Why does it.................

[Bananaman]

...............cost more to grade a stallion than a mare?

Just wondering, as as far as I can see they have to go through the same process at grading but the fees are vastly different.

 

[Alibear]

Because a graded Stallion will have higher value and long term income than a mare and the studbooks want their slice of that pie!

 

[Bananaman]

Well I did wonder if that was the reason, but as per a recent thread, with AI being so widely used it has opened the market place right up for stallion choice and so even the average numbers of mares booked per stallion seems to have dropped dramatically.
In purely commertial terms, you might make more money by breeding one foal from a mare as opposed to covering say, four mares with your stallion.

 

[Fleur100]

It depends on the Society.... The New Forest pony stallions go through a stringent panel examination which scores all parts of the pony and includes temperament & true to typeness, vetting & DNA testing (provided they pass) and the total cost is in the region of £80-100 if you use the vet provided on the day. A further vetting (from an approced practice) is required at 5 years to obtain a full licence. The performance grading works out at about £20 for either SJ or dressage and again it is judged on more than the ability to jump a track (>1m) or complete a test.
Looking at some of the other horse/pony non-breed societies for example I am astounded that they charge as much as they do. However you just have to look at how much they charge for registering a prefix to work out they are making a healthy profit!