Now, I know that my opinion is worthless to most of you, but I AM a consumer in the horse industry.

Here's how I lay this out:

A GOOD family-horse breeder in my mind:
-Uses excellent quality breeding stock that might not be extremely popular or particularly well-marketed (unshown sons, siblings to performers, I dunno)
-Spends considerable time and effort training and riding their stock, making sure that they are, in fact, good general purpose horses
-Is very proud of the products of their program, whether through pictures or stories...their horses are actually being USED by their owners
-Sells more trained stock than "prospects"
-Offers a resource for training/lessons

A product of that program would contribute positively to the breed. It uses quality animals, but doesn't expend the effort/money required in competitive-focused programs. Lower overhead, lower costs to consumers who probably aren't willing to pay ultra-high price for a pet.

A craptacular "family" horse breeder
-Has poorly conformed or lame breeding stock, from unknown lines. Animals might be purebred, but pedigrees have no focus...mishmash with no goal.
-Advertises offspring as prospects for everything, but focuses on the "family" part.
-Has little to no follow up on the products of their program, and is very vague about accomplishments. (oh yeah, we think they've got him undersaddle finally...)
-Sells animals that are totally incapable of doing anything BUT being pets...through conformation, athleticism or attitude.

This program also produces a cheaper product than the dreaded competition barn...but their prices aren't that much lower than the "good" breeder. The craptacular one advertises at, what, like $1000? The good one is probably only asking $2000....which is less than a year's worth of vet bills difference. And #2 is MOST LIKELY going to cost more in the long run...not as trainable, prone to injury, whatever.

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