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Horse Farms

By Jennifer Karlen

Horse farms are the pride of Kentucky. There is however an ongoing struggle within the equestrian communities: how to survive.

What are the problems?

The same issues plaguing many businesses across the country are hitting the horse industry. The costs of virtually everything associated with horses has gone up.

The most obvious one right out of the gate (pun intended) is Oil prices. Oil prices have driven up the cost of fuel. Which in turn has trickled down to an add on cost for running tractors, cutting/baling hay, to even trailering the horses - all of those costs have gone up.

Excess inventory. I'm sure some of you immediately have questioned: excess inventory?!? What does that mean? Well, there was recently put in last year a ban on horse slaughter. This means that excess horses that are too old, no skill/training, etc used to be slaughtered and taken out of the inventory available on the market for use in pet food, or even other countries dinner plates. The ban now has dramatically reduced the amount of horses going out of the system. But the amount of horses coming into the system (i.e. new foals), has no restraints or supervision. This has led to LOTS of new horses being born - a great many more than what is being taken out.

Drought & Hay prices. Last year was the 3rd worst drought in Kentucky's history. This year, July & August were the driest its been since the 1890s. And this lack of water has dramatically affected the hay crops. For reference, we normally get 3 or 4 cuttings of hay each year out of our hay fields. Last year, we got 1. This year we again only got 1 cutting. There was a report written on the Hay Prices. This has led to a dramatic increase in hay costs - and even caused a normally hay producing state like Kentucky, to actually have to import hay from other states.

Horse Breeding Incentives. Horse breeding incentives were opened up last year to non-thoroughbred horses. If a horse was bred and foaled in Kentucky, & the fee was paid to be a part of the program, then it becomes eligible for additional prize monies from this program. So many persons relocated their horse farms to Kentucky - or at least set up satellite farms to work out of to be able to participate in this program. This has been a real boon for Kentucky horse farms. But there has been a secondary effect. The uncontrolled and unrestrained breeding has created a huge surplus of new horses. And since there is a ban on horse slaughter now - whats going to happen to these horses when they become older and are no longer working? This also has driven down the cost of an average horse to the point that many horses just don't have any value. They are worth nothing. But they still need to be fed, cared for, etc. - all of which has costs associated with it.

What is the solution?

Collectively these issues have created some tough times for many KY horse farms. Higher costs. Problems within the industry to control inventory coming in - and how to dispose of the excess inventory of horses that are no longer wanted. There is no solution currently being discussed, but there will come a time in the very near future where these problems will need to be addressed for the health of the equestrian industry.

To start, there needs to be relief provided from somewhere for hay prices. When a bale of hay is normally $3, and you are now paying triple that at $9 per bale - this is a huge increase in costs just for the care of the horses.

Additionally, there needs to be some sort of control put in immediately either on the breeding of horses - or horse slaughter of some sort needs to be allowed again. You can't have uncontrolled births, with no way to remove them from the system on the other end. And while I'm not a fan of horse slaughter, its really probably the best short term solution to address the issues. There should be some regulations & supervision put in place for the care and comfort of the horses going to slaughter. This means: no loading them up on cattle trucks with too short of roofs on the trailer. And try to be sensitive to their emotional needs. Yes, they are going to be killed. But its not necessary to torture the animals to get it done. Its simply not humane.

As far as fuel prices, I think everyone would like to see a solution to that. Unfortunately there is no short term solution to the problem. On the plus side, oil prices have dropped dramatically in recent weeks. Oil prices are now in the $70-80 per barrel range. At least that is certainly more palatable to our comfort level.

Conclusion

If the needs of the small town Kentucky horse farm owner aren't met, its likely that many will have to sell out and get out of the industry. The costs are going up across the board, the value of the horses are going down, and what used to be a profitable enterprise is simply bleeding red across the board. Solutions to the problems need to be worked on immediately.

Horse farms are the pride of Kentucky. Lets keep it that way.

PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE

Kentucky Farms For Sale
Find horse property for sale in Kentucky.
www.kyhorseproperties.com

Thank you for enlightening me about equine real estate, a market which I didn't even know existed. But I have to disagree with you on the solution. Having an animal, which one took on as one's responsibility, slaughtered just because the price of hay has gone up a few bucks is downright, well, irresponsible. Why would anyone seek to own horses and then get them slaughtered because of financial discomfort? Perhaps if they got the horses out of vanity rather than genuine interest. I bet there are a lot of people who own horses for the same reason they own boats. It ain't right.

Is it the best solution? Nope, absolutely not.

Is it the only solution? Nope, absolutely not.

Is it the solution that I'd prefer? Nope, absolutely not.

But you have to work with what you have to deal with right now.

And what you have right now is farm owners that can't afford to feed their horses. This is resulting in horses starving. They get reported, and the Humane Society or ASPCA shows up, criminal charges get filed on the owner, and the animals are taken away. [Which incidentally, those organization's budgets can't handle the big influx of lots of horses - which is whats going to happen if things continue as they have been.]

So the solution that some farm owners are resorting to, to avoid getting prosecuted, is just opening their gates and setting their horses "free".

The horses are left to fend for themselves. Definitely not the solution that anyone wants.

And if the owners get caught, they say "the horses got out of our fence" (not that they turned them loose).

Personally, I think that to control the back end of too many horses, you need to control the front - which is to start placing restrictions on the amount of breeding/foals.

[Don't want to get too long winded on the matter - so I'll wrap it up there. :D]

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