Horse breeder (Paardenfokker)

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A horse breeder specializes in breeding horses and ponies, which are kept for humans. Keeping horses for humans may relate to equestrian sports or relate to meat, milk or leather consumption of horses. Various sports within the equestrian sport include trotting, running, jumping and dressage. The horses that are bred by a horse breeder are in many cases so-called purebred horses. Another name for a horse farm can also be stud farm or manage. Within a horse farm, horses and ponies can be bred for various reasons. A horse breeder has a lot to do with stallions, which are usually housed in a stallion station. These stallions are kept to fertilize the mares in a natural way. Another possibility is fertilizing mares by means of artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is preferable in more and more cases, because then the horse breeder does not have to travel with the stallions. Also, by means of artificial insemination, there is more choice with regard to breeding. Most horse breeders must be regarded as entrepreneurs who work within their own horse breeding farm. The breeding of horses involves very specialized work, because in most cases the horses must be suitable for dressage or jumping. Good horses can represent a great value. Breeding top horses will be a big challenge every time as a horse breeder. The training of horses is also generally part of the work of a horse breeder. Becoming a horse breeder is not easy, because a horse breeder must have a lot of knowledge. In addition, starting a horse breeding farm is expensive.

A horse breeder is therefore usually an entrepreneur, who specializes in breeding purebred horses. As a horse breeder, you also take care of the training of the horses and maintain the stables of the horses. A horse farm cannot be regarded as a riding school, in which riders practice their hobby. A horse breeder usually has to deal with various professional animal caretakers and animal trainers, who train and ride the different horses. As described earlier, the breeding of horses involves specialist work because the results count. In addition, not all stallions are as suitable as stallions because character, health, bloodlines and performance play an important role in the selection. It is not the case that a horse breeder is solely responsible for covering horses. A good horse breeder is also busy with the care of the foals and horses and training the horses on a daily basis. In addition, most horse breeders have a large network with other horse traders to whom the horses and / or sperm can be sold. A horse breeder is always trying to obtain the best offspring because these horses yield the most. Nowadays, in more and more cases, there is artificial insemination.

START YOUR OWN HORSE BREEDING

Starting your own horse breeding is a big dream for quite a few horse lovers. In practice, starting your own horse breeding is very difficult to call. The biggest problem is that a horse breeder never knows exactly what the income will be. They are only the best horses, who can possibly bring in a lot of money. In addition, starting your own horse breeding is expensive. Most investors and lenders do not want to invest in a horse breeding farm because the chance of success is not well estimated. Perhaps it can take several years before there are top horses, which can be sold well. Most horse farms or stud farms are family farms, which pass from generation to generation. Of course, anyone can try to breed with horses, without immediately having to go to professional breeding.

WHAT DOES A HORSE BREEDER DO:

TRAINING TO BECOME A HORSE BREEDER

If you aspire to a career as a horse breeder, it is best to follow the MBO horse husbandry course of about four years at level four. There are various training options that can be followed, such as first the MBO training to become a zookeeper employee, after which a further training can be followed. After the MBO programme, there are also HBO programmes that can be followed in different directions. Some important parts that will be taught during the training are care, trade, movement, economy, law, driving, hoof trimming and recognizing disease. But also subjects such as Dutch and English are certainly covered during the training. During the training, you will certainly do an internship under the guidance of a teacher. In addition, there are also plenty of external training institutes where you can follow a course. Accounting is also important as an independent entrepreneur.

COMPANIES WHERE A HORSE BREEDER CAN BE EMPLOYED

In most cases, a horse breeder must be regarded as an entrepreneur who works within his own horse breeding farm. In addition, there are quite a lot of people, who should be classified as hobbyhorse breeders. Relatively speaking, there are not very professional horse breeders active. Horse farms can also breed horses, which are used for milk, leather or meat. It is not the case that all horse breeders focus on equestrian sports.

COMPETENCES HORSE BREEDER

The most important competence of a horse breeder is your professional knowledge. In addition, the care of horses and foals plays an important role. A strong commercial attitude can also be expected from a horse breeder. Consider, for example, being able to negotiate as a trader to achieve the best yield. In that respect, a horse breeder will also need to have good communication skills. Another important competence is being able to network. Networking is important to be able to get in touch with the right people. Generally important words are passion, motivation, risk, stress resistance, cooperation, vision, plans and courage.

LABOUR MARKET PERSPECTIVE AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AS A HORSE BREEDER

Within this profession, we cannot really speak of a labour market perspective because most horse breeders are self-employed or hobby-oriented. The career opportunities as a horse breeder are limited. A hobbyhorse breeder may grow into a professional horse breeder. There are not many horse breeders who can make ends meet from horse breeding, and most horse breeders also have other work.

TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT AND SALARY HORSE BREEDER

Because we assume that you will work as an independent entrepreneur, no further employment conditions apply because you as an entrepreneur will determine them yourself. It is also not possible to give a salary indication because the salary will be highly dependent on the assignments and sales received. As described earlier, there are not many horse breeders who can get by from breeding horses alone. Most horse breeders also have other activities that can of course also fall within the equestrian sport, such as giving horse riding lessons.

The content on this page has been automatically translated from the Dutch language. For this reason, texts and videos on this page may contain small errors.

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