It's funny, but I never thought of it before. I was calmly reading over an article on the legal wrangles of stallion owners and the complications involved in sending a mare to stud. Then it hit me: if model horses are so much like real horses, and model horses even have their own breeding industry, then maybe some guidelines for standing a model stallion wouldn't go amiss. And as I myself run a small model breeding operation, maybe my experiences will stop someone from making the same mistakes.
Hint #1: Choose a barn name wisely, then prefix all your horses' names with it. I've heard some pretty bad names and some pretty bizarre names. The weirdest....hmmm. Not wishing to name the names behind the names (if that makes sense!), I guess it's a tie between Alligator Creek-this is supposed to be a horse farm?!-and Red Blood Farm. Call me an old cynic, but I do believe that I'd think twice before sending a mare to that place.
Now, about the prefix-it looks good on the pedigree that your farm was responsible for not only a prize-winning foal, but the parents and grandparents of the prize-winning foal! You can prefix in one of two ways. Either you can use the whole name of your farm or just initials. Personally, I prefer using just initials, as using the whole barn name can be a bit touchy, depending on what the name happens to be. Using the whole name can result in names such as Hurricane Rox Dene or Goldenview Secretariat. The problem being that you can also wind up with names like Nightshade Misty or Hopeful Blackjack. Initials also have their pros and cons, giving us usable names like AP Leo or RIS Native Diver. Then there's the laughable names, like RU Henry and JL Leo. One would hope that it would never happen, but it has and it will. To avoid giving the judges a good laugh at your expense, try imagining the name being said over a loudspeaker at a show. Not that this always helps. For instance, I've been at more "real" Arabian shows than I can count where the judge can't figure out if the first few letters written on the horse's entry form are initials or some exotic Arabian word. "Coming into the ring now, Faf Rashib....um..F.A.F. Rashib...sorry, F-A-F-R-A-S-H-I-B...." And if it can happen at a "real" horse show...well, we do pride ourselves on being identical to them, now don't we?...
If you haven't got a barn name, you're in trouble already! I got my name, Acadie Farms, from the title of an album, Acadie,by Daniel Lanois. A great source of inspiration are movies and albums. I've heard names such as Madison County Stables, Top Gun Farms, Field of Dreams Farms and who could forget Mo' Money Racing Stables? However, don't use anything too long or unsuitable. By "unsuitable", I'm referring to the fact that there might be a Forrest Gump Farms (Life is like a unmucked-out box stall...)or a Clueless Stables(truth in advertising can go a little far..) somewhere in our midst. On the flip side, a slightly offbeat name may do wonders for publicity. I've heard of Dirty Dancing Dressage Stables (no, I'm not kidding), Hideaway Farms, Day For Night Stables, and my personal favourite, They Might Be Giants Breeding Farms. And whoever it is that owns A Few Good Men Stud...please send me your stallion list! The most annoying, pretentious thing that a LOT of people do is call their farms something incredibly glitzy to the point where if the horse doesn't do well in the ring, you've just given the spectators something to snicker about. This is akin to dressage riders doing Kurs to "We Are The Champions". Think about that. If the horse doesn't sweep the judges off their feet (and with that music, they've got problems to begin with), the other competitors can murmur as they walk by, "Oh, you're the champions, are you?" Don't give them something to aim at. Don't call your farm Championship Stables, Victory Farms, Gold Medal Stud or Unbeatable Farms. A bit of pride and confidence, sure. But calling your farm Victory when you don't make the top ten....On the other hand, if you do win with that name, the other competitors will get an irritated feeling that maybe you and the judge know something they don't-but should. This is not good. Sure, it may be poor sportsmanship to think that way, but we're only human. You can call your farm something regional, such as Maple Leaf Farms, Blue Mountain Stables or Smoky Ridge Stud. Or even something you just plain like the sound of, like Time Piece Stud. But above all, have one. Even design a logo if you want, though that's not really necessary.
Hint #2: Know what stallions and mares you are offering for stud/dam. Write out a list with the stallions.mares,their breed, their show record (if they've got one), their parentage, their fees, and their quirks. Oh, come on. If they're supposed to be real, they have to have certain elements in their personality that makes them who they are. For instance, my stallion AF Sutherland, or "Donny", is a notorious escape artist and a bit lazy under saddle. This hasn't hurt his career as a sire-I think that allowing your horse to have a personality help people get to know the horse, and choose the sire that they want accordingly. And don't be afraid to have a wild trait or two! Another one of my boys is AF The Outlaw Josey Wales, famous for being stubborn and determined, who was sired by a popular stallion named Hang Em High, who some of you might be familiar with. One of his most famous characteristics was being loyal to only one rider, bucking off anyone else foolish enough to mount him. I thought that loyalty, however extreme, was a great trait. Traits that you probably don't want to mention include cribbing, weaving, biting, kicking, rearing, striking and uncontrollable bucking. A bit of spirit is good-a lot of bad behaviour is not.
Hint #3: Get yourself a big three-ring binder and organize your notes on your horses. Buy some of those coloured divider tabs and keep each horse's records in a different file. I would recommend you keep a computer disk or two around for your online correspondance, but I personally don't keep all my records on disk-I like to have them on hard copy in front of me. But do it as you like it. Under each horse's name, keep track of certain vital data:
Hint #4: Write out your sire/dam list. Keep it fairly short-inform the interested farm that you can send more info on specific horses if they like. However, I know that there's some of you out there who have 300+ s/d lists. Yipes! If you fully intend to keep each and every one of those horses at stud, I suggest breaking the list down into sires and dams (on separate lists), then divide it up by breeds. That way, if you get a request for Arabian stallions, you'll have a shortened list to send them. Don't send the whole kit and caboodle hoping that they "just might" pick another horse. You're right-but they just might pick another farm, too. So save some postage and don't.
Important point-a lot of us ask for fees. I do, as I send out "literature booklets" on the breeder's chosen stallion. And my fees are fairly high, considering everything. What annoys me is when someone doesn't pay the fee, but uses the stallion in the foal's pedigree. Hey, wake up. We may not be in this for profit, but that doesn't mean we enjoy paying $10 worth of postage a month so that we can see our horse's name in your pedigree. We'd really like to break even on this. What you are really paying for is the right to use the stud's name in your foal's pedigree. Besides, fees are our way of sorting out the good from the bad and the ugly. Mostly, we're willing to bargain, such as introductory fees for young studs/dams. But we aren't willing to be taken advantage of! Don't just leaf through a newsletter and pick out names. Sometimes, if the dam's really something or the foal's a real champion, fees won't even be charged. But we'd like to decide that, please and thank you. My favourite story is of a breeder-no names given-who breeds Arabians, but refuses to linebreed. Which is why she was utterly furious to discover a foal showing at live shows who was supposedly out of a full sister to the sire. The breeder had never even heard of this girl, who had gone through a magazine and picked out names that she thought were nice. Adding insult to injury was the 50 cent stud fee-a virtual fortune to those of us in the industry! No, I don't know what happened-if anyone does, please inform me-I'd love to know!
Hint #5: Have a contract set out for the breeding. By this, I mean have it on paper how much it's costing, what mare is being bred to what stallion, and any other regulation you may have. I typically have a rule in my contracts saying that I would like to have first option on buying the foal, should it ever be for sale. I've never yet had anyone object to this rule, but if anyone does, I'll take it out of their contract. However, it means that the foal owner has someone already interested in the foal, just in case they need to make a sale. Because of this rule, I've acquired horses like AF Marquise Gabrielle (by AF Zympathi Forthe Devyll) and AF Sabine (by AF Sutherland). I've heard of more stringent rules though, such as photo inspection of the mare or stallion, review of pedigree and show record, and once, someone requested me to send my stallion in a box to them so they could personally inspect him! Yes, I passed on that one. It's great to take precautions and to know that the foal is a good one-but sometimes, people can take it a touch far. The most hilarious thing I ever had to do was fill out a quiz on the mare. It featured questions such as "how many foals has she had?" to "does she breed easily to dark stallions and what colour were the foals?".
Anyhow, please keep these hints in mind if you're planning to stand a stud-or even if you already are standing one! This hobby is a lot of fun for all of us, and hopefully, these hints will help out both beginners and seasoned veterans. Hope to see your horses soon in the breeding shed!
Catherine (Mathewson) Scholz is starting to reenter the model horse world after a long time away... Please feel free to update her on your adventures at tezahr23@angelfire.com.