can you help me budget for a foal

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this is my first time so I want to be sure I am prepared financially so I dont have any surprises! as a first time,. I am trying to think of all the expenses involved...
I have got some idea from the vet about AI packages and foaling, but could you help me budget total costs including scans, insurance, feed, farrier, worming, vaccines, microshipping, livery, passporting, emergencies...etc
- during pregnancy
- before weaning
- after weaning
 
You can safely assume that whatever you save or budget for will not be enough !

The pleasure of doing it is priceless but the journey costs a mint both financially and emotionally.

The first one we bred was easy, took first time (AI), hardy tough mare did not take much grub and produced a cracking foal. All in I would guess at £1500 on the ground. I could have bought in something similar for £750.00.

Fast forward 2 years and oh dear. Mare failed to hold to AI in 2011 with her foal at foot. Tried again in 2012, failed to hold to AI again, so off to stud she went, for the whole summer, obviously prefers Cornwall to Worcestershire. She is due in May 2013.

The cost ? don't even ask, but I reckon we could buy 4 weanlings for what this one has cost so far. All we hope for is a healthy and correct foal, the order is for a large Hoy's standard riding horse or a small hunter, depends who the foal follows in type.

If it is a filly she will be registered as 'Costa Fortune' if it is a colt he will be registered as 'Broke the Bank'.

Good luck OP, expect the unexpected !!
 
always prepare for the unexpected! it cost me about 1800 before willows hoofs hit the ground, which included travel, ai, livery costs etc etc but at 12 days old she took ill and cost me a further 1500 as she couldnt be insured until 30days old. id hate to add up livery costs etc since then...shes a year and a half old but i reckon om hitting 5000. she is a gem though :-)
 
We worked out the cost of our 2012 babies a couple of months ago.

One mare (older maiden) took first time, stud fee £700, vet costs: AI, Vacs, transport, newborn checks etc took the total to about 1500 (not inc. stabling or feed)

2nd mare (young maiden) disliked the thought of a foal...stud fee £850, semen transport £360 vet cost AI £700, transport...god knows but would guess £300, foaly had an infected hernia £400 plus herpes vacs £100, mare vacs, feed, stabling.....final cost £a lot!

3rd mare TB stud fee £2000, livery at stud £500, away to foal £700, scans, vacs, passports, etc & we lost her at 6 months old!

4th mare £250 stud fee, £200 Ai, £100 semen transport & collection....cheap one!

5th mare...up to about £3000 and foal isn't due until July!

I gave up budgeting as much as I tried my mares kept adding extras, but I think work on the basis in the long run of the amount that you would spend on a good allrounder Ie £4000. The only difference is that its often more spread out financially over a period of years...unless something goes wrong!

As they say, fools breed for wise men to buy!
 
Probably about £2K to date including testing for strangles/eva, regumate, transport to stud, at stud for approx 6 weeks, stud fee (took first time) x
 
oh I completely agree, I am very well aware that is is a lot cheaper to buy than to breed,
but it is for the experience!
vet has done an estimation of about 2k including AI- foaling package and stud fees/collection/transport (assuming she takes 2nd time)- on top of that I have budgeted livery and maintenance cost+emergency fund in case things go wrong...

I just need a few more precision for some cost:
-pre-bredding home visit from vet at home including the tests
- passport
- microshipping
- insurance?

what is the routine vaccination/worming program for mares and foal?

another silly question: what/when do you change to your mare's feeding regime?
 
i had my mare covered naturally the first time..costs are as follows-

stud fee £250
scans £70..shared visit...didnt have to swab her as she was a maiden and i kep her at a stud and didnt have to pay keep fee's,transport costs etc...

second foal (ai)

stud fee £300
transport of semen,ai procedure etc,£50
scans,jabbing into season all came to £400 roughly...she took first time ai luckily....and i again i had no transport/keep fee's to pay...
 
Yes I can!

Because I've been totally obsessive about recording absoutely every expense that I've had down to the postage on sending off papers for passport, show entries etc etc.

I can reveal that last year's foal (by ET admittedly, but that was a small percentage of total cost in the long run) is currently sitting at a cost of £14,945.89. She needed plasma transfusion a few days after birth and then the dam stood on her in the stable and fractured her splint bone resulting in a long horsepital stay and lengthy box rest.

She's lovely, but bloomin' expensive.

No foal expected until April this year, but so far it's cost me £7,056.81. Plus another £1,165.30 on an attempt at a second foal (failed).

OK - so that's ET and I keep them at stud rather than at home, because I need a full time job to fund my mental condition - but it's a bit of a reality check I hope?

Fools breed horses and all that........

The one that I bought a few years back for £6K at 6 months is now rising 4 and professionally backed. She's cost me in total £18,094.19 (including purchase price). So a bit of a bargain in comparison.

Buy what you want - it's cheaper........ :)
 
AdorableAlice said:
If it is a filly she will be registered as 'Costa Fortune' if it is a colt he will be registered as 'Broke the Bank'.

Good luck OP, expect the unexpected !!
Click to expand...

I actually spat my brew everywhere laughing at your names ;)

My mare is due to foal in April and with all the costs so far it would have been cheaper to keep her in work and carry on eventing her! I am looking forwards to my little bundle of joy but know there would have been much cheaper ways to get another horse!!
 
Adding together stud and grooms fee, vets fee for the AI, scans, regumate, travelling and I hasten to add I was sensible and paid for a coverall on the vets fees and when she didnt take first cycle, the stud were very nice and persuaded the vets so I got the next lot for free, = £2000. He's worth every penny, but the stress of the whole thing coupled by him arriving sooner than expected, and quicker than it took the neighbour to pour a cuppa which left the whole afterbirth retained and his sack hanging out, so you can add £170 to that total, was enough to persuade me that if I ever get the urge again, I'm buying a three year old!

Edited to say I took to stuffing bills in my underwear draw, just in case OH felt the justification of a new motorbike descend!
 
I guesstimate that it costs me £2,000 (minimum) to put a foal on the ground - and that's with 15 brood mares, and keeping them at home, and most being covered by my stallions! Some cost a LOT more - but with 15, you can 'average' costs over the number of foals born.

And - without anything 'untoward' happening to them - about £1,000 a year to keep them - grazing costs, haylage, worming, vaccinations etc. of course if they get injured or ill, that figure rises but again I can average that one 'disaster' over the whole lot.

So, by the time I come to back them, (but before we actually START backing) they've already cost me between £4-5,000 - and yet buyers still think a nicely backed 4 year old is 'too expensive' at £5,500!

If you're breeding one foal - and that foal just throws ONE disaster at you - you can double (or treble) those costs and possibly have NO foal to show for it!
 
Cant give you exact costs, BUT, it would also depend on why you are breeding from your mare. If she has an underlying lameness, of major confirmation problems, you are at great risk of passing them on, and if its for you, to keep her going, as such, you can keep the problems going at a very expensive cost!!

Basically though, If all goes straightforward to plan, you are looking at stud fee, assuming AI, those vet fees, variable to your vet, though some studs will do AI at their stud for no extra cost. Stabling, until she moves to foaling box, will be same. Stud feed in the last 3 months. extra scan or 2 as needed. Foaling box and watch fees, unless you want to do it yourself (Wonderful experience, but exhausting and hard to book off work a decent time in advance......) vet check after foaling/part of stud fees unless you know what you are looking for, vaccinations and ID, passport and DNA, depending on society. Extra on Livery if you at livery. then weaning, depending on how you decide to do it, where you want to keep, as usually not both at same place......so add in extra petrol and travel between two places. then another 3 years keep, not hugely different from an adult before you can start working (not mentioning showing etc in mean time)

If things go wrong, it could be several AI attempts, and could slip the foal, could be foaling problems, could loose mare, and foal in worst case scenario. could be a stunner, have kept him 3 years, with all that time and money and emotional attachment and need putting down from a field accident. And could simply not be what you want, and you cannot sell it. Ask for a top figure, thats something that only you can decide, the point at which you draw the line and say no more.
 
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