What's going on with the price of horses?

The horse problem is much like the dog problem. Same thing happened when people quit eating dogs. Now the pounds are full of dogs.

When it becomes necessary for people to begin eating both dog and horse again the problem will be solved.

Thanks for the kind words.

How is it farfetched? It is alot of work but nothing the average person cant do.

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What we have here...is a failure to communicate.

This winter those horses will not be worth much of anything, and some people will not even be able to give them away and it is not because they are not good horses either.

Your horses will also start dropping in value also before long, and yours won't be worth near as much either.

But you will just have to see it happen before you will believe it, and it will happen.

bumpus
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Now this is a person who knows how it is and I will eat a dog, cat, horse, etc. in a minute. All I hope is that it is fixed right ( medium rare ) to get the best flavor.

I would like to open a Restaurant and call it
" The Cholesterol Emporium " and serve dogs, a cats, horses, fat prime beef, home made biscuits Fat Ham, Fried Chicken in Lard with the skin still on, and any other food fit for human Consumption, and always leave the fat in for flavor.

And the Greek Greasy Gravy which tastes the best.

Let's get back to the good old days when people ate healthy and anything that breathed was good for food, except eating man.

bumpus
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Around here you can find them for well under $1000. I've heard that in some parts of the country the horse market hasn't come down. It might pay for some people to take a horse shopping vacation. Even with the shipping expenses they would come out ahead.

Bumpus, if I may be blunt, you are wrong. In all areas of the country a good horse still sells for good money. It may be down a bit from recent years but to make a blanket statement that all horses will severely drop in value is just not true. The junk horses aren't worth much now, but they never were worth much even in the good years.

DrippingSprings, I'm a lightly fluffy middle aged woman in fairly decent shape there is no way that I could hand dig a grave for an average 1000 lb horse. Well, to be fair I guess I could if I had a month or so, but many deaths aren't planned. It would have to be deep enough to keep the smell down, even with lime, because if it wasn't you'd have every predator within a 15 mile radius at your farm for dinner.

Pix

Your not listening.
I'm not talking about junk horses.
I'm talking about good $3000 horses going for less than $1000.

bumpus
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I think that there has been an adjustment in the horse economy but I feel that good ones are still worth good money and always will be. My personal observations show that selling horses through general horse auctions generally indicate the middle to lower end of the horses available in the country and it's those horses that indicate the general economy and climate. If you're suffering a drought, the market is saturated or the economy is tight, you will see an extreme dip in the general auction prices. The only factor that can change that is the slaughter horse market (which is currently a huge factor in the ultra low prices). I find that the upper end horses, sold at production sales, performance sales, breeder consignment sales, privately sold or through high end brokers do not show any indication of slowdown or downturn in sales. Folks buying from general auction are prepared to take their chances and overlook flaws, those buying high end horses are not prepared to overlook anything. They don't have to, they have money and and want to use those horses for a specific purpose. In this day and age, I would encourage anyone who is considering breeding to realize how great their chances are of selling horses to in an saturated market in a tight economy or to consider the odds of producing offspring that will bring the high end market to their doorstep. Without a serious adjustment to the horse population, it remains a buyer's market and the buyers want a deal and if you aren't prepared to give it to them or prove to them that the animal you're selling has outstanding traits or abilities, they will likely continue shopping elsewhere.

Recently a lady who had sold their horses (which they never rode) asked me how I was doing with the high hay prices for my two cows. I said prices were high, but so are prices for the milk and meat I would otherwise have to buy.

Anyway, the people who need consoling about hay prices are horse owners who don't ride or eat their horses, and who just throw money at them. True, they may be pets, but a dog comes much cheaper.

Good points Lisa on needing to breed quality conformation, temperament, etc. Of course, I've often wondered why that doesn't also apply to people.

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When you done with the horse kill it cut it up and cook it in a 55 gallon drum and feed it to the hogs make for cheap hog feed.

Back home in WV where I come from you can't hardly give away big draft horse no one uses them and they eat to much.

Many people lost money when the bottom fell out of the market on horses.
Many sold for $500 that was $1500 - $1800.

Today people do not want them. Even the trader are no buying them.

bumpus
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That's already the case in places. Read an article in Farm World about that early this year. It mentioned Kentucky as one place where horses were increasingly being dropped off and turned loose.

Since moving to our homestead and getting horses for my girls, I bet I've been offered at least a dozen "free" horses: all supposedly gentle, old horses "okay for a kid to ride". All were just unwanted horses that the owners were desperately trying to get rid of.

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They ought to dump them on the people of The Humane Society, and PETA and the government people who made the laws and all others who started this don't kill a horse non-sense and let them take care of them, feed, water, Vet bills, clean up manuer after, etc.

You think they are happy now ? ? ?
Now they will have plenty of horses to cry and complain about.

bumpus
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I believe we have a difference of opinion on what constitutes a good horse and a junk horse. A good horse is: well conformed, well trained or if young well handled, perhaps it has desirable bloodlines. A junk horse is: ill conformed or lame, ill tempered, perhaps it's sick or has significant training issues. A good horse will always sell for good money, a junk horse will not. The price of a good horse hasn't dropped much in most areas of the US, a junk horse can't be given away in most areas of the US. There are exceptions to every rule but for the most part a well trained, well conformed horse will sell for good money anywhere in the US.

wr's post summed up my feelings, and did it very well.

Pix

It cost me $195 to have the vet out, and $75 to have a backhoe operator come out and bury her. In the whole scheme of things, if you can't afford even that little bit, then you don't want to be in horses.

Wish I had known that when I was south on my road trip... would have taken the truck and trailer....

Kaza

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Ohiogal, you did well. In my area a backhoe will not come out for less than 1/2 rate plus travel costs which is nowhere near the amount you paid.

Rendering plants (for pet food, etc.) are STILL operational and STILL take horses. Horse slaughter in the US is NOT gone.

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Heather Fair
Fair Skies Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats
All I Saw Farm
Wasilla, Alaska
http://HoofinItNorth.com
http://FairSkiesAlaska.com

There is opportunity here. I love horses and live horses. I wouldn't eat my horses unless the situation was rather drastic. But there are lots of folks who feed raw meat to dogs and aren't fussy so long as it is meat. I sell a bit of meat to them from time to time. Never has been horse meat but just about any kind of farm animal that goes through the auction with no one wanting it. I've bought injured goats and broken-mouth sheep for $1 and sold the meat for $1 a pound in little zip-loc packages. If folks decide to start giving horses away, they can bring a few here.

Some zoos no longer except horses as it is a pr problem.

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Every good farm needs team work

I have no problem recycling the healthy corpse of an animal humanely euthanized (such as with a single bullet that killed it before it hit the ground). I don't know where bumpus or anyone else got the opposite idea. I have dogs and I have cats and I have chickens that can eat the meat (and I plan to have other stock that could eat it too). I have to eat too and although I wouldn't LIKE to eat my pasture ornaments, BUT that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it in the right situation.

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Heather Fair
Fair Skies Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats
All I Saw Farm
Wasilla, Alaska
http://HoofinItNorth.com
http://FairSkiesAlaska.com

Come to Oklahoma. No problemo. Of course, I saw a picture of him and he is pretty. Pretty accounts for a large part of pricing here.