Jessica and I own the Horses of Amazing Grace business. Our mission is to raise healthy, athletic horses that will be a joy to own and ride. Some of our horses are dressage horses whilst other will make fabulous raining or barrel racing prospects.
What they all have in common is the hard work and dedication Jessica and I put into their well-being. We love them all, feed the best feeds recommended by an expert animal nutritionist, train them all to be polite and respectful, and most of all give them all a job to do that they will excel at. Our training philosophy is very straight forward: respect the horse, guide the horse to learning when ready.
Horses are not cheap to own, nor should they be cheap to buy. If you own a horse – no matter how much or little you paid to purchase it – you must buy feed, pay for boarding, set aside money for unforeseen vet bills, pay for training…. I think you have already added up a lot of expenses.
But have you ever thought how much it costs to produce a horse? Once you know how much that number is, I hope you will look kinder at breeders when you hear what they are asking for their horses.
For the sake of this calculation, let us assume that the breeder – like Jessica and I – have the horses housed at our own ranches, so we have no direct boarding expenses. Of course I must add that boarding the horse at our own ranch is still an expense as there is the cost of shelter, the cost of maintaining pastures, and all the expenses associated with owning property.
Now if you don’t already have the mare, you would on need to shell out anywhere between 20 – 100 thousand dollars for a good broodmare of a young age, with excellent bloodlines.
But let’s start with the assumption that you own a good mare that you want to breed a nice foal out of.
The first expense would be the pre-breeding exam. Your Vet will test your mare’s reproductive organs and ensure that she is suitable/healthy for breeding, this will be cost # 1.
Your mare is young and healthy and ready to be bred; you find a great stallion to use – this price will be more or less the same for Artificial Insemination (AI) as for live cover. This is cost # 2
You will have to pay the Vet for the AI which is cost # 3.
Now you bring your mare home to spend the next 11 month growing a bundle of joy for you. She will need to be fed a good quality hay, a suitable vitamin/mineral mix, de-wormers, vaccines, etc., which we will call cost # 4.
Springtime is soon here and Social Media profiles are filled with lovely pictures of cute foals. Now your mare foals and we are all happy that it all went textbook with no need for a visit from the Vet.
At this point your foal has cost the following:
Assumption | Text | Price |
1 | Pre-breeding exam | $500 |
2 | Semen (assuming only one dose needed) | $1100 |
3 | Vet fee for AI | 2000 |
4 | Feed and care 11 months for mare | 2850 |
| Basic total price for 1 foal on the ground | $6450 |
This is my estimate of what it costs to have the foal on the ground. Think about that next time you hear the price a well-reputed breeder asks for a weanling. Think about this when you see a 3-year-old horse for sale. This horse has had 3 years of expenses including the expense of starting and training. Now think carefully what you think is fair for a horse that is well started, trained to the purpose needed, perhaps a horse between the age of 5 and 8 years old. What do you think is a fair price to pay??
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