Sharp - 2016-03-22 6:16 AM Kylar is correct. The exportation of horse to Brazil has slowed down or almost stopped for three reasons. The main reason being that the dollar has gotten stronger and made the horses even more expensive. For example, a few years ago a $100,000 horse would have cost a brazilian $160,000 in brazilian dollars, today that same $100,000 horse would cost a brazilian $400,000 brazilian dollars. The second reason is that now with embryo transfer - usually 3-4 foals per year by top bred mares - and having the best stallions in the world, we can buy here better prospects than what we can find in the states and usually cheaper for the brazilian dollar. Third - and in my opinion, the most important - all the top studs have sent semen down here. FG, ASOF, DTF, Stoli, all of them. So we can breed here, and breed better mares (pedigree and/or records) than what we can find in the states and do it A LOT cheaper. The breeding programs here are unbelievable. There are several ranches with over 200 foals born per year. I dont know of anyone in the States that does it on that large of a scale and here there are several. As for the horses dying, a lot of the famous horses that died were bought at old ages to start with. Trust me when I tell you that nobody wants their investmant to die here and no they do not insure them. So it is not for insurance money. Sometimes its just accidents. I can tell you that many of the horses live AMAZING lives here. There is no snow, the grass is green all year round, and these farms give excellent care to these imported horses. Think of how many horses have died in the States? These things happen.

SKM - 2016-03-22 3:02 PM

Plain Eye Opening was dead within 6 months of going to Brazil. He wasn't an old horse. He was probably about 9. They said it was colic. Whatever it was, it was a sad deal.

Sharp - 2016-03-22 10:14 AM


But horses die everyday in USA from colic at every age. They dont just die from colic because they were imported from USA. I have imported 28 and none have died so far....

SKM - 2016-03-22 10:13 PM


You are right. Horses die all the time. I won't say that the Brazilians don't take care of their horses. I actually think they take very good care of them.

But you can't argue how many go to Brazil and are dead in a matter of months. Maybe it's the change in climate. Or the complete change in forage/feed. Or the difference in the drugs. But the total change for whatever reason seems to be tough on some when it comes to acclimating horses. You can try to argue all you want, but even taking horses from the lower elevation of TX or OK to 9,000 feet in CO is very hard on them. I can't imagine an entire continent change and hemisphere change NOT being hard on them.

Sharp - 2016-03-22 3:15 PM

Here they feed regular feed like what you guys have there, plus pasture, hay and alfalfa. But they have workers that brush the horses and bath the horses everyday for several months to take these pictures. Plus they use professional photographers.