Many times we hear people
complain about the price of our horses. Even more
often we hear of horses being bought for $100.00 for
a foal or $500 for a "well broke horse". Sometimes
folks tell us they can raise their own foal for half
that price or try to talk us down in our prices. So
we thought we would put pencil to paper and take a
stab at figuring out the actual cost of getting a
foal and raising it to 2 years of age. This is just
a GUIDELINE - you can use your own numbers.
Mare Fee: The cost of keeping your mare during
her pregnancy figured at 10% of the value of your mare.
If you say your mare is only worth 500.00, why are
you breeding her? You can't breed a $500.00 mare to
a $500.00 stallion and think you will get a $1000.00
foal. For this article I am going to say my mare is
worth $5000.00 so the figure for mare care for 11
months of pregnancy is $500.
Stud Fee: 1-10% the value of the stallion.
There is a large variation in this number because it
depends on the costs involved. Is there a collection
fee? Are there vet fees? Chute fees, etc. For this
article I am going to say my stallion fee is also
$500.00
Vaccinations for your mare during her
pregnancy at $30.00 (remember to use your own
figures based on your vaccination program)
Deworming for your mare during her pregnancy at
$30.00
Hoof care for your mare during her pregnancy at
$210.00
Pasture for the mare during her pregnancy 180 days = $187.50
Hay for your mare during her pregnancy 160 days for
$350.
Feed for your mare during her pregnancy 340 days at
.50 a day= $170.00
Salt and Mineral for your mare during her pregnancy
at $25.00
OK, now the foal is born and the cost so far
(without any expenses for vet, foaling costs or
insurance) is $2002.50.
Now we will figure for the mare and foal to age 6
months:
Feed & pasture $295.00
Vaccinations: $60.00
Deworming: $40.00
Hoof care: $175.00
Handling, weaning & vet expenses: $500.00 (if there
are no complications or injuries).
Registration: For TWHBEA it is $100.00
That is $1170.00 for the first 6 months of life, added
to the $2002.50 in pre-natal costs.
Your foal is now 6 months old and weaned, and the
total
to get the foal this far is $3172.50.
Foal weaning to 2 years old:
14 months of feed, hay & pasture: $817.60
Vaccinations: $90.00
Dental: $100.00
Deworming: $25.00
Hoof care: $315.00
Coggins: $40.00
Health certificate: $40.00
Brand Inspection: $10.00
Advertising: $75.00
That is a total of $1512.60
for 6 months to 2 years of age added to the $3172.50
Now, if I have this all figured right, that comes to
$4685.10.
Maybe you can cut corners somewhere or maybe
your farrier or dentist isn't as expensive as ours.
Your registry does not charge that much? Ours does.
Are you going to sell your foal for that price?
We have not figured anything in for your investment
into property, fencing, maintenance, barn/corrals,
repairs, tractor/machinery or trucking.
These are some tough questions, We invite you
to push a pencil, be fair, figure it out on your
own. We work very hard to keep our prices fair for
our clients and to keep our costs down while still
providing the very best care for our mares and
foals. We have taken all the risk to get the foal as
far as we have gotten it so there is no risk for
you. We have not included any training costs for
halter training, loading, leading, round penning,
ground work, etc. This is how we figure our prices
on our foals to 2 year olds. Most people think this
figure is low when they start really pushing a
pencil. We would like to hear your thoughts on this.
Let us know what you think is reasonable. We had
some help putting this together by a friend of ours.
He is a horse owner, horse breeder, business owner
and friend.
