Some figures on the production and valuation of horses in France

The multitude of possible uses of horses requires having a wide variety of horses to which will correspond different breeding and development methods. Statistically speaking, where is France in terms of production, development and trade of horses? We talk about it in this article.

Atomized breeding

In 2010, 63 different breeds, including 23 blood horse breeds, 10 draft horse breeds, 11 pony breeds and 7 donkey breeds are recognized and managed in France . Only 26 of them are of French origin. In addition to these different breeds, there are non-studbook productions (origin recorded or unrecorded) present in 20% of farms.

In the case of draft horses, production in purebred cradles is distinguished from production in "production basins", mainly in the southwest, where the animals exploit mountain areas, often in semi-freedom. This production is more oriented towards meat and represents more than 40% of draft-type broodmares.

All breeds combined, equine breeding is based on approximately 42,700 breeders spread across 35,000 breeding structures, two-thirds of which produce saddle and draft horses.

However, 80% of farms only have one or two mares and 85% of breeders are not specialized in this activity . Thus, 40% of non-specialized breeders have another activity, generally neither agricultural nor related to equines. Production of foreign breeds only represents 9% of the workforce, but is constantly increasing, which shows a craze for these breeds, some of which are more specifically oriented towards leisure.

In 2012, equine breeding is based on the use of both private stallions, available in breeding farms or managed by specialist stallion keepers, or public stallions whose service is still provided through France-Haras while awaiting a gradual transfer to private stallion keepers.

Counting the number of stallion owners remains difficult, but the number of stallion collection or mating structures was estimated in 2011 at 376 for French saddle horses and 145 for French trotters.

While Thoroughbreds can only reproduce through natural mating, French trotters can resort to artificial insemination of non-transported semen, while artificial insemination from transported or even frozen semen is possible for other equines.

In 2009, 60% of saddle horse matings were carried out by artificial insemination . Embryo transfer is still not very developed in equines and, in 2009, only represented 2% of pregnancies. It is mainly used in sport mares still in competition. Cloning is currently an exceptional practice.

Preparation and training of horses

Before being used, the horse must be prepared, educated for the functions for which it is intended. This step allows, on the one hand, to evaluate the animal's performance, and on the other hand to offer for sale a horse "ready for use".

Young sport horses aged four to six have a specific circuit set up by the French Equestrian Society (SHF) which in 2010 included nearly 7,900 events divided into six disciplines: show jumping, eventing, dressage, driving, endurance and hunter, nearly 130,000 starters, 85% of whom were in show jumping, and around 16,000 horses and ponies.

Beyond the performance alone, a score for models and gaits, awarded during the finals of the main disciplines, is integrated into the selection. In show jumping, eventing and dressage, these events are organized in two parallel circuits: the classic cycle, intended for professional riders and the free cycle, adapted to amateurs.

In the racing segment, trotters can only take part in races after having successfully completed a qualifying test over 2,000 m, the maximum time required for which depends on the age of the animal and the discipline (riding or harnessing).

These qualifications mainly take place at two years of age and on average 40% of each generation qualifies. Unqualified trotters join the market of beef or saddle horses where they compete with the specific production of sports and leisure horses.

This qualification system does not exist in gallop racing, which nevertheless does not exclude the reform of horses that do not perform well on the sports and leisure market.

Upstream of these specific trainings, breaking-in companies are developing, but since this activity is rarely the only activity of the company, its scale is difficult to quantify. The majority of French breaking-in companies obtain their riding accessories from La Sellerie Française , a company selling riding equipment.