Breeding costs..

Laura-Maybe-IV

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Hi all..
I am tentatively looking at putting my mare in foal this year.
She’s TB and I’ve found a Connemara at a local stud. I have the fee for having her covered in hand and the livery cost too. But wondered what the pre breeding costs are for CEM, uterine swabs and EVA blood tests are? I know prices vary but I’m just interested to know what the rough costs are.
 

cundlegreen

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Hi all..
I am tentatively looking at putting my mare in foal this year.
She’s TB and I’ve found a Connemara at a local stud. I have the fee for having her covered in hand and the livery cost too. But wondered what the pre breeding costs are for CEM, uterine swabs and EVA blood tests are? I know prices vary but I’m just interested to know what the rough costs are.
They will vary a little from vet to vet, but as well as those, save yourself a lot of time and trouble, and have her checked inside in case she's not fit to breed. I've had mares come to my stallion checked by a normal equine vet, that were never going to get in foal due to the state of their uteruses, so make sure you use a GOOD repro equine vet to check her. Also have you thought about where mare and foal would be kept and with what. Ok if you have your own place, but can be problematic at livery. Also you will need another foal or companion after weaning. People tend to focus on just getting a foal, without thinking about the essentials afterwards.
 

windand rain

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It is not a cheap option by the time my Highland foal was 4 days old she had cost me about £3500 in stud fees, livery, vets fees and sundry extras and that doesnt include keeping her mum while she was in foal as she was my special mare and needed time off. I dont think I would do it again as much as I loved having her from day one. So now leave that bit to the stud breeders and buy the sex colour and type I want at weaning. I was lucky and got the filly I wanted but I would have had to sell a colt as no facilities to run on and he would have been worth less than half what I had paid out
That foal is 10 this year s I can only imagine it will be more expensive now
 

Templebar

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It is not a cheap option by the time my Highland foal was 4 days old she had cost me about £3500 in stud fees, livery, vets fees and sundry extras and that doesnt include keeping her mum while she was in foal as she was my special mare and needed time off. I dont think I would do it again as much as I loved having her from day one. So now leave that bit to the stud breeders and buy the sex colour and type I want at weaning. I was lucky and got the filly I wanted but I would have had to sell a colt as no facilities to run on and he would have been worth less than half what I had paid out
That foal is 10 this year s I can only imagine it will be more expensive now

I have to agree with this. Mine wasn't expensive but at rising 8 with crap feet which have meant she has done no work in the last 2 and a half years. Again thankfully a filly but did not really come out the right build and is just shy of where i would like in height. I could have bought what i wanted and hopefully have been competing by now.

Also make sure you weigh up the options of losing the mare, i was prepared for that if it came to it. If she is your best friend do you want the risk?
 

Kaylum

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A good stud staff can save you a lot of money, bad stud staff can cost you a lot of money, and make sure they are fully insured.
 

JanetGeorge

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If it's a good vet who doesn't insist on doping every mare to the eyebrows and then sayin - um -' need to check this again next week for 4 weeks' - before telling you it's a malformed conceptus with a weak heartbeat - and you really should abort and start again ..... then a minimum of £250 if the stud is capable and can tease properly. Fortunately, I chose to ignore that advice and that pregnancy oly cost me about £500 in vet's bills and I have very, healthy 7 month colt who is absolutely normal!

Fools breed horses for wise men to buy!! If you hope to keep the foal and want to know it from day 1, go for it - but it will cost you a lot more than a weanling of similar breeding. And that is assuming you HAVE a healthy foal at the end of it. In my giggest production year, I lost 2 fr 16 foals with problems that couldn't have been avoided. This year (my last) I lost 1 out of 7 born (ruptured bladder when mare foaled standing up on hard ground, we think.) But 1 mare stands just as good a chance of losing a foal as 1 or 2 of more mares doing it. Breeders can spread the loss a little more, but ....
 

windand rain

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I agree my first venture into breeding many years ago was two mare so as to have two foals to play together 1st was still born second lived a week he developed septicemia as the vet refused to give him antibiotics at birth in spite of the fact he had a difficult arrival and was unavoidably in a new place. It was a very harsh introduction nearly broke me but a few years later had another go and although it is expensive I did love every minute of having them from day one. I now buy a weanling for these very reasons
 
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