So you want to make your own performance horse? “HORSE BREEDING FOR DUMMIES:”

I know the price of horses has become ridiculously unaffordable for most. A 1D earning horse is $30,000+ nowadays. A foal once it hits the ground is nearly as unaffordable for buyers and is just as much of a risk, if not more of a risk for the buyer, as you have to keep it alive and healthy and sound until (and throughout) training. And don’t get me started on equine insurance, I’m sure that will be a post for another day.

I’ve been on all sides of the industry, buyer and seller of both budget friendly and 1-2D money earning performers, and most recently jumping into the role of breeder (and stallion owner). I can’t say it’s more affordable to breed your own but I CAN say it’s been an incredible learning experience.

When they say the “stud fee is the cheapest part of breeding” they aren’t wrong. In 2023 we started the hunt for the perfect broodmare(s) for our program, We didn’t yet own stallions, though we were keeping an eye out for the perfect stallion for our program at that time, but we were happy to start with mares and breed to outside stallions. We bought “Bonnie” Lotta Cash Onthe Fly, a 2016 sorrel mare who made a little money on the track and had all the right names on her papers. We *won* a “free breeding” to an outside stallion in December of 2023, a thick built palomino quarter horse who complimented Bonnie in all the right ways. We were in the middle of crazy life changes, not only were we starting the breeding journey, we were moving from Colorado to Oklahoma and coordinating the purchase of our new horse and the sale of the old house, planning how to haul our whole lives as well as three dogs and four horses from Colorado to Oklahoma. CHAOS. The breeder offered on-site breeding/mare management, so rather than shipping semen and hunting for the best local repro vet the moment we stepped into Oklahoma, we decided to drop Bonnie off to get bred.

• 60 days. We were tracking Bonnie’s cycle and dropped her off just days before ovulating, but she regressed in her cycle and spent 60 days with the breeder, we picked her up as soon as we received the 14 day confirmation ultrasound picture.

• $20/day mare care. Honestly, so cheap.

• $300 one-time mare management fee.

• $200 collection fee.

In total, this was fairly affordable. Grand total paid to the breeder (including a caslicks removal fee of $30 and the use of estrumate $20) we paid $1,750.

Then we brought her home and needed to schedule a heartbeat confirmation at 30 days with our vet, as well as 5/7/9 month vaccinations. Let’s call that another $500.

So far this 2025 foal was tracking to be significantly cheaper than the two 2023 prospects we bought from this same breeder (at $7,500 and $13,500). The mare was happy and healthy the entirety of her gestation. Everything went as smoothly as possible for our “first foal” (which was not our first foal, but was the first foal that we planned, as we had bought bred mares previously).

The foal was stillborn. Gorgeous, everything we’d hoped for and more from this paring, a golden palomino filly we named “Millie.” UCT, umbilical cord torsion. Was active and alive, overly active, just days before Bonnie went into labor, but was dead before she was born. This isn’t a horror story, though in the moment it truly felt like one. Just an experience to share to better educate others just starting their own breeding adventure.

• Foal check by our vet: $100, we opted not to perform a necropsy as the cause of death was obvious.

This year, 2025 breeding season, this same mare had an incredible opportunity to breed to Aint Seen Nothin Yet, so rather than rebreed to the previous stallion, we opted to forgo the rebreed option and take a chance on my “dream foal.”

• Checks, yes a handwritten and mailed check is required for ASNY, are to be post dated January 1st of the breeding year (2025) for the deposit of $350.

• Then you wait, and because we lost Bonnie’s first foal we sent our mare to our vet to get the whole work up. Again, we follow our mare’s cycles so we knew to bring her shortly before she was expected to ovulate.

• Our vet ordered semen for us on a Friday, we drove an hour to the closest FedEx storefront to pick it up (because of course it couldn’t be shipped to our vet, our home, the local UPS/FedEx drop off location on a Saturday) and drove it back to our vet to inseminate. This was one of those exciting moments, where we stood around watching Bonnie stand in the stocks and get angry at the fact that our vet had been elbow-deep inside her for three or so days straight and her facial expressions definitely told us we’d be sorry for this experience down the road.

  • Collection/Shipping for ASNY: $325

  • Cost to ship her box back: $30AI

  • Bonnie’s daily mare care at our vet: $40/day

  • Culture: $85

  • Uterine Cytology: $23

  • Ultrasound, per view: $62.50

  • AI Fee: $25

  • Grand total so far (as she’s not had a 30 day heartbeat check yet): $1,785

• OH and she had a weird allergic reaction after insemination, so add another $50 for Dex and Regumate.

AND the remainder of the stud fee isn’t due until she has a confirmed 60 day ultrasound, so we’re not yet done paying to make this foal.

• Remainder of stud fee: $3,750

• Additional ultrasounds and future vaccinations: $600

Now I know not everyone will be breeding to a stallion of this caliber, especially not just starting out, but its eye opening being on the other side. We own three of our own three of our own stallions as well. We bred our first “farm bred” foal in 2024 with A Shadow of the Moon, who was bred in-hand by his previous owner. We live covered our mare, $0 because we own both the mare and the stallion (we won’t talk about purchase prices for either) and can’t exactly charge ourselves for our own time, had 14 day and 30 day ultrasounds/palpations, and 5/7/9 month vaccinations and the resulting foal, “Celeste” is happy, healthy and will probably be the most affordable foal we will EVER have. However, if you are not familiar with stallions, breeding, handling stallions, or handling breeding mares (or mares with a foal on their side) I absolutely do not recommend you go out and buy your own stallion.

In no way is this a step by step or a financial guide to breeding horses, more like Breeding For Dummies, vol. 1.

Its June 10th and our 2025 breeding season isn’t complete yet. We have 4 more mares to confirm in the next couple weeks and two open mares still.

Miss Bonita (Bonnie) on insemination day!