In this 4-part series, GoHorseShow discusses some of the horse industry’s top careers. At times, jobs in the horse industry are complex and unpredictable. Yet, horse lovers come in droves to participate in this lifestyle.
As the joke goes, “How do you become a millionaire in the horse business? Start with two million.” It is not for the faint of heart. Most equestrians don’t do it for the money, but for the love of the horse.
In the first article in our four-part series, we talked to two of the top breeding managers in the business – Debbi Trubee of North Farm, who stands The Best Martini and Makin Me Willy Wild, and Amy Gumz of Gumz Farms, who stands No Doubt Im Lazy, Enticed, Florida Georgia Line, and Its A Southern Thing.
We asked them how they got involved with breeding, what some of the challenges are, and what advice they may have for someone who wants to make this their career choice.
Debbi Trubee of North Farm
“I always had a few broodmares, even when I was strictly a horse trainer,” Trubee told us. “Pedigree, conformation, and good crosses were all interesting to me. When the opportunity arose to manage Lazy Loper and Invitation Only, I thought it would be an interesting extension to my horse business life.”
Trubee thoroughly enjoys working with mare owners in hopes of achieving their dreams of raising the next great baby. Their successes, and sometimes failures, have impacted her over the years.
“I have so many customers that have bred mares with us for 20+ years. As our stallion roster has changed over the years, they have continued to support our program,” Debbi says. “Keeping customers organized on completing paperwork and up-to-date is the biggest challenge. Each mare owner thinks they are the only one ordering, and I know they don’t realize how hectic collection days are, trying to make sure no one gets missed or shipments get sent to the wrong address is very challenging.”
For someone wanting to pursue stallion management, Trubee says they need to be very detail-oriented and, most importantly, very responsive to customers’ inquiries. “Having a solid working knowledge of bloodlines is also a must. It’s not just office work, it’s helping the clients make good decisions for their programs.”
Amy Gumz of Gumz Farms
Many years ago, when Gumz was in a position to start having show and breeding stock, she says she had to find a niche that suited her most.
“The breeding business became an obvious choice for me. It was an area I could excel in and specialize in,” Amy says. “At the time, we had a young stallion that was very difficult to collect, and most facilities were not prepared to handle him. So, I quickly became friends with those who were/are specialists in that area and knew way more than I did. I truly enjoyed the challenge of what were deemed difficult stallions.”
Gumz built a facility for the stallion, and after a year or two, they were quickly filled with stock horse stallions, of which about half were considered to be difficult. “I continued my education from the stallion side of things, and that became what I enjoyed the most.”
In the early years, when shipped semen was new, they had no choice but to house their clients’ mares at their facility. Many customers did not want to participate in shipped semen.
“With any volume of horses, there are always challenges and opportunities to expand your knowledge base. One of my greatest challenges was my location. I was not in what you would call a hot horse area, so finding some of the resources and skill sets required for this business was difficult.”
As alternative breeding methods became a hot topic, she also became interested. This opened the door for them to become a select breeders’ affiliate lab and be very involved in semen freezing, specializing in exporting to other countries.
“I guess the rest is history, and it’s fun to look back as we are slowing down toward retirement. Industry changes and challenges have been many in the past 30 years, that’s for sure.”
Amy says anyone interested in pursuing this area should intern or spend as much time as possible in different facilities and with various managers. Gumz adds, “We desperately need new blood in the breeding industry.”
Gumz says that it’s a massive investment of cash and time, so you want to make sure that it’s something you genuinely love to do, and then you need to educate yourself.
“As technology continues to improve, it will require more of a specialist, educated in stallion reproduction and an expert on the mare side of the business.”
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Stay tuned for Part 2 of our 4-part series about why some long-time equestrians decided to pursue training horses.
