Multiple Foal Rule
September 18, 2009
The impact the multiple foals rule change has had on the Quarter Horse industry – so far.
From The American Quarter Horse Journal
Back in 2003, it was anyone’s guess what would happen. As of January 1 of that year, AQHA rules allowed a mare to have more than one registered foal per year, pending parentage verification.
Immediately, AQHA saw a 41 percent increase in embryo transfer enrollments: In 2002, 1,849 mares had embryo transfer enrollments filed; for 2003, there were 2,614. By the end of the breeding season, facilities offering embryo transfer services testified to a surge in business. Royal Vista Southwest in Purcell, Oklahoma, reported a 50 percent increase in transfers performed.
There were all sorts of questions on how the multiple foals rule would affect the industry.
In 2008, we were five years and four foal crops down the road, with another on the way. A high of 3,821 mares had embryo transfer enrollments filed with AQHA in 2007.
AQHA numbers have established new facts:
Embryo transfer produces a small number of the total AQHA foals registered. For example, in 2004 there were 2,692 registered foals produced via embryo transfer (from 2003 breedings). That is 1.6 percent of the total 160,442 foals registered with 2004 foaling dates. And not all of those were multiples – mare owners also use embryo transfer to produce one foal because a mare cannot (or the owners don’t want her to) carry her own.
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Although embryo transfer does not always result in a “standing and nursing” foal, more mare owners are producing multiples out of their mares. Before 2003, the number of mares enrolled with AQHA for embryo transfer was always higher than the number of resulting foals registered. Every year since and including 2003 (to date), there have been more resulting foals registered than there were mares enrolled in embryo transfer the previous breeding season. Case in point: 3,426 mares enrolled in embryo transfer in 2005 produced 3,821 registered foals in 2006.
However, most mares that do produce more than one foal in a year typically only have two. Of the total sets of multiple foals registered thus far, 79 percent were sets of two.
“The number of mares producing foals by embryo transfer is increasing, but not in large numbers,” says AQHA Director of Registration Operations Tammy Canida. “While some owners have produced more, the majority are choosing to produce just two foals in a year.”
According to AQHA registration records, as of February 2009, there have been 6,213 sets of multiple foals born, all foaling years combined (a mare is counted for each set of multiple foals she produced). Those 6,213 sets represent 14,251 registered foals, or an average of 2.29 foals per set.
The Markets Overall
How have those numbers translated into the open Quarter Horse market?
“Embryo transfer and multiple foals is ‘old hat’ to cutters,” says Jim Ware of Western Bloodstock, a leading cutting horse sale company in Weatherford, Texas.
Historically, the largest incidence of multiple foals sold at public auction has appeared in the cutting industry. Because unregistered horses can compete in the National Cutting Horse Association, cutting breeders have produced multiple foals out of Quarter Horse mares for years, using a DNA registry to establish parentage. Since the 2003 rule change, many breeders have retroactively registered their older DNA horses with AQHA.
Racing has quickly established itself as a close second to cutting in number of multiple foals. According to Jeff Tebow, general manager of Heritage Place, a leading racehorse auction house in Oklahoma City, for many breeders “(multiple foals) has just become part of the economic business model now.”
The western pleasure and show horse sales “really haven’t seen a lot of them,” according to Mike Jennings of Professional Auction Services Inc. of Berryville, Virginia, which is an auction company for top sales nationwide, including the AQHA World Championship Show Sale.
As a whole, sales companies have not tracked the averages and incidence of multiple foals as a distinct group, but they have seen trends.
“Overall, I can’t say it has hurt anything financially, so far,” says Robin Glenn of Robin Glenn Pedigrees Inc., equine marketer and sale catalog publisher out of El Reno, Oklahoma. “The sales have been tremendous, and overall sales averages are up.”
Jim agrees, specifically regarding the cutting market.
“Originally I was opposed to (the rule change),” he says. “But it has not created the negative impact in this business that I thought it would.
“The thought that breeders were just going to flood the market with colts, that we’d have too many of them and the value of them would greatly decrease – in our top end (cutting) horses, that just hasn’t happened.”
If you look down a list of mares producing multiple foals in any discipline, you’ll find that most of them are household names as performers and/or producers. Their typically higher-priced foals can better offset the added cost of multiple embryo transfers.
In the cutting industry, Jim has seen that trend benefit young stallions that are proven performers but unproven as sires. When a top mare could have only one registered foal a year, she went to a proven stallion; now mare owners are also sending her to stallion prospects.
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“The rule change has really helped to jump start the siring careers of some young show stallions,” Jim says.
He points to Western Bloodstock’s “New Sire Spotlight” session at the NCHA Futurity Sales, for selected yearlings by stallions with foals 3 and under.
“If you look at the quality of mares those young sires bred, you get a snapshot of what I’m talking about,” he says.
“I do think (the cost of embryo transfer) makes it harder for a smaller breeder or a middle-income person to be a player at the top end of the business,” Mike says. “We might see a larger part of the high-end market will be owned by a smaller number of people who can afford those great mares and can do embryo transfer.”
On the other hand, there are more top pedigreed individuals available for the middle player to purchase, especially in unproven mares from good families. When a top mare produced only one foal a year, breeders often kept it; now those breeders are more likely to sell siblings.
Mike also thinks there will be more middle-income people who will buy the best mare they can afford to show or race and take advantage of embryo transfer to also produce foals out of her.
“We’re a little young yet in this market to see exactly what it’s going to do,” Mike adds.
Comments
13 Comments on “Multiple Foal Rule”
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September 18th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Im all for the embryo transfer program.This is a tuff industry to make a profit and if one can keep racing a top mare and get an early foal out of her before she retires to the broodmare band it will sure help out.And to be able to have 2 foals from her and by 2 different top studs increases the odds on getting another top horse.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I did not read all of the embryo material that you sent but I would like to comment on the whole AQHA stand on breeding and what gets allowed to be registered. I do not only not agree with the embryo transfer thing, I disagree with the muliple registry out of one mare. I guess , simply that I agree with the jockey club way of doing things. If you had a well bred colt it would be worth far more and would be easier to market. As far as the cutting horse industry having had DNA colts for some time, that is their problem. I think if the AQHA would have stood their ground, and if they would have even followed the Jockey Club example, there would not be the numbers of horses bred to the latest flavour of the day and that only the best would be bred and registered. I didn’t ever think the day would ever come when I would consider not registering a horse but I have seriously thought of not registering some of the colts that I will or have raised. The reason that I say this is that I have been to sales where grade horses have outsold registered ones. The AQHA has done nothing to improve the horse business. Anyone can breed what they want to what they want if they have the money. A number of years ago, the AQHA made it so that the Quarter Horse shows did not serve the serious horseperson any more, so they went to event specific shows,(reining and cutting and barrels) and did not go to the AQHA shows anymore. There is hardly anymore shows compared to the days gone by. At the AQHA Shows, there are so many duplication of classes at a show due to open, amatuer , notice and so one. The classes are so watered down so that everyone can win a ribbon. No longer are the days when you went to a show and desired to breed to the Grand Champion Stallion and would see the same horses in several different classes. I think the AQHA has done a terrible job of running this wonderful breed of horse. I wish the 70s would come back and the great horses and times were once again.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:53 pm
This rule has not helped anyone but the few that can afford the
procedure and the risk. I watched a yearling go through Keeneland
TB sales on Saturday. He brought $8,000. His sires stud fee in
2007 was $125,000. You have to be very, very wealthy to take
that kind of a loss, and that is with LIVE COVER ONLY. 1 mare,
1 stud, 1 foal. Approximately 30,000 TB foals every year. With
160,000 foals registered in one year, its no wonder that many registered Quarter Horses are “give-aways” now on craigslist, Dreamhorse, and the local livestock auctions. Often tied to a pen,
abandoned. Perfect storm of overbreeding, recession, and out of
control commodity prices.
September 21st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I heard it said in recent times by several well known cutting and racing breeding farms that the Quarter horse breed, if there ever was has defaulted to a mere registery that caters to the financially affluent. By your own statistics the percentage of embryo transfers in a given foaling year is but a small percentage of the number of foals produced. Those figures can likely be directly traced back to the number of individual producers whose gross annual income is six figures or more. From my vantage point what historically has made a great show horse and then producer (Stallion/mare) was that they consistently produced better quality offspring than themselves, it was an privelege to be able to own/show that high quality of horse, and most importantly their respective bloodlines had a predetermined shelf life.
The sadiest part about this commentary is that you never really hear about all the 150 to 200 foals a year said stud/mare produce that don’t even make it to the futurities. AQHA needs to reevaluate its priorities and maybe take a five year hiadas on embryo transfers and cloning to let the real market decide whats best for the industy.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:00 am
I totally agree with the above responses. The quarter horse show world has evolved to where only the rich can win. When I go to the world show and see the way that the horses ridden by the top trainers are scored compared to everyone else it is very discouraging. You can add 5 to 10 points to a horses score if he makes the same run as you do but he is ridden by one of the top trainers. I think the multiple foal rule is a mistake and only passed because of pressure from people who are not in it for the horse only for the profit they make. The ones of us that raise good horses because we love them are very discouraged by the way the horse industry has gone.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I totally agree with all of you. I was once a small time shower, but got discourged real quick. If you weren’t rich and well known, it didn’t matter how good you or your horse was, it just would not place. If you didn’t have a 15,000 saddle, 2000 bridle, etc, you or your horse were not even noticed. Ever look back in the Legends books at what the top horses and people were wearing??? Plain nylon halters and white shirts. My daughter grew discourged even faster than me. And….now my grand daughters are the same way. At the 4-H horse show, my grand daughter felt out of place because she didn’t have a saddle full of silver. What is that teaching our youth coming up. If your rich and famous, you win, if not, forget it. I recently had to geld my 13 year old stallion because he wasn’t “in”. Let me tell you, he was old breed, with a huge heart girth, amazing rear end, nice thick bones on the legs, a nice little face and an attitude to kill for. But……no one wanted that, they wanted the “fancy” named studs. So be it, but those fancy studs are not built to do a honest days work. Mine was. Then taking these “fancy” studs and putting out as many colts as possible….insane. Look at all the breakdowns we have now adays with the “fancy” studs. Didn’t see that back in the 60-80’s. They worked all week, then raced on the weekends. Try that with one of those ole “fancy” studs now. Not gonna happen. Let nature run it’s course, not humans.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I was against multiply registry for the reasons we are seeing now. Throw away horses. People are encouraged to not buy from puppy mills, what’s the difference really. I did do a ET for the first time this last year. Only because the mare couldn’t carry. I only did the one and will never do another. I agree I am mad at AQHA for ever allowing it, I thought they were more respectful of the breed than that. I was shocked when they caved. Since then I have seen AQHA go down hill as well. If the American Quarter Horse Assoc. doesn’t take care the Quarter Horse who will?
September 28th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
We as mambers should have some say in the direction that AQHA should go. I believe that the majority of us do not support embryo transfer or cloning it has zero benifit for the horses industry or the breed its self. I am in the cutting horse industry and am seeing a that all the top breeders or aka(rich people) are breeding in a big circle for there own profit and now that the market has gone bad they all want out, look at all the disperal sales, not me. As far as getting a fair shake in the show ring I have a few ideas, 1) the judges should not know the horse name or owner, they should judge the horses performance not who owns it or who his sire is 2) the level you complete at should be based on the amount of earnings you have not what you do for a living, There are may so called non pros that have hundreds of thousands in earnings, if you ride this good I question if you are a non pro ?
I would love to see a level playing feild, there are many, many great horses that never got a fair chance!!!!
September 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I believe it is our responsibility as breeders to know there is a realistic market for the foals we create, whether that be one or more. If there is a demand for more than one foal from a particular mare, than I think it is reasonable to put more than one on the market. Embryo transfers helps put more value in our mares. I also think people forget what embryo transfers have done by giving a purpose to many recipient mares that could otherwise become unwanted.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
What has happened to all the recip mares now in a down market?
That would be a story worth telling.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
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July 21st, 2010 at 10:29 am
Having done one embryo transfer for a “last colt,” I would not do it again. Let the DNA registry have the additional foals and let AQHA register the best performer at age 5. Let the “DNA registry have all the white rule horses as well. If you have ever seen a bald face sunburn and stay infected because of grazing you will realize why everyone bred the white off horses and set traits for sorrel and bay.
January 8th, 2012 at 11:52 am
This is cheating & devalueing in my opinion. You’re just providing more horses for the slaughter houses. And, (in the case of human beings) don’t you know it doesn’t matter if children are of the exact same bloodlines….sometimes one child is very talented & the other ones not! Why would horses not be the same? YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT HORSES!!!