All I can say is . . . If you are breeding to sell, be prepared to lose a lot of money. Ask me how I know.
I wouldn’t go into it thinking you’re going to make money. And it also really depends on your definition of “make money”.
Let’s use our average to cheap example of $5K to get the foal on the ground and to weaning age. This is including stud fees, vets, mare care, etc, and assumes you did a lot of stuff on your own at home. If you sell your foal for $10K, which in this market would probably be lucky, you have “made” $5K. I will use these number for the sake of ease. This does not factor in cost of land, mare, labor, equipment, or anything unforeseen like injury or illness.
Now I am going to use Hyperion as our example because they have some very nice horses and she says she has made money on every foal. The following could be said about essentially any large and successful breeding farm in the US, I am just using Hyperion as the example since they are nice enough to post here, and I am most familiar with jumpers since that is what I also do. I am certain the same could be said of the dressage, hunter, etc, breeders out there…
SO, if a breeder has 4 nice foals each year, and nothing catastrophic happens, you could theoretically sell each for $10K, at a $5K “profit” each, so you make $20K. Easy money, especially with your own farm right?
Now let’s think about why Hyperion’s (or Hilltop’s, or Iron Spring’s, or…) foals sell readily. This is because they have gotten a very nice string of quality stallions and mares with good bloodlines and performance records ($$$). But that is not enough. In order for buyers to know about the existence of such a program, you must advertise ($$), at least moderately, and over a period of time to develop some name recognition.
More importantly, as a stallion owner, the horses are all out competing successfully on the circuit with top class care and a well known top class rider ($$$). Seeing the stallions compete week in and week out allows them to remain in people’s minds, piques their interest, and makes the offspring have a greater chance of being sold on the basis of the parents, and also the friendships and connections being forged by owners having horses out showing.
I own my own stallion, and I have some really nice mares who have given me some super foals so far. I have very little in the foal, technically, when it hits the ground. But factoring all the (countless) failed breeding attempts to sub-fertile outside stallions, show expenditures, registrations, ads, farm help while I am working my FT job, etc, it is not a real money maker by any stretch.
Truly, it is a real labor of love. And the main reason I started it, as someone else pointed out, was to try and breed for the sort of horse I want to train, compete, and sell, and the sort of horse that is top notch and that I would never be able to afford as a 4yo.
None of this is to discourage you, but rather to encourage you to go into it with an eyes wide open approach, if that is the path you choose. There are countless hidden costs that you don’t think to factor in, but should really be considered if you are talking about an actual profit. Best of luck! I do love all my babies to death, and my first 2 I’ve raised are 5yo this year and getting ready for YJC classes. Very exciting! 
Thanks to everyone for their input. I have decided to definitely breed my one Hanoverian mare and won a breeding in a stallion service auction for a stallion who is normally around $2400 for around $1,000 - so that will save a little of the initial investment. 
The poster above mentioned this also, and one of the main reasons I decided to do this is because it may be the only way for me to get a horse with this sort of value as a 3/4 year old. It might be the same in cost, or even MORE expensive to breed it, but your costs are spread out over 3-4 years instead of one giant lump sum, etc… so, it will be a great adventure! If I make a little extra money selling the baby, fantastic! If not, oh well. And I’m confident in the quality of the mare/stallion so I won’t feel guilty about bringing a sub par horse into the world, which is another huge consideration for me considering the number of horses out there who need a good home and don’t have one. Again, thanks for all the input!
There are going to be a lot of factors. We own our own stallion. We live cover. ZERO vet/stallion fees there. We have one ultrasound normally, give our own shots. I figure with rent, insurance, hay, grain, farrier every other month and deworming it costs me about 100.00 a horse to feed per month. That is $1200 a year. So to get it to three would be $3600 plus any unforseen vet. If it cost 3000 a year per horse I would be in debt and I have no credit card debt and do not make that type of money! We are blessed to have good quality inexpensive hay farmers also.
Sigh, what everyone else said…
It is a good thing a nice foal is the equivalent of Kryptonite for many of us
[QUOTE=siegi b.;6115789]
At the risk of sounding “preachy”…
Make sure you have a very good mare with proven bloodlines and breed her to the best stud you can afford. Only then will you minimize the risk of producing a (less than) average foal that you won’t be able to sell. Mares from proven bloodlines also tend to be easy breeders because that is one of the requirements for being “proven”, so you will hopefully save some money on the getting pregnant part.
Also, find an experienced vet that has spend years breeding mares and has done so successfully.
Good luck![/QUOTE]
TOTALLY agree. It will cost you the same to feed/bed/vet/farrier a 5k foal or a 20k foal. Go with the best mare and the best stallion money can buy. In the long run that extra $1000 you spent on stud fees will seem like peanuts!
We bred 5-6 mares a year. Sell most as custom foals. We do bring 1-2 babies a year all the way to 4yrs old and backing/showing. Yes its a huge costs BUT its worth more then a baby not doing anything. Its REALLY important to pay the extra money up front on the best feed, vet and farrier. It 100% pays off.
Its a labour of love and I choose denial as my financial statment!!!:lol:
‘bringing the best stallions closer to home’
www.mountaincreeksporthorses.com
Oh and don’t breed anything you wouldn’t be happy to have in your barn for the next couple years!! hehehe
‘Bringing the best stallions closer to home.’
www.mountaincreeksporthorses.com
[QUOTE=Mkelle11;6109642]
With breeding, you could have $5,000 into a foal to get it on the ground, only to have it come out with three legs.[/QUOTE]
:yes:
I bred my mare for the first time last year. I have about $2500 in her now, just for the semen and the vet bill, and she tool on the first try. For me as well, it was something I have always wanted to do, I have my own farm, and the time and the means to do it, the timing was right and so far so good. But the quote above it too true!
This varies so widely and much depends on how much you do yourself. I’m willing to bet it doesn’t cost someone like Mo Swanson $5000 to put a baby on the ground (she does her own AI, frozen, ultrasound, etc).
I live in a cheap area for horses and get great hay for very little ($155 delivered and stacked).
My vet is reasonable. I do my own shots, worming, AI, colostrum testing, IgG, etc.
I try to “shop” stallions and pay in the fall before the breeding season and have gotten some super deep discounts.
I’ve gotten foals on the ground for as little as $2500, then another $1500 for keep for 6 mos & registration/inspection another $200. Total $4000. Sold the foal for $10K at 4 mos of age.
However that doesn’t include the times I’ve spend MORE and had a foal with $10K of vet bills, or one that died at birth (and I’ve had both).
So I would say (over all) most of use lose $$ horsebreeding.
But if you are only doing it ONCE you might do better.
Yes, it will be a great adventure assuming the foal is born healthy and stays healthy & uninjured till it is 4 yrs old.
THIS is the big risk to raising your own, because horses being horses, they are prone to destroying themselves in so many creative ways…:sadsmile:
So you could well spend $10K to get it to 3 yrs and then have it run into a fence and be a pasture pet till the end of it’s days…
I do understand the risk quite well. I bred one mare 7 or 8 years ago, and she ended up needing colic surgery during the pregnancy. Amazingly, both mom and baby ended up no worse for the wear. In baby’s yearling year, he tore a tendon and we then spent the next 5 years trying to get him to stay just pasture sound for more than a few months at a time. We finally put him down as a 6 year old. I couldn’t even BEGIN to add up the money we spent from the time we bred the mare til we finally let baby go - probably 15-20k? Plus endless emotional ups and downs.
Momma, however, is still going strong at age 29 now - she’s a gorgeous old Trakehner mare by Amiego who I wish was young enough to breed!
So anyway, here’s hoping for much better luck this time around!
Cost to get a baby on the ground
Buschkn,
I just saw this and know that I am late…But wanted to say -
Yours is the best detailed answer that I have ever read about breeding costs. The breeding, the raising, the vets…on and on. My short answer to the question would be - “Just make sure you aren’t dependant on your horse sales income to be able to make ends meet”, and enjoy every good minute with the babies!:winkgrin:
[QUOTE=buschkn;6115970]
I wouldn’t go into it thinking you’re going to make money. And it also really depends on your definition of “make money”.
Let’s use our average to cheap example of $5K to get the foal on the ground and to weaning age. This is including stud fees, vets, mare care, etc, and assumes you did a lot of stuff on your own at home. If you sell your foal for $10K, which in this market would probably be lucky, you have “made” $5K. I will use these number for the sake of ease. This does not factor in cost of land, mare, labor, equipment, or anything unforeseen like injury or illness.
Now I am going to use Hyperion as our example because they have some very nice horses and she says she has made money on every foal. The following could be said about essentially any large and successful breeding farm in the US, I am just using Hyperion as the example since they are nice enough to post here, and I am most familiar with jumpers since that is what I also do. I am certain the same could be said of the dressage, hunter, etc, breeders out there…
SO, if a breeder has 4 nice foals each year, and nothing catastrophic happens, you could theoretically sell each for $10K, at a $5K “profit” each, so you make $20K. Easy money, especially with your own farm right?
Now let’s think about why Hyperion’s (or Hilltop’s, or Iron Spring’s, or…) foals sell readily. This is because they have gotten a very nice string of quality stallions and mares with good bloodlines and performance records ($$$). But that is not enough. In order for buyers to know about the existence of such a program, you must advertise ($$), at least moderately, and over a period of time to develop some name recognition.
More importantly, as a stallion owner, the horses are all out competing successfully on the circuit with top class care and a well known top class rider ($$$). Seeing the stallions compete week in and week out allows them to remain in people’s minds, piques their interest, and makes the offspring have a greater chance of being sold on the basis of the parents, and also the friendships and connections being forged by owners having horses out showing.
I own my own stallion, and I have some really nice mares who have given me some super foals so far. I have very little in the foal, technically, when it hits the ground. But factoring all the (countless) failed breeding attempts to sub-fertile outside stallions, show expenditures, registrations, ads, farm help while I am working my FT job, etc, it is not a real money maker by any stretch.
Truly, it is a real labor of love. And the main reason I started it, as someone else pointed out, was to try and breed for the sort of horse I want to train, compete, and sell, and the sort of horse that is top notch and that I would never be able to afford as a 4yo.
None of this is to discourage you, but rather to encourage you to go into it with an eyes wide open approach, if that is the path you choose. There are countless hidden costs that you don’t think to factor in, but should really be considered if you are talking about an actual profit. Best of luck! I do love all my babies to death, and my first 2 I’ve raised are 5yo this year and getting ready for YJC classes. Very exciting! :)[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=buschkn;6115970]
I wouldn’t go into it thinking you’re going to make money. And it also really depends on your definition of “make money”.
Let’s use our average to cheap example of $5K to get the foal on the ground and to weaning age. This is including stud fees, vets, mare care, etc, and assumes you did a lot of stuff on your own at home. If you sell your foal for $10K, which in this market would probably be lucky, you have “made” $5K. I will use these number for the sake of ease. This does not factor in cost of land, mare, labor, equipment, or anything unforeseen like injury or illness.
Now I am going to use Hyperion as our example because they have some very nice horses and she says she has made money on every foal. The following could be said about essentially any large and successful breeding farm in the US, I am just using Hyperion as the example since they are nice enough to post here, and I am most familiar with jumpers since that is what I also do. I am certain the same could be said of the dressage, hunter, etc, breeders out there…
SO, if a breeder has 4 nice foals each year, and nothing catastrophic happens, you could theoretically sell each for $10K, at a $5K “profit” each, so you make $20K. Easy money, especially with your own farm right?
Now let’s think about why Hyperion’s (or Hilltop’s, or Iron Spring’s, or…) foals sell readily. This is because they have gotten a very nice string of quality stallions and mares with good bloodlines and performance records ($$$). But that is not enough. In order for buyers to know about the existence of such a program, you must advertise ($$), at least moderately, and over a period of time to develop some name recognition.
More importantly, as a stallion owner, the horses are all out competing successfully on the circuit with top class care and a well known top class rider ($$$). Seeing the stallions compete week in and week out allows them to remain in people’s minds, piques their interest, and makes the offspring have a greater chance of being sold on the basis of the parents, and also the friendships and connections being forged by owners having horses out showing.
I own my own stallion, and I have some really nice mares who have given me some super foals so far. I have very little in the foal, technically, when it hits the ground. But factoring all the (countless) failed breeding attempts to sub-fertile outside stallions, show expenditures, registrations, ads, farm help while I am working my FT job, etc, it is not a real money maker by any stretch.
Truly, it is a real labor of love. And the main reason I started it, as someone else pointed out, was to try and breed for the sort of horse I want to train, compete, and sell, and the sort of horse that is top notch and that I would never be able to afford as a 4yo.
None of this is to discourage you, but rather to encourage you to go into it with an eyes wide open approach, if that is the path you choose. There are countless hidden costs that you don’t think to factor in, but should really be considered if you are talking about an actual profit. Best of luck! I do love all my babies to death, and my first 2 I’ve raised are 5yo this year and getting ready for YJC classes. Very exciting! :)[/QUOTE]
This does not factor in cost of land, mare, labor, equipment, or anything unforeseen like injury or illness is a very telling statement. Even in your “best case” where the gross profit is 20,000… after paying for the mare (even if it’s spread out over several foals), equipment, labor, etc… i bet it’s not much. (and most people who include labor, may only include the costs of paid labor… not their own labor/time).
Kyzteke - Where do you live? I NEED to move there. I’m currently paying over $11 a bale for small square bales of timothy hay. if i had your hay prices, I MIGHT not be losing so much money…:lol:
I agree with those that say that you should plan to lose money. Even in a better economy, it was difficult to make money. Ask me for an example? How about the lovely gold Premium filly that spent three weeks in the hospital with diarrhea at 4 months old? At $8k later, even selling that filly for $13,000 as a yearling did not make me any money. Or how about the missed twins (even after a hospital trip for a special ultrasound cha-ching!) that not only didn’t survive, but sent their dam into TWO colic surgeries. I think that one cost me nearly $20k with nothing to show for it except the mare did survive.
I think it’s possible to make money, in theory, if you are a) very, very lucky; b) do everything right and don’t skimp on important medical care, which we never did, thus, refer back to “a” and c) you either sell them at weaning or before (and you don’t make much that way even for Premium youngsters from nice mares) OR you are able to start/train your own youngsters when if they have not sold as 3 year olds. if you don’t have all of the above, then plan to lose money.
That said, if you are thinking of breeding for your own horse, i think it is the way to get the horse of your dreams. I have kept two of the offspring of my favorite premium mare. I delivered them myself, and have gotten to see them grow up. They are fantastic, and i would not trade them for anything.
good luck.
P.S. Excuse the numerous missing capitals. My laptop shift key only works occasionally!
That is exactly what I said, that your $20K “profit” is not factoring in the labor, land, mare, illness, injury, etc. Hence my reason for stating that even in the best case scenario you aren’t really “making” money. We are saying the same thing.
During the summer of my horse’s 4 yr old year we had about 35-40K into her. This included stud fee, board (field for when she wasn’t old enough to ride), farrier, regular vet (shots, worming, etc…), professional breaking, and a few training rides here and there. I absolutely love my mare and am very happy with her but I would never breed another one again. It’s too expensive unless you own property ie: do not have to pay board. Of course it depends where you live.
You are also paying those expenses no matter if the horse ends up being nice, not nice, or lame and useless. Just because you have X amount of money into a horse doesn’t mean it is worth the same amount when you go to sell it.
If you have to ask how much, then the answer is probably too much.
