How do people buy expensive foals?

[JBM]

Good breeder in ireland can’t sell his last foal..3500 for a just weaned foal ? at least 4 years before it can be ridden (will make 17hh so could need longer)
Breeding is something but might not even like jumping? Seems like a lot for a baby but most I’ve ever spent is 1500?

 

[AmyMay]

£3500 sounds a very reasonable price to me.

 

[JBM]

£3500 sounds a very reasonable price to me.

Sometimes horse prices just surprise me as I only buy the cheap ones ?

 

[scruffyponies]

Don't ask me. Last two foals I bought cost £80 the pair, delivered, passported, wormed, and included their headcollars

It will all change in a few months. Who will be buying horses when they can't pay their bills?

 

[Palindrome]

Well there is the stud fee, IA fees, vet fees, care/food for the mare for 1 year prior to having foal then while she nurses the foal, buying the mare plus all the risks (loosing the mare and/or the foal and associated costs if something goes wrong), 3500 is cheap really.

 

[Hallo2012]

Good breeder in ireland can’t sell his last foal..3500 for a just weaned foal ? at least 4 years before it can be ridden (will make 17hh so could need longer)
Breeding is something but might not even like jumping? Seems like a lot for a baby but most I’ve ever spent is 1500?

how much do you think it costs to get that foal on the ground? weaned? fed?

i only stand stallions, i dont have any mares and i can tell you that just running 2, with zero foaling costs etc makes £3.5k a very small sum. it costs me roughly 4 x that for a year to house, train, compete,promote and stand them...........

imagine running a mare band and all the medical costs, feed, etc.

still think its cheap?

 

[Follysmum]

My last foal was £5000 7 yrs ago.
Many years of good breeding and from a very reputable breeder/trainer.

 

[Palindrome]

Very rough numbers but the stud fee will be about 1k, AI package/vet (scanning, swabs, vaccination, wormer...) at least 500 pounds, feeding the mare/hoof care for 1 year 1k, feeding the mare and foal/hoof care for 6 months at least 500 pounds... so you are already at 3k. There is also registering and microchiping the foal, transporting the mare to the stud, time spent watching the mare for foaling down...

 

[JBM]

how much do you think it costs to get that foal on the ground? weaned? fed?

i only stand stallions, i dont have any mares and i can tell you that just running 2, with zero foaling costs etc makes £3.5k a very small sum. it costs me roughly 4 x that for a year to house, train, compete,promote and stand them...........

imagine running a mare band and all the medical costs, feed, etc.

still think its cheap?

I don’t think it’s unreasonable as people are buying them I just find it strange that you could buy a 5 year old for that the price fluctuation with age is strange
I understand it’s definitely very expensive to raise a foal tho

 

[Starzaan]

I have paid significantly more than that for a foal before. They are worth what someone is willing to pay for them.
£3500 sounds very reasonable for a weanling to me! Any less and the poor breeder would be making a loss.

 

[Quigleyandme]

I paid €2000 for a chestnut ID foal in 2019 that I had gelded in 2020. I was offered €15,000 for him in May. His half-sister was top selling two year old at Cavan last week. She made €9,000 and is cookie cutter similar to my horse. He’s never sick or sorry, has lovely ground manners, oodles of personality and presence, a super step and has been professionally backed and is much too much horse for me so will be sold as a four year old to a carefully selected competitive home. I’ve had the joy of looking after and teaching him and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Widgeon]

I don’t think it’s unreasonable as people are buying them I just find it strange that you could buy a 5 year old for that the price fluctuation with age is strange
I understand it’s definitely very expensive to raise a foal tho

I think this is a really fair point - I also understand what it costs to breed and raise a foal, but as you say, what's happened that you can then buy a five year old for more or less the same money? I suppose the cost is front-loaded - once a foal is weaned (assuming nothing goes wrong) it can spend the next four years in a field with a load of other babies eating grass and being wormed and trimmed. Which is relatively low cost, compared to what's come before. But I don't think you're asking an unreasonable question at all, it's something I puzzle over quite regularly

 

[JBM]

I think this is a really fair point - I also understand what it costs to breed and raise a foal, but as you say, what's happened that you can then buy a five year old for more or less the same money? I suppose the cost is front-loaded - once a foal is weaned (assuming nothing goes wrong) it can spend the next four years in a field with a load of other babies eating grass and being wormed and trimmed. Which is relatively low cost, compared to what's come before. But I don't think you're asking an unreasonable question at all, it's something I puzzle over quite regularly

Thank you you make a really good point as the cost over the years after weaning are considerably less

 

[Ample Prosecco]

I think you can trace the timeline of horse costs - and there are opportunities for the cheaper options at all ages.

A 3.5K foal will probably be well bred - not just performance wise but from a mare and stallion with good conformation, good termperaments and in good health. Mare will have been well looked after in pregnancy and both will have good health care post foaling. Not seen equine research on that but in humans, maternal health is a huge predictor of infant health and wellbeing - both physical and psychological. So you are buying a foal who has good genes and a great start in life, who is healthy, mentally well balanced etc. (In theory!)

Or you could pick up a BOGOF weanling, unknown parentage, less care in pregnancy for a few hundred quid.

At 5, the well cared for foal might have spent a few years running with a herd before being professionally backed. I'd expect that nicely bred, sound, sane, healthy and well started 5yo to be nearer 10K.

But equally there are horses that have developed issues and lost rather than gained value so are not worth as much at 5 as they may have been at weanling or 1- 2. And those BOGOF or accidentally bred foals may now be older and showing themselves to be useful animals that you can pick up for 2-4K. So the cheaper and more expensive foals may end up costing the same at 5 depending on what has happened.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I just bought a yearling for well over that, but I can see why he would cost so much. With mine, his breed can bring a higher price, but when I think about what the breeder actually makes, it's a small profit. She owns the sire and dam, and her own yard, but that doesn't make anything free. The sire, dam, and foal all have hay year round in addition to the grass in their fields and other feed. They get regular hoof trims, vet appointments, vaccines and she also had a lot of overhead in building the huge field shelters, fences, straw bedding, hay, transporting all of this to the fields (the property is spread out), and other yard chores/needs.

On top of all of this, her horses are solid equine citizens with fantastic character. So she knows what she's doing and what she's producing. So that should command a price tag of some sort as well.

Her foals and yearlings generally range in price from 8 to 15k € Her program is very consistent. She has a good record of producing sound, brave, and sensible equines. They're well put together and she works toward preserving some older and good bloodlines. All that is worth something.

She's no big time breeder, but people pay what she asks.

I wouldn't consider a 3.5k foal to be well bred, as a rule, anyway. A 3.5k foal to me would be from average breeding. Possibly a proven sire, but perhaps not much on the damside. Or maybe without a certain type of passport... Like a Spanish horse that's not a PRE/registered with ANCCE.

I'd be hard pressed, to find a well bred PRE foal, healthy, well cared for (including the dam), and nice looking with good character for 3.5k. As a general note, we all might have different opinions on what is considered to be "well bred" and well cared for. So there is that.

The actual breed plays a role as do many other things.


I do stand by my longstanding opinion that horses and "horse stuff" has been freakishly cheap in most parts of the UK for so long.

 

[ihatework]

3.5k is a cheap foal - it won’t be particularly well bred at that price

 

[Xmasha]

£3.5k is not a lot for a foal. But i suppose it depends on what type you buy ? You can pick cheap welsh ponies up for a lot less. But quality ID foals are going for £7k + You would expect the same foal at 5 ( in todays pricing ) to be worth £12k +

 

[JBM]

3.5k is a cheap foal - it won’t be particularly well bred at that price

The original price was 5k but reduced as last one and now he’s buying one to keep his company for the winter ?

 

[stangs]

Expensive foals, or more foals commanding more average prices like this one, I can get my head around. It's buying embryos that I struggle to get my head around. There's an unborn foal on HQ going for 12k. It's worth the price but still feels like a massive gamble to me.

 

[Palindrome]

3.5k is a cheap foal - it won’t be particularly well bred at that price

Not necessarily, there are sometimes bargains, particularly if you buy in winter and aren't too picky.

 

[mariew]

I think you would struggle to find many good 5 year olds for 3.5k or less though. I don't think a good foal is expensive at 3.5k

 

[millitiger]

I don't know where you can find a well bred, well conformed and well trained 5yro 17hh horse for £3.5k.... so not sure whether that comparison stacks up!

I just paid £4k for a yearling and think he was an absolute bargain.

I've had plenty of cheaper horses too bug usually they have a quirk or history as I like really quality horses to ride and they don't come cheap without a 'but'

 

[spacefaer]

My new chap is by a horse whose stud fee was €15k. Pretty confident that he wouldn't have been 3.5k if you wanted to buy him as a foal ??

 

[JBM]

Depends what they’re bred for ??‍ My boys sire has an 7k stud fee but picked him up for 1k because he’s an ex race horse..he will excel in eventing by looks of him but peoples perception lowers his price so I don’t know tbh

 

[spacefaer]

Depends what they’re bred for ??‍ My boys sire has an 7k stud fee but picked him up for 1k because he’s an ex race horse..he will excel in eventing by looks of him but peoples perception lowers his price so I don’t know tbh

If he's good enough , his breeding won't matter. It's only at RC level that being an example of the ultimate sport horse breeding is a negative.

 

[JBM]

If he's good enough , his breeding won't matter. It's only at RC level that being an example of the ultimate sport horse breeding is a negative.

I’m just making a point to as your boy was a higher price due to the stud fee

 

[spacefaer]

Or you can pay 2.8 million for a yearling ??

 

[JBM]

Or you can pay 2.8 million for a yearling ??

Think I’d rather buy a house first ?

 

[TheMule]

3.5k is absolute peanuts for a well bred foal that has actually been done properly. Sure, you can buy them for less than that, but someone is losing money on them or there have been serious corners cut.
I have my own land so don’t have to factor in livery cost but I can tell you I'm already at about that to raise mine to 4 months by the time I've invested in the mare, keeping her for 11 months, the extra vaccines needed, the stud fee and v
AI vet costs, the foal check, my vets bills as the mare had some slight damage from foaling, extra feed, foal vaccinations, microchip, passport, farrier for both, worming

 

[lme]

By the time you spend a minimum of 1-2k on stud fees, maybe another £1- 2k on vets fees and add in the cost of foaling and keeping the mare for 18 months plus the cost of registering the foal you could easily spend over £5k. And that’s assuming nothing goes drastically wrong.