Michael Koetters is typical of most animal breeders. She works long hours,
makes little money, faces constant uncertainty -- and loves every minute of
it.
Koetters breeds Himalayan cats from her Iowa home. She also has a full-time
job. That doesn't leave much time for relaxation.
"It's a year-round job and it's something that keeps you at home,"
Koetters says. "I don't get a chance to take off for vacations and stuff
if I've got a litter of kittens."
For agricultural breeders, breeding is a scientific process of increasing
genetic excellence. However, for breeders of cats, dogs, horses and other
show animals, breeding is more than just science.
"It's an art," Koetters says. "It's kind of an experiment each
time."
One person who has excelled in this art is Marianne Alexander. She's
a champion breeder of Irish sport horses. She's also one of the few non-agricultural
breeders who makes a living at it. Her farm is world-renowned for producing
top-quality horses.
Alexander has been breeding horses for over 30 years. The pinnacle of the
former music teacher's career was in 1991. Three of her horses won a
team gold medal at the World Driving Championship in Austria. Before returning
to the U.S., the driving team was invited to perform for Queen Elizabeth at
Windsor Castle.
Today, Alexander's focus is on managing Personal Ponies. That's
a charity that breeds miniature Shetlands and gives them to special needs
children. By her own acknowledgement, her success in the extremely competitive
and financially risky world of horse breeding has been against all odds.
"First of all, you have to be very strong and determined," Alexander says.
"And then, aside from the physical, it's very difficult for a beginner
to break into the horse breeding market."
One difficulty is the amount of labor involved in maintaining horses. Also,
they're extremely expensive to maintain and transport to shows. "It's
expensive," she says. "You'd better have three jobs, unless you've
got a good bank account or a very wealthy grandmother."
If a horse gets sick, you can be set back several thousand dollars. Also,
there's no guarantee the foals your mares produce will be healthy.
Alexander attributes her success to hard work, intelligence and perseverance.
It also didn't hurt that no one else in North America was breeding Irish
sport horses when she started.
"I was one of those lucky ones who knew what I was doing and it worked
at a time in history when no one had any [Irish sport horses]," Alexander
says.
"Also, I was very fortunate to understand genetics. I lived 10 minutes
from Cornell University; I met some of the greatest geneticists in the world."
Alexander's attraction to the field comes down to one thing: her love
of horses. She says a person has to be crazy to endure the hard work that
breeding horses demands.
"It's insanity, but it's a disease that's totally incurable,"
Alexander says. "And if you're born with it, there's no satisfying
you until you have horses in your life."
Cheryll Frank is also immersed in the world of horses. She's executive
director of the Sport Horse Owners and Breeders Association in Florida. Frank
is particularly, well, frank about the appeal -- and dangers -- of horse breeding.
"Breeding is about the most arrogant thing a person can endeavor to do,
because you're playing God, and you're saying, 'I can produce
a better horse than anybody else,'" Frank says.
"Unless you do, you may be stuck with it. It's a lot of fun to do,
and you can make some money at it, but you just have to go into it with the
knowledge that it takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, and it's
not easy."
It can be just as hard for a person to make a living in agricultural breeding.
With some species, such as cattle and poultry, there are only a handful of
genetics companies in the breeding business. The key to getting a job in poultry
breeding, for example, is "probably contacts," says Tom Scott. He works with
an animal science association.
"Because it's so much company-owned, they really groom individuals
for positions like that," Scott says. It's hard to get in if you don't
know anyone with a company.
Scott recommends those interested in agricultural breeding start by working
in academics. Genetic research may lead to jobs in the industry. However,
there is a growing divide between the academic world and genetics companies,
especially in poultry.
"The field of genetics in poultry now, as far as academics goes, has almost
disappeared, because there's really no impact of the academic on what
the industry is doing, because there's no free exchange of ideas," Scott
says.
Eldin Leighton is one of a handful of people with a full-time job breeding
dogs. He's director of canine genetics for a company that produces
guide dogs for the blind.
"A lot of people have interest in [my job] and I'm asked all the time,
'What do I need to do to get a job like yours?'" Leighton says.
"That's kind of a tough question to answer, because there are not very
many jobs."
Leighton, a geneticist, got his present job after teaching for 10 years.
He used to do some consulting for his current employer. As a child, he knew
he wanted to be an animal breeder.
"I grew up on a beef cattle ranch, and all my childhood, heading into college,
I wanted to be in control of a herd of beef cattle," Leighton says. "As time
passed, it was clear that that simply wasn't in the cards."
Leighton says the high cost of entering the beef cattle field kept him
out. Now, he produces smart, even-tempered and friendly guide dogs. He says
animal breeding is a field that continues to fascinate him because of the
ongoing discoveries in genetics.
For Alexander, it's the mysterious, creative aspect of animal breeding
that maintains her passion after 30 years of breeding horses.
"It's as much an art as Michelangelo standing there with a paintbrush,"
Alexander says. "My daughter wrote a poem for me once that's probably
the greatest gift I've ever been given. She said, 'My mother paints
in real, live pictures.'
"It is an art form -- to create living sculptures," she says.