Expected covering costs for mare owners

pootleperkin

pootleperkin

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Hi all,

I have a half share in a Lusitano stallion who will be carrying out limited coverings this year. He was used as a breeding stallion by his last owner and is in demand.

As we don't have covering facilities, he is going to 'do the do' at a local stud. I was wondering what mare owners would usually expect to pay on top of the stud fee for livery at the stud, handling costs etc?

The stud have told us that there will be a £150 fee per mare for handling (right from teasing to repeated coverings) and for the use of the facilities; the livery will be extra (£5 for grass). Does this sound about right or would this usually be absorbed in the stud fee, which in this case is an established £350?

Cheers in advance :)
 
Are you sure that they don't mean they would be charging you the handling fee for handling the stallion at each collection in which case it would be your cost, not the mare owner's and should have been budgeted for when setting the stud fee?
Usually all handling at a stud is included in the mare's keep charges although Twemlows charge an 'in-foal' fee; I presume that is because they don't get the stud fee themselves although they will charge a stallion owner for each collection, especially if it's a walk-in stallion.
 
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Thanks for your replies.

Maesfen, I'll be handling the stallion, so the fee isn't for handling him.

The Stud have no affiliation to our horse - they are simply letting us use their facilities to stand him and take care of the mare livery / handling side of the business. I don't have the facilities at home to stand him, nor the insurance to responsibly take in mares to be covered, hence the stud have kindly said we can use theirs. They will be billing each mare owner separately to us; we will bill the covering fee.

I guess what I am really asking is how much you would expect to be charged by a stud to manage a mare while it is there to be covered....I'm guessing not £150 plus livery! I think that if we use this stud, then we will have to absorb half of the 'handling fee' within the stud fee and the mare owners pay the remainder to the stud.
 
I hate to sound harsh but as a mare owner, if i sent my mare to be covered by a stallion i would expect to pay - the stud fee, the livery for the mare whilst there, and maybe a grooms fee. Then obviously any farrier/worming/veterinary charges but thats it. Its not the mare owners issue if you choose to stand your stallion at the stud.

Also, as a stallion owner, if i was in the same situation, i would expect to absorb the handling fee into the stud fee.

I know that you are using this stud as they have the facilities and insurance etc but does there insurance cover them to do this type of agreement with you? especially if it will infact be you doing the handling rather than a member of the studs staff?
 
pootleperkin said:
Thanks for your replies.

Maesfen, I'll be handling the stallion, so the fee isn't for handling him.

The Stud have no affiliation to our horse - they are simply letting us use their facilities to stand him and take care of the mare livery / handling side of the business. I don't have the facilities at home to stand him, nor the insurance to responsibly take in mares to be covered, hence the stud have kindly said we can use theirs. They will be billing each mare owner separately to us; we will bill the covering fee.
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Even if you are handling him, there will be a charge for each collection. When we had a stallion here, he would go to Twemlows for collections and each time the owner was charged which they absorbed into the stud fee; the mare owner had no extra costs other than as LL has pointed out what she would expect to pay. Even if the mare has to be AI'd twice, the mare owner wouldn't be liable for any extra charges other than those stated before.
If the stud is insisting on that fee for mare owners above just the keep then I would be looking around for somewhere else as most mare owners wouldn't entertain it. Many other studs have walk in stallions and don't charge for that.
 
Actually it is the mare owner that pays the collection fee at any AI centre.
We have stallions that stand here for both walk in covers and that reside here for the duration of the season.
If it is a walk in stallion the stallion owner will absorb the cost of transporting the stallion to the stud to do the collection but the mare owner will pay the collection fee whether the semen is being shipped out or going straight into the mare.
The same goes for a stallion that does natural cover but isnt resident his owner will absorb the costs for transporting him here and then we will charge the mare owner a collection/covering fee .
This should all be made crystal clear to the mare owner before hand and then they have the choice of whether to go with that stallion or not.
I think £150 is a bit steep mind you.
If you walk a mare into one of the the top TB stallions in the country you pay a walk in covering fee which is usually around £70 ,pretty much the same as our collection/covering fee.
 
This taken from the stallion AI services website.
"Charges
We do not take any percentage of the stud fee but just charge livery to the stallion owner, and collection and distribution fees to the mare owner. Prices are available on request."
 
I just mentioned this to a friend who takes in mares for outside stallions and she charges £5 a day on top of normal keep charges for the whole time the mare is there. Mares coming to their own stallions aren't charged anything extra at all even if they are AId instead of a natural covering.
So the £150 might not be too far off if the mare is there for nearly 6 weeks.

Sally, my mistake, I got mixed up with mares that were here when T was collected from; obviously Twemlows wouldn't have had any input into the mare charges then, doh!
 
When I have sent mares away, I have paid the stud fee and the keep fee and any associated worming/farriery/veterinary costs and that's it. Both Natural cover and AI. Mind you I sent the mares to where the stallions were standing.

As an aside, I think you will find that more and more TB studs are abolishing Grooms Fees/Walk In Fees.
 
SmilingMadly said:
When I have sent mares away, I have paid the stud fee and the keep fee and any associated worming/farriery/veterinary costs and that's it. Both Natural cover and AI. Mind you I sent the mares to where the stallions were standing.

As an aside, I think you will find that more and more TB studs are abolishing Grooms Fees/Walk In Fees.
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Yes they are abolishing them ,i was just using it as an example.
Mind the stud fees are that much higher they shouldnt need to charge them really
 
As a stud and stallion owner, I am constantly surprised by the various, and often hidden, costs charged to mare owners. We take the "continental" view with some brit type variations.
Our stud fee includes a non returnable booking fee of £100. In the case of our client stallions, this is the fee held by the stud for each mare the stallion covers and covers all collections and/or handling. The stallion owner keeps the rest but pays a livery charge while the stallion is at stud. This livery includes riding and exercise. A walking in stallion (we are not going to do this any more) used to pay a collection fee for each collection as we did not receive a livery.

The mare owner pays the stud fee, including the booking fee, and then pays only for the cost of semen despatch (approx £17). Visiting mares to the stud pay only for livery and then separately for veterinary or farrier work. As a stallion owner, it would be very unattractive to be paying livery and paying for each collection. (I have paid this in the past but not again). All this should be transparent but you need to ask because there are too many surprises.
 
pootleperkin said:
Hi all,

The stud have told us that there will be a £150 fee per mare for handling (right from teasing to repeated coverings) and for the use of the facilities; the livery will be extra (£5 for grass). Does this sound about right or would this usually be absorbed in the stud fee, which in this case is an established £350?

Cheers in advance :)
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pootleperkin does this £150 include scanning of the mares is it a veterinary package?

I ask becuase a number of the of studs here in Scotland charge a vets stud package of £150 for each visiting mare per cycle, this includes all pre ovulation scans, handling and teasing of mares, insemination / covering, post ovulation confirmation, 15 day and 28 day pregancy scan.

Plus £5 per day grass livery woming farrier costs if required.

If this is the case then yes the £150 fee sounds very reasonable and should be expected and paid by the mare owner.

In addition the stud will charge the stallion owner a collection fee of aproximately £45 + Vat if the stallion is collected from and it is at the discretion of the stallion owner whether or not they pass that fee onto their mare owners.

:)
 
Hi again,

Opie, as far as I know it doesn't include veterinary costs, just handling for all teasing, covering and veterinary visits.

The reason I have gone to this stud is that I know them well, can work with them happily with some room for manouevre should I not be available to handle the stallion and they are very professional, so it was the obvious choice for me. I also think their livery costs are reasonable. My friend who used to own the stallion stood him at a yard (not hers) where the mare owners were paying about £100 for livery for a week, as opposed to the £5 a day charged here.

I will, of course be up front about all costs to mare owners. It seems to me that we should absorb half of the £150 facility/handling fee, as it would seem that part of that is for the stud to accept the 'walk in' stallion; the mare owners should pay the rest as it is for their handling etc and that would seem reasonable to me. That £75 fee would seem to be equivalent to the booking fee that you talk about Woodlander.

The mare owners will deal with the stud direct as to what livery/veterinary package they want, and pay that directly to them.

Do you think that sounds fair?

PS - we are not talking about collections for AI here, just live coverings. He already has a good number of straws at Twemlows for AI dispersal. He's a rather nice Lusitano boy if anyone is interested ;)
 
I haven't read all your replies and am also unsure of your original post, as a mare owner I paid livery at a stud which included the studs costs of keeping and handling her, I then paid a collection fee to the stallion owner of about £80 for the collection of the semen at the centre where my mare was being kept. plus the stud fee to the stallion owner, (stallion was not a resident of the stud but came for collection) I didn't pay anything towards the stallions keep fees at the stud........ not sure if this was the livery you were talking about or the mares livery????
 
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