The Real Cost of Breeding Your Own Foal

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Tia

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A poster made a very valid comment on another thread so it was also something I had been thinking of too, so I thought I would make a post to see exactly how much all our foals have/are going to cost us through to weaning.

I have my own stallion, however had I been a customer wishing my mare to be bred by him then it would have cost me $750 Stud Fees plus $10 per day for grass livery for her few days of excitement. If for some reason I misjudged the date then I could be paying much more or having to go back again the following month which would incur further charges.

Scan - well again I have a good friend who is an AI vet, so I had my pony's scan done for free. Generally this cost would have been about $250.

Then the mare would need vaccinating just less than a month prior to foaling - this would cost about $70. Once again I am friends with my vet so I have the syringe loaded with vaccine and Cloud is getting her's today. The cost to me is probably about $10.

Any problems with birthing, well you will have vet bills. If the mare foals in the middle of the night then you can expect Emergency Call-out Charges. I am planning to invite my vet and his wife over for dinner the night I think Cloud will foal
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Vet fees for problem births can add up to a significant amount of money. If the owner chooses to send the mare to a stud to foal-down then she would be looking at a hefty extra bill depending on how long the mare takes to foal.

Then if all goes well and you have a wonderful little foal at the end, you hope that s/he sees it through without any injuries or sickness....more vet fees if this happens.

Don't forget if you are paying livery for the mare and foal you have to factor these costs into your budget. The yard could by rights charge you to board the foal aswell, so even more expense. If I had to pay livery then my costs would be $2550 from the moment the foal was conceived through to weaning.

It would be interesting to see costs from everyone though.

My total cost would have been somewhere around - $4,000 had I not the infrastructure in place.

As it is this foal will actually cost me $10 for her vaccinations and any costs incurred during/pre/post the foaling.
 
It does make you think to buy a foal rather than breed, another cost involved is feed, we brought the little guy and his mom when he was 4 weeks, didn't think I'd have to spend much on him as he was healthy and still suckling so free for livery at our yard. Forgot costs, like vaccinations, vetting (he had a quick eye's, heart lungs etc...) trimming by the farrier and most expensive of all... feed... he started eating his own dinner at 5 weeks, was on a special stud balancer like his mom, (as she was overweight and didn't need the added calories. But a bag of this cost £17 and doesn't last long... So all in all he's been quite expensive.... considering I thought I was buying on getting one free
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can't imagine handling the costs of breeding and birthing too...
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Interesting - I was talking about this yesterday

Breeding your own in the UK means that at say £30/week

Your horse would cost you £1,560 per year

So to get to a 4 year old it will cost £6,240
The lost interest on the livery at 4.5% £734
Stud fee £500

£7,474 buys you a pretty good unbroken 4 year old.....
 
My mare is due in less than 5 weeks and thus far the 'foal' has cost a couple of quid short of £1000 and that's not including the mare's keep/vaccinations etc but includes the stud livery to get her in foal/scans/vet's fees for crushing the twin she conceived. She goes back to the stud on Saturday so, assuming no problems, the foal will have cost £1500 just to get here. By the time it's weaned and been vaccinated/microchipped etc, there probably won't be much change out of £2000.

I think this is a very valid post as I remember having a lengthy exchange on here some time ago with someone who thought that people charged too much for their horses but who, obviously, did not stop to consider the costs involved.. I would think that a price of £5000 for a 4-year old who has been fully vaccinated/foot trimmed or shod/been taught all the stable manners and 'bomb-proofing' and just KEPT is a perfectly reasonable price but, sadly, some people expect to get them for what almost amounts to the stud fee, never mind all the other costs. Oh, forgot to add the cost of extra insurance for foaling complications/stillbirth/foal dying within 30 days/loss of the mare . . . . .
 
I agree with Tia that it's an expensive business, but then keeping a horse as a hobby is expensive and if you are breeding as a hobby, then one should expect it to be expensive also.
 
I haven't worked mine out !!!
so far stud fee £450.00, stud keep £300.00, vets package at stud £375.00 and livery now £320.00pm oh and all the tests before putting her in foal came to approx £200
so no not cheap
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Hx
 
I did work it out a couple of months ago. And I think I calculated that my foal will have cost me around £3K at weaning. However, I am at livery so quite a bit of the costs are incurred there. However, to get a live foal will have cost me circa £2k
 
mine cost me around £5k to yearling. eekkk.
however i couldnt have afforded to buy her even at weaning her siblings are going for around 4k upwards.
shes had no health problems and the foaling was straightforward and at home (had slight issue with mum accepting for for a while though!)ive been really lucky with her in fact.
its not the cheap way out though unless you have your own land etc
it can all go horribly wrong at any point-worse thing being you end up with a dead mare and foal and have still forked out a load of money.
 
After losing our first foal last year (still born poor wee thing) we decided to have another go. I can honestly say that the amount of money (and heartache) it has cost us we would probably have been better buying a REALLY nice foal/yearling.

Mind you its still lovely and special to breed for yourself - but definately not cheaper!!!
 
to get a foal to 4yo will cost £4000 plus, which is why people should be prepared to pay £5000 plus for a decent 4 yo. My 2 have cost a fortune (£6000 - and they are 2 and 3)but I couldn't afford to buy them.
 
I replied on the other post, but to cap...

I sent 1 mare off to stud last year and it cost me £1500 in stud fees, vet fees and keep fees. This does not include the cost of keeping the mare and raising the foal to weaning. I daren't add it all up as I would be scared and probably not put anything in foal ever again!

It does annoy me when people expect to get a well bred horse at a cheap price. They are certainly not cheap to breed!
 
Well, here goes:
Pro-Set frozen semen - £910 (including carriage)
Stud fee while inseminated - £350 (she stayed for 5 weeks at £10 a day)
Vets Package - £250 (included all scans)
Vet to check her udders when bleeding - £40 (ish)

I don't know how much it will have cost for today, but say £80ish, I think Troy has cost me over £2000 just for a live foal. I'm not including Hannah's vaccinations or livery because I would have her there anyway and her jab was due at just the right time
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But, it is not just the financial costs. I think from my posts, over the past few months especially, many of you will have seen the emotional strain breeding from your own mare can cause. Especially when things don't go quite as planned
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But, I wouldn't change it for the world... That moment when Troy's litle face appeared out of the bag and he did a small whicker just melted my heart and made all of it worth while. But I understand why yearlings can be expensive.
 
Well haven't even put mine in foal yet but.

Scans/swaps: (had them today) up to £100
Stud fee: £350 +vat
AI collect and posting: £70 + vat
AIing, scaning in foal, drugs etc: £200 package deal from the vet.
Livery at vets: £19 per day. Needs to be there at least a week
Mare is kept at home so no livery etc on there.

That is almost £900. With out vaccs, any problems, call out charges etc and anything I have forgotten.
 
I think it all depends on how smoothly your attempt at breeding goes.

Total stud fee was £350 + VAT
Vets Service £250 + VAT (all scans included)
3 x trips to vets in lorry £30

I was very ver lucky, my mare took first time and stayed at home, only went to be inseminated. She had no complications at all, she foaled at home with me there and then the vet came out and gave Huey his jabs the following morning.

My friends mare went to stud and got frightened by a low aeroplane and ran through a fence, £800 later in vets fees she came home, plus her stud fee and the fact she had to stay at stud whilst her deep cuts healed - must have cost them almost £2000 in the end!
 
this is a really interesting helpful post :~) thanks for posting this topic and replies
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i am seriously considering putting 2 of mine in foal this year - i very nearly did last year but with one thing and another - it never happened - choosing a stallion and waying up all the pros and cons is hard!
it seems like it varies a lot... as in studs and their keep fees etc
it would be my first time breeding horses, my reasons for covering two is that it should in 'theory' work out cheaper - as hopefully they could share vets call outs etc (in theory anyway!) plus the two foals would have a playmate, hopefully making weaning easier.
i have a friend with some pony stallions so hoping to strike a good 'deal' with her for my pony, also she has experience which will be helpful! for my other mare, i am looking at stallions at the moment, seen a few i like, one in particular but the stud hasnt emailed me back yet with more details. has anyone any stats for the conception rates for AI chilled/frozen and natural?
 
Wow - I'm really glad this post has received some excellent replies. I was thinking of putting my mare in foal next year, she had 2 before I bought her and I really wanted a foal before retiring her. My main reasons for putting her in foal was a/ I thought it would be cheaper than buying, b/ I wanted a horse with some of my mare's wonderful traits.
I so surprised at my own naivety of the cost involved, I have truly had my eyes opened. Whilst I wouldn't have gone into breeding my mare without research I have to say I would never have guessed the costs in the UK would be so high. My sister had a stud farm in Australia and the cost of breeding out there is clearly considerably cheaper so I was obviously basing my estimates on that - how stupid of me!!!
 
Hi Claire, hardly stupid.

I know nothing about studs in Australia but I daresay it's basically the same as any other. I imagine your sister wouldn't have to pay covering fees if she owned the stallion, or for keep either. If we all had those two facilities it would be a darn sight cheaper for us all.

Three years ago it cost me 300 pounds for 6 weeks grass keep, a scan and the stallion fees for a Welsh part bred to go to Sianwood Arcade, a very nice little Section B.

This time all it has cost me (so far) is hard feed and $1500 for the mare. I have no idea what this foal is going to be and it will be sold as a weanling. I bought the mare because I liked her breeding, the fact that she was in-foal was neither here nor there.
 
The greatest advantage of buying a foal is that you know what you're getting: gender, colour AND that it has straight legs and no obvious congenital abnormalities....Nothing worse than breeding your own foal with bent knees/cleft palate/whatever

the greatest advantage of breeding your own foal is that you can handle it from birth and build a kind of relationship that no-one who hasn't done it could possibly know (if you want to)

the cost is probably irrelevenat in the balance of these two things - what matters is which one of these is your priority

E
 
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