This message is from: Linda Bain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On Jul 30, 2007, at 11:45 PM, Nancy Missault wrote:
I do not really wish to upset anybody but how come prices in the US are that much more than Europe.
I was thinking the opposite!!! With the exchange rate the way it is at the moment, US prices are cheaper than both UK and Swedish prices! If the transport was cheaper, it would be a good time to start re-importing some of those old bloodlines! The prices I have seen in the US I would consider very reasonable.
I got a really nice friendly mare with foal for 1500 euro; no pedigree but Fjords with papers are about the same price.
In the UK you can expect to pay (for fully papered, evaluated, quality fjords) a lot more, and having lived in Sweden for the last year, the prices here are similar. There is however, a very important distinction to be made between papered and non-papered fjords, you cannot compare the two, as without papers, it could be a Heinz 57. I have bought fjords from both Norway and Sweden and 1500 euros wouldn't have bought 1 leg of either of them!! Even foals sell for more than 1500 euros.
Before I left the UK there were a lot of fjords being imported without papers, which we call "meat-market fjords". In some of continental Europe horses are bred for meat and considered agricultural animals, which they are not in the UK. These fjords were coming into the UK and being passed off as fjords. In truth they could have been anything as there was no way of tracing their breeding.
It is important for breeders to register their youngsters in order to preserve the breed and prevent devaluation. The Highland pony, which could be described as similar, is now on the endangered breeds list because there are so few papered, pure examples of the breed left. It is not that there aren't pure breds out there, but if they are not registered as such and given the recognition they deserve, they effectively don't exist. I hope that this is not a route that the fjord will follow because people won't/can't register them (even if it is in an upgrade register).
Sorry for getting on my soap box! Linda Bain Sweden The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
