First time breeder

Toast said:
Dreamt last night my gelding was a mare. 'Oh goody! I thought, I'll get stallion choosing' had to have a chuckle at myself when I woke up!
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It's funny isn't it. Breeding does become a way of life. I think when you have something that completely and utterly takes over your whole world for months of the year you never really get it out of your system afterwards. I was considering giving up breeding, this was going to be my last year, but then a few months ago I was approached by a couple of stallion owners asking me to breed my mares to their stallions, well what can you say? I had to completely reverse my decision :D Actually it wasn't just that. I've been watching and playing the market and it seems to have picked up a lot in the last few months so providing my youngstock continue to sell to good competition homes I guess I'll stick around for a bit longer.
 
Spring Feather said:
It's funny isn't it. Breeding does become a way of life. I think when you have something that completely and utterly takes over your whole world for months of the year you never really get it out of your system afterwards. I was considering giving up breeding, this was going to be my last year, but then a few months ago I was approached by a couple of stallion owners asking me to breed my mares to their stallions, well what can you say? I had to completely reverse my decision :D Actually it wasn't just that. I've been watching and playing the market and it seems to have picked up a lot in the last few months so providing my youngstock continue to sell to good competition homes I guess I'll stick around for a bit longer.
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Well I will see how this year goes before I think of breeding as a way of life haha! I might be bauld by next year lol.

Spring Feather said:
And why not! Breeding is exciting :)
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Im trying not to get my hopes up to much just yet but cant help it :D

I know im pretty much guarenteed a chestnut, so its really exciting :D
 
It is very exciting – especially in the last few weeks – I want to pop with excitement but still remaining calm and worried as it’s still not ever 100% guaranteed once they’re born! We have no idea what we’re having – colt or filly .. or colour – god only knows what its coming out as :D x
 
I have always wanted to breed a really good foal. Heavily researched it, worked out all the costs (if it goes well) know equally well how easily it can all go sour..

What I really want, being a hobby rider and the same as a breeder would be a package deal. How about this for a plan, you have a selection of approved brood mares, you choose the stallion, pay all costs plus lease for mare and walk away with a weaned foal at the end of the contract. Part of the risk if the foal is not live, injured etc etc. I KNOW it's a much better idea to buy a ready made foal (!) but so like the idea of really choosing and being involved.

A friend has a lovely ISH mare who we know would make a great mum as she is a really kind mare. However, no good as a broodmare as no breeding and no comp history. Compromise is it looks as if she has been accepted as a surrogate...
 
Luci07 said:
How about this for a plan, you have a selection of approved brood mares, you choose the stallion, pay all costs plus lease for mare and walk away with a weaned foal at the end of the contract.
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That's very common over here in North America. We call it custom foals. Buyer chooses the mare and then a stallion and pays mare owner a set price. The mare owner will breed her mare to that stallion and foal belongs to the buyer.
 
Well Darcy had her pre-breeding check last night and got the thumbs up to go ahead with the AI.

Shes a good weight, good conformation at her lady bits, vet found two ovaries which is always a good thing. Looks like she is about to come into season so, the vet is planning to giving her the injection to bring her into season to make sure that we get the right time as I can only get the semen Tuesday to Friday and need 48hours notice for them.

Trying to cough up the money is painful but will be worth it in the long run :D
 
Keep us updated :) I hope dee takes first time but must say, ive lost a little bit of confidence in the vets :S if she doesnt take im going to send her away to stud i think :)
 
Well very good luck to both of you :)

PS. I'm not surprised to hear you say that R. I tell you, you live and learn *very quickly* in the breeding game as you're the one who still gets the bill for any silly mistakes made.
 
Exactly SF - when i called the vets today they were adament i would be fine to bring her in on monday.....i refused and stated it would be too late, even when we arrived i think they were expecting her not to be in season and supprised she was. Sly mare :).

As i am paying for the the bills and everything combined is well over £1k already, silly errors cost! Can i come to your stud :D
 
We don't get vet AI package deals over here so we pay for each item individually and it soon racks up. Per mare per cycle I usually spend around 600 if nothing goes wrong ... and that's the price regardless of whether the mare is pregnant or not at the 16 day scan. Hence I'm very careful about making darned sure that mare *will* get pregnant first time :D

I find you have to be on top of vets. I particularly like my repro vets as for one they know very well what they're doing, and for two they bow to my judgement on when to inseminate as I know right off the top of my head what size follicle each of my mares will ovulate at.
 
I have felt like im chasing them tbh, it all feels a bit too casual for my liking...this is breeding, not a stroll through the park!
It is expensive, i can only imagine the heartache (hoping i dont suffer it!) and the disappointment, to think it might have been due to a silly error would make anyone angry :(
 
A previous vet I used in the beginning would not scan one of my mares when I told him she was about to ovulate. He booked her in for 3 days from that day. I had another purely repro vet coming that day and I had the mare scanned by that vet. Vet told me what size follicle she was at and I whisked the mare off then and there to the clinic and as we were breeding frozen (thank god!) the mare ovulated that night between 9pm and midnight and as it was perfect timing she was inseminated straight after midnight. Had I waited for the first vet (who I no longer used for breeding after that episode) to come back 3 days later, my mare would have been out of heat and I would not have been looking at my lovely new blob on-screen 2 weeks later. You have to have faith in your vets, that's why I keep harping on about only using purely repro vets as this is what they do, day in day out.
 
Another huge cost to me which you guys don't often have is collections and shipping. With most of the breedings I buy I get the first collection in with the breeding fee. If I need any subsequent collections then I'm looking at around 300 for that, 200 for shipping and another 100 for import permits for the semen, and that's on top of the 600 to the vet *per cycle* so yes I always always want the mare to take first time.
 
I have LFG with the semen but need to pay collection costs and shipping costs each time. Hence how i want to get it right first time and quickly :) the vets are ace, dont get me wrong, but i cant afford anymore mistakes or slip ups with the AI otherwise its too expensive
 
Im afraid due to my car deciding to break last week, its broken the bank and I have to put the foaling idea on ice :( - gutted but just means I will have to do what I originally planned.......................see new post lol
 
:( oh ****** :( that really sucks :(

Dee is happily holding keep at the vets at the moment, nothing knew to report yet but maybe check in 2 weeks time ;)
 
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