it depends on how well the breeding process goes, if you have to board or they’re kept at home, and what the cost is to buy something of an age and quality you’re looking for. When I bred my 1 homebred, a weanling to my standards was $10-12k. Between the stud fee and the pretty smooth breeding process, minimal ultrasounds, took in the first try, no pinching, I think I had about half that into him by the time he hit the ground. But, we have our property, so I didn’t have any extra “foal on board” expenses for boarding. Post-foaling $ - IgG, wellness exam, gelding, first vaccinations etc, added another maybe $2k or so, it’s been a while. So it wasn’t significantly cheaper, and could have been a whole lot more, to breed.
Sometimes you can find yearlings for about the same price, without you having the extra expenses of feed/farrier/vaccines to get another year out of the weanling. It’s the 2-3yo year when the cost really starts going up to buy
There’s a Pinto and Colored WB Facebook group that regularly has foals, in-utero, and youngsters for sale, as well as dilute and/or pinto stallions standing.
I wouldn’t say the colored/dilute WBs are terribly rare, but I would say probably more are overseas than in the US and CN. Still, there are “plenty” of quality ones here in the US, but their price may be a lot more than you’re willing to pay for a foal/yearling.
And many of them have produced ammy-friendly offspring, so quality can still provide for the majority market without needing some of the “flair” that requires a Pro to ride them well into the upper levels.
I didn’t need a FEI prospect either, but that didn’t mean I was willing to sacrifice quality
As I did, I would scour the internet for offspring by that stallion, out of mares similar in build and temperament to the mare in question. It’s not enough for a stallion to reliably put what you want on the ground, full sibs eve, if they’re all out of mares who aren’t like yours at all. In my case, the stallion was very prepotent for producing a build and temperament very much like his own, regardless of the mare being a TB, WB, half draft, QH, QHxDraft, etc, and most offspring were doing what I wanted to do
But if the mare in question has full siblings to what you might want, regardless of her performance or the stallion’s performance, then that is a much less risky endeavor.