# cost of putting mare into foal



## Booboos (27 February 2009)

Apologies if this is a really obvious question or if the answer is too complex, but a friend is putting her mare in foal for the first time and was wondering what costs to expect.

The kinds of things we thought were:
- cost of semen, depends on the stallion 
- cost of vet, will need to scan the mare, but how many times and how much is this likely to cost?
- cost of grass livery if the mare goes to the stallion, are there separate handling fees here for the insemination, etc.?

Thank you!


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## luckilotti (27 February 2009)

thought i would reply as no-one else had yet!

my 1st foal - cost me very little indeed, but i used a friends stallion and he came to me for the summer hence no livery fees etc for my mare so what that 'foal' cost me isnt really comparable.

My other mare i tried to breed from - cost me about £1000 (i stopped counting at over £800) and she isnt in foal.  That was a stud fee, livery, swabbing, vets fees for scanning, jabbing and washing out, and i gave a couple of friends £40 each for transport.  My mare was meant to be on grass livery - but they then insisted on full stabled livery when i got there as it was 'easier' for them......  

i guess a lot for your friend will depend on the stallion - where he stands, the vets package offered (if i was using AI and one was offered, i think i would go for it!)  If you have a really good repro vet locally, i think i would be tempted to keep her at home to save costs - unless the stallion/stud was local. 

Hope that helps a little, i guess she has to be prepared for her to spend a lot, and end up with nothing


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## supagran (27 February 2009)

I have bred two - the first one 9 years ago, and stupidly I kept an account of what it cost me until the foal was born - a total of £965.  Year before last year home bred mare was put in foal - AI, took first time, and it cost about £800 to the point foal was born, but no livery, we took her to AI centre, and collected semen from stallion owner.  then foal was born, and in 5 days we spent nearly £1000 and he was then PTS - so a lot of money spent and nothing to show for it - other than a awful lot of experience and a very full credit card!
I must be mad - I'm doing it all again this year, with same mare and another! wish me luck!


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## competitiondiva (27 February 2009)

this is similar to how long is a piece of string?!!!
My mare is expecting in about 4 weeks now and so far it's cost me in the region of £1400 and that's not including foaling fees yet!! But this includes a stud fee of £750.  And my mare took first time on the ai! Fingers crossed for a healthy foal would be very disappointing if not. 

Just be aware that what ever you think it will cost, it will cost more!!!  Your mare may take 1, 2 or 3 ai cycles or more!!!  There maybe a semen collection fee to pay? If paying for shipment of semen, each cycle will incure a new courier charge. The ai costs can be anything from a couple of hundred to god knows how much.  Packages give you some figure to work toward but then your mare may acutally not require that much work and you may pay more in that respect.  Your mare may require treatment to get her ready before ai is possible.....  Don't forget the stud livery and possible handling fee. There really could be any number of costs involved.  I accepted this as I really wanted my next competition horse to be from my current mare if at all possible.  Things could go totally to plan and cost the minimum or god forbid you could have what supagran describded.  Good luck what ever you chose...  xx


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## competitiondiva (27 February 2009)

Sorry I refer to ai each time, the same will apply to some extent for natural cover if doing it under veterinary supervision including preparation, scans, blood tests, wash outs plus any other treatment necessary!


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## zipzap (27 February 2009)

Hi there, 
Last season I got my mare in foal on an extreme budget. Own trailer transport, modest stud fee 400, 2 scans from vet (at my yard) &amp; minimal time at stud. 

Got her scanned in foal by end of June (hooray!), then she picked up a snotty virus (had some antibiotics off vet) &amp; by the end of Aug scanned empty (boo!!)

Whole thing left a noticable £1k dent in my rather feeble savings. 

Am giving it a miss this year!


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## Booboos (28 February 2009)

Thank you all very much, that is extremely helpful!

It sounds like getting away with anything under £1k is almost impossible and the risks are it could cost a lot more. I'll let my friend know!


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## Daisychain (28 February 2009)

Put my 17yo mare to an international showjump stallion last year, natural service, caught first time, 6wks grass keep and one scan.

Whole lot including stud fee came to £650.00.  So it can be done lol! She is due in June.


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## Enfys (2 March 2009)

How long is a piece of string?

Last year

My own mare to my own stallion, cost of scan $67.00, sold foal for $1000.00
Another of my own........."......   , .............." ..........., stillborn colt, 14 vet visits final amount for no foal $1886.35


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