Stud fees - do you consider £750 expensive?

[Meowy Catkin]

I didn't want to hijack another thread, so I started this one.

I know nothing about warmblood stallions as all the research I did was in arabian stallions as I had once seriously considered putting my anglo in foal to an arab. I then decided to buy a youngster instead and have since bought two purebreds. My gelding's sire's fee was £1000 when he was standing in the UK (now in the Middle East and I don't know what the fee is now).

However, I was surprised that £750 was considered expensive. One of the problems I had when looking, was that I often found stallions that would compliment my mare, only to find that their stud fee was $3000 plus. Yes, there are cheaper stallions out there, including sub £500 ones that are standing in the UK, but they never seemed to complement that particular mare so well.

 

[popsdosh]

It is not expensive if the mare justifies the expense. To many people when going into breeding assume that the more you spend the better the result . My point on that thread was that no stallion at whatever price is guaranteed to to put right issues in a mare ,which is the most important question. There are plenty of very good £500 stallions out there it all depends on what you are trying to achieve in the first place. Lets face it at the moment most stud fees a very negotiable its just the novice breeder is very unlikely to have the confidence to ask and be persuasive.

 

[Golden_Match_II]

It would completely depend on the mare, but as a hobby breeder I think it is near the top end of what I would pay for a stallion.

For a reference point my mare competed to BE Novice and FEI 1* eventing with many top 10 placings, and was an ideal junior horse. She is a cob cross who needs refinement. We chose to put her to a 15/16ths TB stallion competing at BE advanced and FEI 2* as we realised we are more likely to breed another Juniors horse than we are a 4* horse. We paid £600 to use him as she is in Intermediate BE points so received a £50 discount. He has a number of offspring competing at grassroots up to Intermediate and 2*. On the basis that this stallion is very proven, yet we only paid £600, I would therefore say £750 is quite a lot of money. Hopefully we will breed a nice foal that I can break in and produce myself. I believe this stallion's fees may have gone up this year.

Most of the stallions I have seen in excess of £750 may well produce top level horses but those top level horses most likely don't have a Cob X dam, and so it doesn't seem worth it on our mare.

 

[Fazzie]

I don't think that is expensive. My experience is with Arabs as well I paid £1500 for stud fee and have a beautiful pure bred Arab colt.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Maybe a good arab stallion is more expensive than a good WB stallion?

 

[crabbymare]

if you look in Europe the stud fees for a well bred warmblood stallion with offspring that have performance records are from around 1000 euros. arabs with polish and egyptian lines that I saw were I thing a bit less but I was not taking a lot of notice as I was only there for a nose and was not interested in using one. I think the stud fee is a relatively small part of things when you consider the total costs in producing a foal and its better to look at what stallions will compliment a good mare and produce a good foal first and have the stud fee as a secondary consideration

 

[Dizzle]

My old TB's sire's stud fee was 60,000 EURO. Someone must have been very pee'd off to end up with my old TB after that!

£750 sounds very reasonable to me. But I've never bred (and have no plans to, as much as I love my mare no one needs that stubborn streak!)

 

[Meowy Catkin]

It was cheaper for me to buy, rather than breed. I couldn't afford to use the stallions that complemented her best and I did worry about things going well (I'd have been heartbroken if she'd died). Plus buying a weanling/yearling does mean that you can see the result (conformation/temperament etc...), so you aren't taking a gamble there either.

I do think that the research has skewed my thoughts on how much it costs to get a quality foal on the ground though. Why oh why do I have such expensive tastes?

 

[Golden_Match_II]

Maybe you just have a nice mare who is worth the money? Mine is lovely and I feel confident we will get a nice foal from her, but we are not necessarily aiming that high as we will never get something spectacuar from her! If I had bred from my other eventing mare, we would potentially have spent more - she's a smartly bred ID/TB/SF and competed to a higher level. But even then I think 1k would have been a stretch!

Of course racing TB stallions are a league of their own, and it seems that potentially arabs are quite different to most eventing stallions too.

 

[ihatework]

I've just paid 1500 euro as a stud fee on a maiden mare. I winced a little, but to be honest the stud fees weren't in forefront of my mind, it was a case of the stallion that fit the bill just happened to be on the pricier side. BUT if you consider the cost of getting a live foal on the ground and then the subsequent years of keeping and producing, the extra £500 or so is a drop in the ocean.

 

[Rollin]

I have three Shagya by Tatianus, whose stud fee is 600 euros. One is graded for two stud books, his full sister, jumped in appalling conditions at Saumur, with 4 faults, first time out and went clear at Lion D'Angers yesterday.

A pony sired by Tatianus was 5th in EU Pony Championships last year and has just been sold to Cheshire. I think the stud fees are value for money.

I have lots of great photos and will post in a few days.

 

[Springs]

The cost of the stud fee is only a minor part of breeding, £750 seems very reasonable. However its the one bit we take most notice of as its normally a one off fee upfront but when you add things up over all it can be quite small.

An extream case of this is our little guy George by Voltaire - stud fee £2k - 3 years, 4 different mares and a number of AI cycles each year = additional costs of around £8k then foaling fees so to get this one on the ground has cost around £10.5k.....

 

[GemG]

An extream case of this is our little guy George by Voltaire - stud fee £2k - 3 years, 4 different mares and a number of AI cycles each year = additional costs of around £8k then foaling fees so to get this one on the ground has cost around £10.5k.....

Ouch!

 

[sywell]

Ouch!

Look at the price of the state stallions at Celle and how many are 600 Euros. I remember an IA seminar when a elderly lady rubbished the whole idea and said she had a friend down the road with a TB stallion she walked her mare to and he accepted a bottle of single malt whisky.

 

[Rollin]

I have three Shagya by Tatianus, whose stud fee is 600 euros. One is graded for two stud books, his full sister, jumped in appalling conditions at Saumur, with 4 faults, first time out and went clear at Lion D'Angers yesterday.

A pony sired by Tatianus was 5th in EU Pony Championships last year and has just been sold to Cheshire. I think the stud fees are value for money.

I have lots of great photos and will post in a few days.

Results are up and she actually won at Lion D'Angers and qualifies for regional finals.

Tatianus was a bargain at 600 euros!!

 

[popsdosh]

Look at the price of the state stallions at Celle and how many are 600 Euros. I remember an IA seminar when a elderly lady rubbished the whole idea and said she had a friend down the road with a TB stallion she walked her mare to and he accepted a bottle of single malt whisky.

Most of the stallions at Celle look very affordable compared to similar breeding within the uk . My argument is most british based stallions are well overpriced for what you are getting. There are top stallions there that come in below the £750 pound budget. I am afraid british mare owners need to wake up to the fact that there are some very mediocre stallions in the UK that are marketed in excess of £750 who are being sold on the basis of their fashionable breeding and at the end of the day achieved nothing in their own right. You also need to remember it is a very good time to import semen now from europe as 600 euros is less than £450