take some time for the word to get out that this was the place to see quality young Sport Horses, but it could potentially really help the Sport Horse breeding market.

Foaling Season Preparation

Foaling season is upon us and it is essential that the mares and foals are monitored carefully to ensure a happy outcome. But even the most careful breeder encounters problems from time to time. It is important to keep up to date on current medical findings having to do with mares and foals so that if you do encounter something out of the ordinary, you know what to do or where to turn.

I subscribe to updates from TheHorse.com and print or save articles that I think might come in handy someday. I also read everything I can find about mares and foals so that I can stay current with the latest developments. I work with a vet that works with breeding a lot, but I learned the hard way not to rely on them to know every new thing that is happening in the horse breeding world.

Here are some good resources I found recently at The Horse:

Young Horse Development - this is a great report about the foal from birth to 6 months.

Failure of Passive Transfer - this is a great report about the importance of colostrum for antibodies in the newborn foal, how it is measured, and what to do if your foal is diagnosed with FPT.

R. equi Immunity and the Foal - information you would want if your foal develops pneuomina.

Determining Fetal Gender - if you would like to know how to know the sex of your foal before it is born.

Better Treatment for Dangerous Worms in Foals - important information about certain drug resistant worms and what you can do to better protect your foal.

As you can see there is a wealth of information at The Horse and it is all free. You just sign up with your e-mail address and you can access thousands of articles.

In case you wondered, I do not receive any compensation if you sign up or look at these articles. I was just reading some of the latest articles today and thought I would share them here.

When dealing with foaling season it is very important to be prepared – prepared with supplies, help, education, and information – problems with foals can become fatal very fast – give yourself the advantage – be prepared!

Internet Marketing For Horse People

I recently wrote an article titled Marketing a Horse Requires Technology where I talked about how marketing horses today requires the use of the internet because that is where people are going to look for horses.  You need to know how to market on the internet or hire someone who can do it for you.  It is not enough, though, to just put up an ad with video and pictures.  You also need to ensure that the ad gets seen frequently.

The best way to get maximum exposure on the internet is to have your ad out there on multiple sites and have links to those sites so that when people are searching they will find your ad.  Getting your own site optimized so that it comes up in the searches takes a lot of work and knowledge of how the internet works.  Very few horse people have that time and knowledge so we have to hire someone, or put our ads and links on other sites that have listings for horses, stables, or other horse services we are marketing.

Since more people have learned to put a location in their searches for products and services to narrow down the results for something in their area, I have developed some web sites for horse boarding and horses for sale that are for just my state, counties, and cities.  So if someone searches for "horse boarding" in my state, county, or city, my site will come up on the first page and is more likely to get clicked.  This also gets more exposure for me on the internet with more links back to my homepage, Lost World Farm.  I wrote about additional ideas I have for selling horse this way in my previous post, Horses for Sale in Michigan.

If you are interested in this take a look at these sites:

• Horse Boarding in Michigan
• Horse Boarding in Oakland County
• Horse Boarding in Ortonville, Michigan
• Horses for Sale in Michigan
• A Warmblood Breeding Stallion

There are more traditional sites coming for the horses for sale and also horse breeding and I will be putting links to them here, on our Facebook Fan page, our main website, and many other places.

Let me know what you think.

Horses For Sale in Michigan

I just updated our Horses for Sale page.  It is on the right under Home.  

There are several of Patrick's offspring along with a couple of other horses we have available.  All of them have show experience and are ready for their new home.

We try to match our horses with a rider that is a good fit for their experience and personality.  Our young horses by Patrick all have an easy temperment, but they still need a rider with some experience or who works closely with their trainer.  It is easy to ruin a young horse, so we try to make sure they are going to a home where they  will be trained and treated similiar to what they have known here.  That does not happen with just one ride.  We encourage buyers to ride the horse several times and schedule themselves so they can handle the horse and get to know them.  We want a happy horse and rider combination.

Nowdays many people look for horses online and want to see pictures and video before they actually make the trip to the barn where the horse lives.  Hopefully they can look at more than one horse at a location like it is possible to do when horse shopping in Europe.  That can be very difficult in the U.S. because they are spread out all over the place.  We are putting up several web sites like the Horses for Sale page on this blog and the Horses for Sale in Michigan site to try to get horses that are in nearby areas to advertise in one place and then to plan sales events at one site so that buyers don't have to travel so much.

This could benefit the sellers as well as the buyers.  Even though there will be competition amoung the sellers, they will still be getting more buyers to look at their horses, and that will increase sales.  Also,  they only have to get the horse ready for one event instead of multiple times.  Some sellers do not have a good riding ring all year to show horses and loose potential buyers because it is difficult to arrange places for the horse to be ridden. This method would ensure a good riding arena to show the horse at it's best and to make it easier for the buyer to ride. Buyers can see several horses in one place, make comparison's easier and it is a lot less expensive than going to Europe.  You will have more money for showing or tack!

Post a comment below and let us know what you think or if you have any ideas or suggestions.  More web sites are in progress for other areas and we will let you know when they are live.  If you want to be kept up to date or are interested in a certain area, please contact Linda.