Breeding - is it worth it?

regalrendezvous

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Hi, I rarely post but i always lurk.

I was wondering what your experiences of breeding your own horse are. I was looking for a youngster a while ago but i could not find anything i liked without the massive price tag.

This is the mare i would be using 15.3 TB

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This is the stallion i would use Copabella Visage

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I just wanted to know - is all the expense and stress worth it?
 

Happytohack

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They are both lovely horses - but from my own personal experience, breeding is not a cheap alternative to buying a nice quality youngster and there are no guarantees you will get what you want at the end of it all.
 

magic104

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Yes, I would have to say it is. To know your horse inside out & every detail of it's history. The feeling you get when you see it as a ridden horse is not the same when it has been bought. Having said that it is expensive but in a gradual way, it is almost like paying for your adult in instalments. All that hard work is so worth while. So if you have the time to put into a youngster, go for it both the horses look good sorts. I shall not insult your intelligence with a lecture, I would assume you know all the pitfalls.
 

boneo

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There is an old saying, "Fools breed, for wise men to buy" This is very often true, look at the prices of youngstock at the Doncaster Sales, and compare the stud fee paid to the stallion owner.
 

bettens

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I think it depends on your reasons. If it purely to make money they it is high risk - if it because you have a mare who has good attributes as a broodmare and you want to try and enhance that with a quality stallion - and want to risk the mare and the time/money invested then it is the best thing in the world

Each year when ours land safely it is just the biggest pleaser and watching the development is wonderfully rewarding

Carinoso RPB just up (02/05/07)
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Day 17
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These times are wonderful and can't be topped.
Rach
 

Happytohack

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Beautiful pictures - unfortunately I have had the tragic experience of losing a lovely mare and being left with a foal to hand-rear. As you say, breeding is a risk and the pros and cons have to be weighed up.
 

Dovorian

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I agree - I think you will probably have spent mire by the time your have a 4 year old ready to compete - but the costs are in instalments, so maybe less pain! On the flip side you don;t have a 'choice', your foal is your young horse for the future. If you are buying youngstock then you have a reasonable choice most times. Are there any babies by this stallion for sale?
 

regalrendezvous

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Thanks for the replies, what a lovley baby you have StPiransStud. No the foal would not for money purposes, for me to bring on and eventualy compete. I love the stallion, he is so calm and has a FANTASTIC jump (and he is coloured...)

Yeah he has babies on the ground which cost more than my 5yo PN eventer with offical points did! They are just over a year old and as lovley as they are i don't want to fork out that amount of money for potential. I am aware of vets fees, mares feed etc but $17,000 is alot of money. More money than i have that's for sure. (about £7,000) I like the idea of a TBxWB that would hopefully be coloured. I have had a look at a few young horses, but none really are what i want (or are way above what i want to spend) or the sire is great but the mare isn't.

I can afford the costs in installments (as the horses live at home so no livery costs) but i am useless at saving, esspesially that amount of money!
 

airedale

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if it all goes well then you end up with what you want - a sound young horse with a good temp, good conformation and good trainable attitude

however 4 years plus a year in utero is a long time to wait and in those 5 years an awful lot can go wrong in the same way that things can go wrong with any horse

I'd say the experience if it is all OK is wonderful and watching them grow up from foalies is great and if they are at home then you don't have the weaning worry, turnout worry if it's a colt, etc

but when you add up the costs at the end of the day - the people charging a lot for youngsters are probably trying to merely cover the cost, and hardly make any profit at all

I think a lot of us are addicted to breeding horses so perhaps aren't impartial but in your circumstance I'd do a standing order to a savings account and buy someting in from a reputable stud where you can see the dam and sire and have some idea of the background of both sides of the offspring's pedigree
 

ColouredFan

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I think so yes! If you have the time and experience i would say go for it, we had our first foal in April and he is totally worth it, watching him grow, learn and play is priceless

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Tia

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[ QUOTE ]
Breeding - is it worth it?

[/ QUOTE ]

If you have a good mare and you own your own land then yes I would say it is definitely worth it.....however bear in mind that you will likely spend more money in the long-run on a homebred than you will on buying a 3 year old already on the ground youngster.

Your mare looks nice, stallion looks nice although he isn't homozygous so you will have pot-luck as to whether your foal is coloured or not; likely not, but once the baby comes you'll find that colour pales into insignificance......our little baby born last month came out orange and although she is very quickly fading to grey, in some ways I will actually miss our little chestnut girl - I've become quite entranced by her colour.
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_jetset_

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I think a lot of people who have bred a healthy foal will say it was worth everything they went through, and I have to agree. I have a lovely ISH x WB foal who is now 3 months old and he is an absolute star. However, if you look back at some of my posts you will see how emotionally draining I found the whole experience. Even once he was born it was difficult (this is my first foal) as my mare was very foal proud, then he had to have a little operation on his willy, and now he is quite coltish.

However, I would not change him for the world and he is now starting to learn so much...

If you can afford to do it, have the facilities and knowledgable people around you, then I would say yes it is worth it. However, you also have to take into consideration that you could lose your foal, your mare or both.
 

regalrendezvous

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That's what i am worried about, losing the foal or mare. The stallion has a 60% coloured baby rate but i am not that fussed about colour as long as the foal is not chestnut!! (I already have two!) I don't have to make any quick decision as the mare would be put in foal if i go ahead with it in october.

The mare has hurt her knee and needs time off from work. The vet said that she would be fine to be put into foal.

I will read more into it but thatnks for the replies
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Lovley foal AimeeC!! Becki2003 i read your (and hannahs) diary, that will be so useful if you ever want to breed again! Troy is lovley by the way. Are you going to keep him entire or is he goig to lose his manhood?
 

amandaco2

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breeding is a huge risk
there are loads of thing to consider
its not a cheap option.most times you are best waiting saving and buying.


my KWPN filly cost me 6k to breed from conception to a few months and the mare caught first time, had no health problems neither did baby.and i foaled her at home.

the worst situation would be spend a load of money get mare in foal after a few attempts, have a problem foaling, foal is born has problems- needs a vet (foals cant be insured until they are 30 days old!) then mare gets lami and you end up with both of them having to be put down and big bills to pay.

its a risk you have to consider- would this foal be worth that risk?
or are you better taking this money it would cost to get your mare in foal and buying something already on the ground, you can see its marking/personality, movement etc.you can buy a really nice foal at weaning for a fairly reasonable price.

im not saying its common but i DOES happen.
commonly baby isnt want you aimed to breed- could be something as cosmetic as colour or as big as temperment or ability.
in which case you have again potentially wasted money and time.

of course if you are breeding from a proven competition mare(preferably a proven broodmare too!) to a proven stallion who produces foals from mares like yours, of the type you are aiming for, then the risk is reduced.

you have to have facilities and time unless you send her away(more expense)

i kept my mare at home and like becky found it very very tiring and the stress of it all draining.

i am very very lucky i have bred exactly what i was aiming for (a very nice natured great moving dressage horse who is bay!and a girl!with minimal white- and alovely star..lol)

i DID consider it carefully.my mare is breed worthy and competed to medium and the stallion is a proven international PSG dressage horse producing PAVO champions and he is very strong in the areas my mare is weaker(and passes these traits to his foals) and if i had to sell, his offspring are going for a lot of money.


but had i known just how hard it was going to be constantly worrying about everything and especially nearer to foaling time, how much it would take out of me i dont think i will be doing it again.

not anytime soon anyway!

just food for thought.
 
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