# Broodmare livery



## volatis (14 October 2008)

Those of you who have mares at livery or who offer broodmare livery, can I ask what you pay/charge for grass livery. And how much extra do you charge in winter months to cover feed and hay.

And finally, baring a foaling down fee, what do you charge for having them in at night when they are near to foaling, or have recently foaled?


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## Fleur100 (14 October 2008)

I have done broodmare livery for natives so they live out. The cost is £25/week includeshay &amp; feed. The livery cost for stabling is £50/week when they come in.


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## LynneB (15 October 2008)

Hi, this is what the stud where I keep my mares charges:

Stabled Keep Mare  £15 per day  
Stabled Mare and Foal  £16.50 per day 
Grass Keep Mare  £6.50 per day  
Grass Keep Mare and Foal  £8.00 per day  
Foaling Fee  £250 
Weaning fee £50 
In Foal Fee  £135 
Winter Yarded in Barns  £8.00 per day  

hope that helps


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## JanetGeorge (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
Hi, this is what the stud where I keep my mares charges: 

[/ QUOTE ]

OUCH!!

I charge:  per week: (in brackets is mares with foals at foot_

Stabled Keep Mare  £70 (£80)

Grass Keep Mare  £32 (£44) - that's individual fields and plenty of haylage included

Foaling Fee  £150 

In Foal Fee  - don't charge one!


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## sallyf (15 October 2008)

These are our charges but they are every dependent on the area that you are in.
ie anywhere in and around a breeding or racing area like Newmarket or Lambourn will be more expensive.

Mares in foal/ foal at foot £17.00 per day
Barren/Maiden mares £15.00 per day
Foaling fee £180.00
This is full livery to include everything except vets fees.

This is for grass keep but farrier wormers would be on top .
Barren/maiden mare £8.00 per day
Mares with foal at foot £10.00 per day 
To include a short feed if required.

No in foal fee


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## Touchwood (15 October 2008)

These are our charges, and include everything apart from worming, trimming and vets fees.

Grass keep barren/maiden £6 per day
Grass keep mare with foal at foot £8 per day

Stabled barren/maiden £12 per day
Stabled with foal at foot £14 per day

Foaling down £200
No in foal fee


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## arwenplusone (15 October 2008)

This is a really daft question (esp since I've been breeding a while) but what is an 'in foal fee'?  

Is it simply a fee to cover the fact that the mare is eating for two?


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## sallyf (15 October 2008)

No some stud Twemlows for one charge the owner a fee of around £150 when the mare is scanned in foal.
Supposidly for all the hard work they have put in when often they arnt the stallion owner so dont get a stud fee.
A bit off in my opinion as that should be factored in to the keep charges and insemination fees.


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## Touchwood (15 October 2008)

I agree Sally, I totally disagree with in foal fees, as a stud it is your JOB to get the mare in foal!  I would hope that rather than picking up extra money there and then, clients would be happy with the service and send the mare back to me year after year.


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## Penniless (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
No some stud Twemlows for one charge the owner a fee of around £150 when the mare is scanned in foal.
Supposidly for all the hard work they have put in when often they arnt the stallion owner so dont get a stud fee.
A bit off in my opinion as that should be factored in to the keep charges and insemination fees. 

[/ QUOTE ]

A definite "bit off" in our opinion too.  Glad someone asked this question as we've been breeding for over 25+ years and had never heard of it either.  

We're just outside of Newmarket and we don't offer grass keep livery - just out all day and stabled at night.  Our charges this year were £12 per day for barren mare and £15 per day for mare with foal at foot.  

Our foaling down fee was £150.  On top of that you pay for a wormer on arrival and then wormers, farrier, vet etc as usual.  

We do know of one stud who also charges for each individual vet-wrap (bandages) they put on the visiting mares when being scanned etc.!!!  We also know that they charge the mare owners for every time they give an injection that the vet has left for them to do.

We are trying to work out our next stud season charges at the moment, especially with the way prices of feed etc have gone through the roof over the last months.  

We think £15 per day for a mare with foal at foot is great value, especially when we've had many foals arriving with the mare without even being at the stage where they've had a headcollar on - the owners are amazed when they go home having had time spent on their foal teaching it to lead, feet picked out, groomed, etc.  

Any studs worked out their next year keep charges yet?


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## Maesfen (15 October 2008)

Totally agree Sally!

As it is, their stud fees are big enough which I know go to the owner, but from Joe Public's POV, it would seem a lot better if their 'in foal' fee was 'hidden' with the actual stud fee or keep fees, which is what normally happens at studs.  I'd rather be prepared for higher charges there than be presented with a bill for something that should have been part of the service, but knowing the skinflints, nothing surprises me!

As you say, the stud fee should and normally does, take into account the amount of work needed to get the mare in foal.  I think it's also the stallion owners there being greedy, trying to recoup their own livery costs.  Another reason why I wouldn't use there.
If that doesn't make sense it's because I have Modge on my knee and he's giving my arm the needle!


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## Maesfen (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]

We think £15 per day for a mare with foal at foot is great value, especially when we've had many foals arriving with the mare without even being at the stage where they've had a headcollar on - the owners are amazed when they go home having had time spent on their foal teaching it to lead, feet picked out, groomed, etc.  

Any studs worked out their next year keep charges yet? 

[/ QUOTE ]


Well, I wish you had stood Revoque then!  Friend was totally ripped off as hand on heart they said, foal born there was handled daily - my backside.  When m  &amp; f arrived back, it took half hour to be able to even touch it in the stable let alone get a h/c on it and it is still, incredibly wary , that's how good they were and all for £17 a day over 9 weeks plus a huge foaling fee!


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## Touchwood (15 October 2008)

The in foal fee is also very misleading for mare owners when it comes to AI packages in particular.  I think our AI package is very competitive anyway, but some of the bigger studs market what seems to be a very good package, and then the in foal fee is just sneaked in at the end...making the package actually very uncompetitive!


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## ASM2 (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
No some stud Twemlows for one charge the owner a fee of around £150 when the mare is scanned in foal.
Supposidly for all the hard work they have put in when often they arnt the stallion owner so dont get a stud fee.
A bit off in my opinion as that should be factored in to the keep charges and insemination fees. 

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you'll find Sallyf that it is normally factored in - if not, then it is not being used correctly.

Like Twemlows, we charge a £100 in foal fee on top of our standard insemination charges BUT, our per cycle insemination fee for chilled and frozen semen is around £100 less than all our local competitors. Fine - we pick up the same total charge where a mare takes first time. But where a mare takes two or more inseminations to get in foal then we earn less - £100 less for 2 goes, £200 less for 3 etc.

It is a reflection of our success rates that we are able to charge an in foal fee and to keep our per cycle insemination charges low. If we fail to get a mare in foal first time we start to lose out on profit. Should a mare not get in foal over the stud season we will have made no profit at all. Our clients value this


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## ASM2 (15 October 2008)

To answer your original qs Sacha:

Both AI centres:

£6 per day grass keep
£10 per day with stable
£2 extra with foal at foot


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## Touchwood (15 October 2008)

ASM, that is an example of it being used correctly...but I think we can all agree that you are the exception rather than the rule.
At the end of the day, it should be about providing a service to customers.  There's too much in the entire horse world of Yard Owners/Stud Owners behaving like they are doing their clients a favour by having their mares there!


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## ASM2 (15 October 2008)

true Touchwood - in the wrong hands it can be an easy way to add another fee.


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## volatis (15 October 2008)

Brilliant, thank you everyone. We're not near Newmarket nor taking in TB mares, so the figures I hd in my head were lower than that. More similar to what ASM has quoted and seeing as we are within a few miles of each other, I think I'm in the right ball park. 

Thank you everyone.


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## Whizz105 (15 October 2008)

i'm paying £100 per month, out in day in at night. but it is D.I.Y


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## arwenplusone (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
No some stud Twemlows for one charge the owner a fee of around £150 when the mare is scanned in foal.
Supposidly for all the hard work they have put in when often they arnt the stallion owner so dont get a stud fee.
A bit off in my opinion as that should be factored in to the keep charges and insemination fees. 

[/ QUOTE ]






  thanks for explaining - something to look out for then.  Would not want to be stung by this.  Apologies to volatis - I hijacked the thread a little then


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## Penniless (15 October 2008)

Just using the heading of Broodmare Livery - we are always 100% honest about our prices and what we offer but it's a shame that many mare owners don't tell us the truth about their mares regarding manners etc.  We've had mares come to us and we ask the owners is there anything we should know about their mare - i.e. kicking, biting, barging or banging doors.  We don't mind in the least providing we are aware but they always have the same answer "No, never" and then as soon as the mare owner walks away, it's generally a "friend" who has come with them, tells us on the quiet to be careful "of its back legs - it will kill you".  

Last year we had a mare who literally demolished two stables with her kicking the walls and chewing anything she could get her teeth onto.  It cost us a lot of money to repair and replace and when we told the owner when she visited, she just giggled and said "What a naughty girl - she does that at home too".  

We didn't charge her for the repairs although it does state in all terms that damage may be charged, but do other studs charge for any damage caused - or do you have the perfect visiting mares?


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## Touchwood (15 October 2008)

I know what you mean Penniless, but we more often get mares where the owners think they are massive problems and they get here and are easy as anything!  Maybe its because we're used to dealing with all sorts (as are most of us) so things that some owners think an issue, actually aren't, I don't know.

Luckily our stables are all brick, so thats nothing too awful they can do!  Our P&amp;R has electric on it to stop the chewers, but I just accept that certain things will be broken.


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## Penniless (15 October 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
I know what you mean Penniless, but we more often get mares where the owners think they are massive problems and they get here and are easy as anything!  Maybe its because we're used to dealing with all sorts (as are most of us) so things that some owners think an issue, actually aren't, I don't know.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite agree with you there - we had a mare come down from Cornwall a few years ago and the owner told us she was a constant rearer when being led in and out and a real nasty bit of work out in the paddock when you went to get her.  Like you, we found that it was the opposite, the mare was as good as gold throughout her whole stay with us and didn't give us one ounce of a problem.  Surprisingly, we still keep in touch with this owner who still is convinced she has the worst horse in the world - the strange thing is - every horse she has she says the same about!!!


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