Unfortunately, ads like this one are not all that uncommon. This particular ad came from the Evansville, IN Craigslist. The "don't have room to keep them all" followed by "this mare is bred, this mare is bred, this mare is bred" defines all common sense.
If you don't have room to keep them, why are you breeding the ones you have? What did you think would happen when you breed stallion to mare? Instead of 2 horses, you then have 3. When you breed multiple mares, multiple foals result.
If you don't have the room for the mares you have, plus the babies they'll be birthing in the spring, why do you want to trade them for another mare? Please tell me it's not to breed them, too.
I don't understand how or why anyone thinks that a bred mare is going to be more valuable than a nicely trained trail mare in this economy, with the value of an average horse with average bloodlines and not trained in a particular discipline being next to nothing compared to five years ago. If anything, it decreases a mare's value because most people want to buy a horse to ride right now, not fool with the birthing process, weaning a foal, deciding whether to keep or sell one or the other. People may not have the facilities for a bred mare, or to separate and wean colt from mare, or to pay board on two horses instead of one - so you immediately exclude a large group of horse shoppers from taking a second glance at your mare, regardless of how nice she may be. And especially not when someone who does want to raise a foal can find a weanling for under $1000, and many worthwhile projects under $500, without having to worry about late-term bred-mare care, foaling, and weaning.
I'm not picking on this particular poster, either...I see it all the time. I would bet there is a similar post on at least 50% of the Craigslists nationwide.
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