The Emotional Cost Of Owning A Stud Farm Running and owning a Stud Farm is the dream job. Stunning mares and foals. Lush green paddocks. Successful sales. A single photograph taken during the summer months can make it appear almost romantic. But this dream job means living on the edge. You live constantly aware that at any moment something could go wrong. You can find yourself standing in a stable at 2am dealing with a difficult foaling. You have owned the mare most of her life, you know her inside out and you’re often faced with a decision that you don’t want to make. There is no round of applause for getting through a complicated foaling or for spotting a problem early enough to save the mare. And there is no photograph of the foal that didn’t make it. You just carry on. Because another mare is waxed and walking her box. A foal needs to be checked. An owner needs an update and another decision needs to be made. It’s constant. It doesn’t stop. Attachment is real Some people talk about horses like they are simply commodities. They speak about them in commercial terms. Broodmares, foals, yearlings. Stock. Anyone who has run a Stud Farm knows that they are so much more than that. There’s the mare who comes when you call her name. The mare who foals down during the day every year, usually just as you’re about to eat your sandwich. The foal you bottle fed for the first few hours because he wasn’t the ‘brightest’. There’s the mare that is borderline when it comes to being commercially viable but you just can’t bring yourself to give up on her. The foster mare who is treated the same as the thoroughbreds, spoiled. Simply because she is a queen. Because on a Stud Farm, business and emotion go hand in hand. Financial pressure You are solely responsible for keeping the business afloat. Every mare has a cost. Every foal represents a risk. It doesn’t matter how the sales went. Even when the results are a disaster the feed bill still needs paying, the vet bills still keep coming and the lads in the yard still have to be paid. Everyone has to be paid. Unsung Heroes As a bloodstock industry we are very good at celebrating the good days. The sales toppers, the winners on the track and the first foals. We absolutely should celebrate these things, but perhaps we should also acknowledge the people behind the scenes who carry the Stud Farms. The breeder who loses a foal, but is still out in the yard an hour later foaling down another mare. The manager who has to make a hard decision on welfare grounds and then carry on with the day's work. These people have a special kind of resilience. They care a great deal about the horses they work with, so much so that they learn to carry the losses and live a life that no one in the ‘normal’ world could possibly understand.
