To Wait or Not to Wait

All the bad financial news might have you thinking about scratching your horse from the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. But if you're planning on taking your horse home, you need to be planning for a long-term commitment to that animal.

Keeping a good mare, breeding foals out of her, and selling them or racing them yourself could work out well. But hoping the market will be better if you wait a year to sell a mediocre or below average horse probably isn't the best of ideas.

The economy has dug itself a very deep hole, and it's going to difficult to crawl out of that pit quickly.  There's a good chance the situation won't be much better - and it could even be worse - in the fall of 2009. And there should still be a glut of horses in the market as breeders continue to cut back and cull that stock.

While going ahead and selling now could mean taking a loss, you'll be reducing expenses by cutting out the cost of upkeep for a particular horse. If a horse isn't commercially appealing now, the odds are against that improving significantly in 12 months, and you'll have invested even more money in a bad venture.