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Proof it isn't cheap to breed 101

30K views 85 replies 32 participants last post by  SunnyDraco 
#1 ·
It's a funny topic actually. I just estimated my bill for breeding my mare. For two trips to the vet to breed, I have invested $1,365 with two cycles. That will be the total on Wednesday with her ultrasound. All shipping fees and collection fees as well. I hope people know what they are getting into when they start breeding.....I only paid $550-600 for my stallion semen evaluation last year plus a ultasound and office fee at $67 additional only to find out she didn't take......we should of covered her one more time, not the stallion's fault. Yep, breeding is definetely cheap......:) I just thought it would make a great time letting people see what breeding can averagly cost.....I'm sure others would.
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#2 · (Edited)
That's what I always tell people...

EDIT: Also because our black and white mare was supposed to have this baby last year. A cruddy vet mistimed the insemination 4 TIMES. And then we did it twice this year. And since the foal turned out breeding stock, we get to rebreed again next year. x.x It's the shipping fees that kill ya.
 
#3 ·
Wow! Four times! I hope I don't go that route! Yeah I agree with you! Shipping and collection fess are murder! For me its a $225 collection fee plus $95-113 for shipping! Not counting the containers going back to california and that was twice!
I think I have.....$682 in collections/shipping here/and shipping it back.....its murder! :)
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#4 ·
I think it was around $250 in collecting and shipping, each time for 6 times... plus the booking fee and the stud fee... and then we have the other mare, and she took on the second time... Very, very spendy. And we're looking at stud fees alone of 750 each, (SI is normally 1750, but we won a stud auction)... and we're looking at somewhere between $5-10k for these babies, so there's very little money for profit. Any money that we do make just goes into next year's.
 
#5 ·
Yeah I hear yah. I won a breeding from a benefit auction. I would hate to spend all this money and she not be in foal. There's not much profit at all if you can't get her within one or two times, if you're lucky. I thought about that too. By the time you get your money it flies out before you can count it lol now if the economy would pick back up I'm sure it'd be better on everyone....but then again....if the horse market picked up our government would tax us just for having horses lol all because our government can't figure out how to not spend our dollars. :)
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#8 ·
Love this thread! Would you guys mind posting the actual stud fee along with your other costs? I think it would really be instructive to see that, say, a $1000. stud fee comes with $3500. of other breeding costs.

And if you have the total cost to actually get the baby on the ground, including the extra vacs for your pregnant mare, vet checks, etc., that would be assume too.
 
#9 ·
Love this thread! Would you guys mind posting the actual stud fee along with your other costs? I think it would really be instructive to see that, say, a $1000. stud fee comes with $3500. of other breeding costs.

And if you have the total cost to actually get the baby on the ground, including the extra vacs for your pregnant mare, vet checks, etc., that would be assume too.
Yes, then in the spring track the mare and foal's expenses.

Then expense of the weaning.
 
#10 ·
Insurance for the baby - $598

Shipping in total - $375

Stud fee - $612

Shots - $231

One Vet check, ultrasound and so on - $100

Boarding, vet checks, medicin etc. when she was bred the first time - $1145

Boarding, vet checks, medicin etc. when she was bred the second time - $804

Shots with tetanus vaccine - $90

= 3955

Then we have the extra food, minerals and vitamins, equipment for the foaling - freeze-dried colostrum and all the other things that is needed.

My mare used to eat 10 kg of good quality hay and nothing else. Now she eats 18 kg of good quality hay, 2 kg Dodson & Horrell mix, vitamins, minerals etc, etc.

I think I went low, saying i'm up in 4189 now. lol.

Then, when the baby is on the ground, we will do a foal-check and take the vet out, and the farrier will come out to check the legs.
 
#11 ·
We use to have our own standing stallion so it wasn't as much then..but then if you look at what it cost to show him and register him to make sure he earned his right to breed I guess it does add up too...now i will only do live cover and only with stallions I know the owners and know what they have done to title that stallion....even then we have left our mares open last year and someone elses horse helped himself and now were paying for it...I will not do AI....
 
#12 ·
Why sure I'll share :)

Stud fee: 275, no booking, lfg
Shipping fees alone: around 125 that includes sending back the containers
Collection fees: so far 450
Vets: .........expensive!....915 for twice breeding and the ultrasound coming up.

Total breeding her is so far for two times: 1365.
Ill get back to you on feed and other stuff. I need a calculator and I'm on the road. :)
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#13 ·
Last year

Stud fee. WHich I will not post as I get deals and it is not fair to the stallion owner to advertise something that has been worked out between them and myself based on my mares pedigree and show records.

Shipped semen. 2 shipments at $250 each so $500. Should have only needed one but that was my fault.

Shipping cost at $74 times 2 so $150.

Vet cost at 20 days was $106

Vac was $17 each times 3 so $51 Then the 4 way which I normally would not factor in but I will was $14.

So my totel for this foal due here in a few weeks is....


$821.00

Not bad considering what the foal will/is worth.
 
#14 ·
My rule of thumb for breeding is you need $5000.00 in your back pocket or don't bother.!!!

Stud Fee was $1000.00 with two free collections

Shipping was $100.00 by air........only need one collection and shipping as mare took on the first attempt

Shots apprx $100.00 for 3

Emergency visit (9am) for mare and foal care as we had complications plus a visit at 4pm the same day to do a colustrum test ...approx $700.00.

2nd visit to suture mare after swelling was down and flush for an infections approximately $500.00

3rd visit for foal for ulcers from meds mom was one apprx $350.00 includes meds and blood work.

I am missing some stuff as I thought I had added it once and it was about $4000.00 to put the foal on the ground.

Super Nova
 
#15 ·
My rule of thumb for breeding is you need $5000.00 in your back pocket or don't bother.!!!

Stud Fee was $1000.00 with two free collections

Shipping was $100.00 by air........only need one collection and shipping as mare took on the first attempt

Shots apprx $100.00 for 3

Up to here this is what would be considered cost to put a foal on the ground.

Emergency visit (9am) for mare and foal care as we had complications plus a visit at 4pm the same day to do a colustrum test ...approx $700.00.

2nd visit to suture mare after swelling was down and flush for an infections approximately $500.00

3rd visit for foal for ulcers from meds mom was one apprx $350.00 includes meds and blood work.

I am missing some stuff as I thought I had added it once and it was about $4000.00 to put the foal on the ground.

Super Nova
The others is just what happens and could with any horse. May not be the exact same things but there is always cost in having horses and non of this would be considered the norm.
 
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#20 ·
Why would it not be worth it?

The cost of shipped semen on average is about $250. It would have cost me about $3K to ship my mare to that stallion one way and she had a foal on her side. Then add on chut fees mare care vet cost and so on. Then shipping the mare and foal back to me. It would have cost me about $7K or better instead of costing me $750 to that point.

If I did not want to ship my mare that fare then I would have been limited to the stallions I would have picked. I would not have gotten a NRHA Open Re Futurity champion.
 
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#24 ·
I think it would depend on where the stallion was to whether it would be cheaper cmarie. I've never done AI...only live cover and most stallions have been within 3 hour drive. I have also had an agreement with a friend and kept her stallion standing at my farm for a breeding season. I must say though this year with 4 unplanned breedings. 1 abortion 1 still born and 2 still cooking we have totaled up nearly 3000 just since Jan....from extra food, to vet. visits (several on weekend and night calls),abortion cost plus care while at the vet for 4 days, now my mare that had the still born, emergency call, several test, necropsy on the foal, special feed with supplements for a few days, then the 2 mares still cooking extra feed, more vet. visit to ensure they deliver safely heavens if we have to call vet out for delivery! 3 mares with vac...PLUS getting the stallion who caused all this gelding! I think that has been the happiest day! Now to focus on the healing of one mare and hopefully the safe birth of 2 others!
 
#27 ·
I can't say what I've spent getting my foal on the ground, I haven't really taken the time to add up the total, although just the vet fees were probably around 6-700 dollars. My vet doesn't charge any sort of extra fee, I just call up there and he fits me in, so the vet check the day my colt was born was only $40. I am going the route of taking my mare to the breeder's place next year when I breed my mare to RC Fancy Step, I am curious to see what my fees might accumulate to since I already have $3500 invested.
 
#28 ·
I am going the route of taking my mare to the breeder's place next year when I breed my mare to RC Fancy Step, I am curious to see what my fees might accumulate to since I already have $3500 invested.
I have done it both ways in the past. At the end of the day shipping it in is less expensive 90% of the time. By the time you haul the mare to the stallion. Pay mare care chut fees their vet fees and so on. Then hauling her back home your time to do so and so on. It works out to be about the same.
 
#29 ·
Well, all their ultrasounds are included in their booking fee, so I pay mare care and any shots (lut, etc) they give her. RC only has one working teste, so they AI the mare via deep horn insemenation, which my vet is not accustomed to, so figured I'd leave it to the experts as they have experience. They are only about an hour and 45 minutes away, so the haul isn't bad at all. Still, their 15/day mare care can get high, lol.
 
#30 ·
Ya that is normal for that line unfortunitly. If you do not have a good vet or do it yourself sometimes it is better to send them off. That is not to fare either so that helps.

Last time I sent a mare off was my Poco Bueno G-dauther to Zan Freckles Hickory and that cost was a bit more then what it cost me last year. That was 10 years difference too. Same can be said for all the other AI breedings I have done here over the years.
 
#31 ·
I will agree. If you don't have a good vet, its best to send them to a place who knows exactly what they're doing than to let money burn before your eyes. The last time my grandma bred her mare she spent around $615 just to live cover and probably another hundred in an ultrasound.
As far as feeding costs before pregnancy, I would probably keep a couple thousand an a little more for when she foals......I didn't feel like remembering what it felt to have my purse growl and snap at my hand for reaching for money...
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#32 ·
Buying mare with a bun in the oven you didn't know about....... free foal.

Mare popping out a free foal with health problems, an attitude and will cost in the thousands to get trained since I don't have the experience to do it myself, all while pulling my hair out with worry and feeding him for 3 years until he can go to the trainer, priceless!

I could have bought a broke trail horse and been riding it right away for about $600. :shock:
 
#36 ·
If all you want is a broke horse then yes you can buy one a lot of the time for less then breeding.

I personally have not found it to be true that I can buy for the same price I can breed for.

It all comes down to what you want out of the horse.
 
#35 ·
At yours is very good at settling your mare easily. Mine has so far had to do it twice and I'm so trying to stay neutral because I was so excited the last time and I have to wait till Wednesday @ 10am for an ultrasound......so yes, this can also be decieving when you have a mare who has had a silent heat all year so far well except the last time I brought her home, she just depressed my gelding wanting him to service.....good thing my fence was up to par because I found a certain little boy running along side her pen....well not so little. He hasn't busted out again. Thank god. But if she isn't pregnant this time, well ill be breaking the deal cuz I won't be able to spend another $650...(just an estimated estimated guess). I didn't have a calculator so I split it almost in half.....nope not this year. Either she is with this california stud or we'll hook her up with Bentley for a nice futurity prospect. (Well you can't very well tell till they're born at minimal)
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#37 ·
Great point, nrhareiner.

For certain types of performance horses or a top athlete, breeding for exactly what you want is probably the way to go.

But for most hobby horsepeople and recreational riders, it is one expensive way to get a pleasure or trail horse. I frequently bought yearlings and two year olds of average to good quality for less than the stud fee to produce them. The breeders were banking on the exceptional quality get to sell for many times the fee to break even.

I wonder how many hobbyists or recreational horsepeople who breed their mare think it was worth it or would do it again?
 
#38 ·
That is one thing I have never been able to understand is why people what to breed their mare for no other reason then to have a foal. Why you would breed for a horse to do weekend trail rides on and so on. At the end of the day you can buy a trained horse for what it cost to breed and raise one.

Also do not even think about saying you want one that you raised so it does not have any bad habits. There are a lot of good well trained horses out there who do not have bad habbits that at the end of the day are less expensive then what it cost to breed raise and train a horse.
 
#39 · (Edited)
I want get three brood mares and raise babies to sell.

However, they will be proven mares. (of course, that makes them older)

One I think will be a deal is a three in one.

Mare, filly by her side and bred back.

Standard live foal guarantee.

They want $50,000.

I have offered $45,000.

We will see....
 
#42 ·
For Julep and Baby Aldis over the last calendar year:
  • $210 ($150 Farm call charge + $60 Ultrasound/palpate) for 4 visits to track folical while mare coming in to heat, plus 5 more after she was AI'ed to see if she took and to follow up over the year.
  • $180 for AI ($150 farm call, $30 AI fee)
  • $75 Hormone tests and shots
  • $50 Caslicks
  • $1000 Studfee
  • $250 Collection fee
  • $150 Courier fee from stud farm vet to my vet (In-county)
  • $250 Farm call for urgent vet visit after birth for healthy baby check (A Non-emergency visit, w/o an appointment within 12 hours)
  • $100 Shots, test & exam
  • $425 Registration & inspection fees
$4370
Charges are not including addition hay, suppliments or 9.5% sales tax. These are conservative numbers considering she caught on the first cycle and we had a healthy delivery.

I know there is money in horses; *I PUT IT THERE*
 
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