Cost of breeding your own foal?

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DanielleP

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So what are peoples experiences?

I have seen a reasobale stallion with 200 + Vat Stud fee and 100 booking fee.

What other costs can i expect to incur?
 
A lot!
Travel to stud, removing shoes, making sure mare's paperwork is in order (does she need to be registered as 'gone to stud'.
Swabs before covering, scans for pregnancy plus any treatments deemed necessary by vet to get your mare in foal.
Stud fee,
Stud Keep.
Mare's keep with greater expense nearer and after foaling. Have you enough land to take the pair or livery able to handle having a foal about cos not all yards can or have the facilities to.
Same context, make sure your fencing is very safe.
Vet attendance (hopefully) just after foaling to check they're both alright.
Registration fees for foal.
That's just for starters, I'm sure others will think of some I've missed.
 
Well my costs were -

£400 stud fee
£275 Vets fees
£42 grass livery

the vets fees were a package offered by the vetinary clinic where she was inseminated, this cost covered 3 cycles and injections and any scans, Luckily my mare took first time. The grass livery was £6 a day (she was only there a week) Try and get a package if you can as this usually works out cheaper!

On the other hand my friend tried getting he mare in foal year before last and they spent over £1,000 trying to get her in foal, last year she took first time. Just shows how much the cost can vary!

Plus add to the the increase in feed the mare will need during last three months and after foal is born. We also had a £150 vet bill for the vet to come out at 4am to help get the foal out as he was stuck! we had managed to pull him out by the time she arrived, the vet removed and checked the placenta, gave the mare an internal examination and waited til the foal stood up and drank (worth the money as its was the mares and ours first foal)
 
The foal I have now was a freebie so to speak and has cost me only the mare's winter hard feed, and the Vet's bill for needles.

If you send a mare to stud, there is the covering fee, then any vets bills for testing and scanning, then keep on top of that plus shipping costs if you have to hire transport, and if you are at livery I imagine you will still have to pay that too in order to keep your place regardless of whether there is a horse there or not.

So? What's this stallion like then?
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I have two brood mares here and looking at stallion prices each would cost about $1000 for fees and keep, not including Vets bills. So about, roughly, 500 pounds each, but keep once they are home is minimal.

If you are paying livery then I imagine your prices shoot up, and also, so many yards don't have facilities for foals.
 
Have to agree with MFH. There are costs that you wouldn't even think about when you start, but they soon add up. I think my average is about 1200, just to get the mare in foal (transport, swabs, scans ......ect) Then there are no guarentees you will get a live, healthy foal at the end. Come to think of it, why do we do it???? It's madness!
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If i remember rightly there was a post where people said roughly how much it had cost them all in think figures started at about £2500 and were as high as £6000 cant remember who posted but it made interesting reading.
 
Well my mare has only just gone to stud and is running out with her stallion so I expect she’ll be there at least a month. My costs so far are:

Vets fee £408 for all swabs, scan and biopsy (she is 16 so wanted to check she is 100% healthy)
Stud fee £300

And we haven’t done anything yet!! Scary really.
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a hell of a lot more than that!
apart from the stud fee there is:
travel to stud for your horse,
livery costs
vets fees for swabs etc
vets fees for AI (if thats what you choose)
farrier costs of shoe removal
feed (and any supplements they may need)
injections for your mare prior to foaling/going to stud
wormers

and thats just for starters - you may need your vet out when your mare foals, plus any unsuspected fees that may crop up or emergencies.

My basic fees were:
stud fee £600
vet costs for AI: £350
vets scan in October: £35
vets fees when she foaled: £500

my mare unfortunately got mastitis just before she foaled - she ahd 5 courses of antibiotics before it cleared up.
Then youve got to consider weaning and the costs assosciated with that. I sent my foal away as it was safer than keeping her so that cost me £150p/w for 8wks, however shes staying there for longer now as my mare hasnt dried up completely (now no longer £150p/w)

It was a lot of expense but IMHO well worth it, however then there is the other cost of if the foal or your mare or both dont survive.
 
It has cost me around £2k to get my mare in foal.

Three weeks ago it was discovered that she had recently lost it. She was due to foal now.

For various reasons she won't be going back in foal - so I have lost £2k trying.

It wouldn't put me off doing it again - but do make sure you can afford to throw away at least that amount........
 
It is seriously expensive!

Its cost me £2,200 so far for 2 unborn foals and it should have been a lot more, the livery should have been £600 more.

And don't forget the heartache and stress of it. I was so stressed at the time of getting them in-foal and getting a bit stressed now of waiting for them to arrive!
 
my horse has gone off to stud and costs at the mo are
1. stud fee £350 with vat NFFR
2. Vets package £199 with vat,they swab, they scan on arrival, scan every other day for optimum time, scan at 17 and 40 days and any jabs to bring into season included. just as well as my mare was 48hrs out of season when we arrived!!
3. £20 for 2 nights stable as she needed to be wormed on arrival and be in for vet.
4.grass livery £3 per day including a feed (i supplied feed) once a day.
5. £17.50 per week for her usual stable so i dont lose it! would have been given stable but want to have the one she is used to.
6.wormer, i provided it for the stud but they do supply them and its not much more.
7. £40 for juice in wagon!
shes due to be shod up there in next couple of weeks so that will be another £33!, just waitin for 17 day scan on 16th!, shes been there since the 13th May so hopefully wont be there to much longer!! stallion has 100% fertility for 04,05 and 06 so hope she has caught first time!
thats my bill up to now and dont want to scare myself with the thought of the total costs up to th eage of breaking!!!.............only plus is that she had a foal when i bought her and even though i didnt know until the last 3 months of the pregnancy she sailed through and had no problems foaling, so vets bill for that visit if i remember was only £40!! fingers crossed she does that again!!
 
average I would say for an average priced stallion with fee around 400quid would be between £1k and £1.5k and then you've got to keep the mare for the rest of the year and then keep the foal and pay for those little extras that the foal might cost you in feed and (hopefully minor) injuries as with all young animals they don't know good from bad and will happily go where angels fear to tread !!
 
The stud fee is the smallest bit! Most of the cost of my foal has been livery at the stud for the mare when she went to be covered and going back to foal and subsequently. As soon as the my foal was born the weather went back to being awful so the stud were bringing the mares and foals in every night and that was for her first month - at £13 a night . . . . eek, the grass livery is £6.50 a day. Stud foaling fee - £180 (and worth every penny for my peace of mind!). To date the foal has cost £1909.50 and that's not including foaling extension on the mare's insurance, registration, worming and micrchipping vaccinations in the fullness of time . . . . . there won't be much change out £2500 by the time I get all those done. (it doesn't do to think about it too much!)
 
It cost me £100 (yes, one hundred) to buy my Welsh D x Appaloosa with 5 gen pedigree mare, £150 stud fee to Cherrytop Studs McIlveen Mattie, £2 per day grass livery (she was there about a month so call it £60), about £80 in vets fees which was a jab to bring her fully into season and the first scan. She has had normal feet trimming in this time, and in the final three months has been on Baileys stud balancer (and remains on it now). She foaled in front of me and my husband at 9am on Friday morning, 20 minutes between the waters breaking and the foal coming out. All normal and a perfect little leopard spot appaloosa filly foal! So I guess you can do it cheaper if everything goes according to plan. We have our own land, so don't have to pay livery, and have already arranged to wean with a friend, swopping foals/mares at some time. If I could find out how to post pics on this forum I would - if anyone can help me with this please do !!!!
 
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