[QUOTE=babecakes;7814676]
Real world: breeding is going to cost you and arm and a leg. Go buy something standing there that you can pick what you want. 75% of the risk would already be past you. Arlosmine said it right. Breeding an F1 cross you have no idea what is in her genetic past, esp if she’s an arab quarter type cross. Breeding is an EXPENSIVE and time consuming gamble. Gambling does not go well when you try to get there on ‘wishing’ for sheer luck. It can happen but you would be starting out with the odds stacked hugely against you. Can you afford to lose that much time and money and be stuck with something unsaleable that you produce?
Also consider the extra costs if you are boarding out trying to do this, I’m assuming that you don’t have foaling facilities that you own outright.[/QUOTE]
This in spades.
It still boggles my mind that people seem to think that breeders who price their young stock at $18,000 are doing so to make gobs of money. By the time the $2000 stud fee is paid, the $700-2000 in Vet bills depending on whether the mare actually got in foal first cycle or not (it is surprising how many times that’s going to be a “not in foal”), paid for board for XYZ months until rideable (conservative $300 x 36 months = $10,800), paid for farrier until rideable ($40 trim x 8.6 trims a year x 3 years = $1040), paid for vaccinations, miscellaneous well-horse costs, the odd injury or accident (although some of those end up costing the horse their life or career), grain and extra hay feed… you’ve pretty much spent the cost of buying a 3-year-old outright.
Breeding an unregistered mare is a really bad idea. You know nothing of her pedigree, as people have said. Well, let’s examine what this actually means - it means you know nothing about her parental heritage. You know nothing of their conformation, their athletic abilities, their temperament, their character let alone their performance history. You know nothing of these factors about her 4 grandparents, or her 8 great-grandparents. Let alone her great-great grandparents.
If you know nothing about these horses, how can you possibly pair the right stallion to her?
It is a fallacy to think breeding involves merely pairing the mare and stallion together.
A breeding involves the merging of TWO FAMILIES TOGETHER and all of their genetic and phenotypical characteristics in the great big roulette soup called GENETIC MIXING.
In other words, “roulette” risks are huge already with breeding of 2 known families together, because you can breed Miss Beauty Queen with Mr Superstar Stud and still end up with a mule. Although with 2 known families, this particular risk is hugely mitigated…but it still happens. You just never hear about this happening at the big studs in Europe because you will never see those foals.
So, yeah… in my opinion, terrible idea. Pool all that money you would have spent on stud fee, shipping semen costs, vet fees, boarding costs, care costs, and in the space of 3 years you will have about $15,000 saved. Then buy a 3-year-old kiddo you can start yourself from a registered breeder who has produced a beautiful, lovable, athletic candidate who has a full-on pedigree and known history who was generationally bred specifically for the sport you were looking for in the first place.
Breeding is hugely risky. Geez, in the last 3 years, a breeder friend I know has lost 2 foals, a mare, and a yearling.
I myself in the last 5 years have lost 2 foals and nearly had a mare bleed out post foaling in 2013. While we saved her life, she is done as a broodmare, so I still lost out on all her future foals - lost sales money down the drain… at least 3 more foals at $10-12k each… you do the math. The losses, when the occur in breeding, are mind boggling.
If you add up the money in vet-only costs over the past 5 years alone (and nothing else, just vet costs), I could have bought and imported two 3-year-olds from Germany and still had cash to spare. Or, alternatively, I could have bought 5 weanies from good breeders here in North America.
And to think, I don’t HAVE boarding costs!!!
(edited to add - And PS: I don’t think you’re stupid. I think you’re smart to ask these questions in the first place.)
So here’s how you save: Every time you have the farrier to trim your mare each 6 weeks, you take the money you would have spent for farrier to trim that foal and stick it in your horse fund account. Every vaccination, every hay bale, every grain bag, plus the stud fee, stud collection costs, container rental or disposable container cost, FedEx fees for shipping semen, the vet fees to inseminate your mare, mare-care boarding costs charged by your vet, and put those in your horse-savings account. Ask your vet what he/she charges for a breeding soundness exam, or what it could cost to clean your mare if she has an uterine infection…stick that money in your horse fund account. Every time there is a vet call for a boo-boo, you put the equal amount in your horse fund account (because foals are clutsy and many of them have boo-boos requiring vet attention). Don’t forget to add the board costs of the foal, since you are boarding. I guarantee, if you are truly faithful and honest to that account, you will have enough to buy your horse in 3 years.
