Pictures, since I've had 3 posts with words only!

Abbi hates having her picture being taken...

Chad's "horse scratchers" that he bought on e-bay...hope they use them!  (0:

Which way did it go??

I love my truck...

Jack-Jack snoozing!

Patron...

Remi

Fiona...looks like she has a pin head here...but she really doesn't!!

Remi's ears...

Hay...

Foot sniffin' Fiona.

Hee-Haw antennae!

 The Remster, did NOT like me standing on her bale of hay!

Playin'!

This is her look when Kage steals her bone...she sucks in one side of her lips.  She is too weird!

Tryin' to steal back her bone.

Abbi trying to round 'em up and get to playing stick!

Squirrel? Squirrel!  Squirrel???

She tosses her stick and catches it trying to get you involved.

Kage, the digger extraordinaire!

And that 'bout covers it, I think!

You Could Buy One Cheaper...Dropping Off The Mare

After getting our plan together, we contacted the stallion owner and mailed our contract with deposit.

I had already taken the mare to the vet and gotten all of that out of the way, so now it was just a matter of getting her to the destination.

From my house to the stallion is 533 miles.  Map quest called it 10 hours and 23 minutes, we figured closer to 12 with horse trailer and baby.  In all actuality, it did take us just over 10 hours each way... Probably because we didn't really drive the "suggested" speed limit of 55 in Oregon...it was bad enough that we had to let someone else put fuel in out tank...  (0:

Fuel from my house to stallion and from stallion to Deer Park (because that's where Mindy and her truck and child stopped...Chad picked up me and my horse trailer there on Saturday...confusing I know...) : $418.37

Food and a few adult beverages (we split these costs) : $53.72

Lodging (I sort of under estimated this...also had dog deposit as we had Hank with us) : $102.92

So our total for getting the Ol' Spotted Pony there was: $575.01

We dropped her off on June 8th. 

I have a pasture full of mares...all fairly silent in their cycle.  So all I could/can do is watch the Hee-Haws for clues on who is in season...They are very manly you know!!  With this VERY scientific method I figured that she should come into season somewhere around the 12th-14th.

On the 15th she was showing no signs of being interested in the stallion.  Matter of fact the stallion owner actually said, "She is scared to bits of Dude...".  

They had to haul some mares to the vets for ultra sounds for 15 day confirmation of foal, so it was decided to haul Horse Girl in for a quick checkerooo, and if she wasn't near cycle, we would short cycle her.  Oooh, whats that?  Yeup added costs!!  

My share of fuel : $0, they had an open slot and refused to let me pay as they were going anyway

Ultra Sound :$45

Guess who was on the verge of being ready to be bred?  Yeah, Horse Girl.  Better safe than sorry though.  She was covered for the first time on the 17th, and then covered everyday after that until she refused and went back to being scared again.  Last cover was on the 20th.  And now the wait for our 15 day ultra sound...

So our grand total thus far...all things included...

Direct Costs: $541.00

Indirect Costs: $ $418.37
Total out of pocket thus far: $959.37

You Could Buy One Cheaper...Weighing It Out

Once we decided on a stallion, we had to decide on live cover or A.I.

Cost of stud fee: $450

Booking fee: $100 non-refundable, applicable to stud fee

Cost of collection of semen: $250

Container deposit: $250, $200 re-embursed upon return of container

Shipping Costs for Semen: Overnight FedEx Counter to Counter: $125 (estimate)

My vets charge for ultra sound pre A.I.: $45

My vets charge for insemenation: $85 (this included office visit fee)

My vets charge for ultra sound at 15 days to check for pregnancy: $45

Both ways for breeding required a negative culture for Horse Girl.
Cost of culture: N/A

Why N/A?  Because my vet forgot to send it to the lab and had to redo it, and because of the error, didn't charge me!  (0:

So A.I. total estimated costs if Horse Girl took on the first try: $1050.87 

These are direct costs.  

Indirectly I'd have to pay for fuel to get the the vets office and back at least 3 times.  My truck gets 14 mpg on a good day and the vet is 30 miles from my house.

So indirectly another $78.87 in fuel.

Grand total (estimated) for A.I.: $1128.87
If Horse Girl doesn't take on the first try, then we would add another $600 if we don't short cycle her, add another $75 if we do short cycle.

Live cover requires a Coggins because we are out of state: $46

Live cover will also include board while she is a the stallions.  $5 a day mare care with my hay, $7 with theirs.  I figured half a month with my hay and half a month with theirs: $180.00

Horse Girl also wouldn't come home with out an ultrasound confirmation of pregnancy: $45

Live cover total direct cost: $721

Live cover indirect cost:  Wasn't sure when the decision was made, but I figured in $500 (one way) for travel and lodging.

Grand total (estimated) for live cover: $1721.00

So we talked about it and decided that we would do live cover.  Generally you have more success with live cover, but Horse Girl's foaled before and "they" say that maiden mares actually have a harder time "catching" with A.I. than mares who have foaled before do.  Horse Girl only has a live cover history when being bred, and she's never missed with this method, so I think its a good choice for her.  This gives Mindy and I an opportunity to take a road trip...  It doesn't necessarily make fiscal sense, but it's all about the journey sometimes.

This also blows any money that "could" be made with the 3x's stud fee (seems to be a general rule of thumb or so I've been told) for pricing the foal.  3x's stud fee only comes out to $1350.  If you've a glass half empty person, I've just "planned" to loose money.
Genius aren't I!?  LOL!!

Found This On Face Book....

You Can Buy One Cheaper!

Hmmm.  

That's an interesting thought now isn't it?

This is the question that was asked by a friend of mine when I told her that we were going to breed a mare this year.

I may or may not have alluded to the fact that Chad and I have been tossing around the idea of breeding Horse Girl.  Ever since Easy resurfaced its really been a topic of conversation here at our little place.

So we decided it's now or never...or something to that effect...

I shopped for a stallion in various disciplines that I thought may be an asset to Horse Girl's bloodlines.  Horse Girl is bred for halter.  She was on her way to being a jam-up gaming/barrel horse before she started burning out and then ended up with a broken ankle.  She has a great western pleasure trot and lope.  She was also started in hunter under saddle.  She looks great in an English Saddle.  She has a lot of thoroughbred on her top side and several "old school" all around Quarter horses on her bottom side...

What to do?  Who to choose?

We chose this guy.  

Why?

A few different reasons.

1.) I really don't think you can go wrong with the old blood lines.  These horses were bred to hold up.  This stallion has clean legs, is sound for work today, has a great top line, and looks 10 years younger than he really is.  All the things that he should be when you look at his bloodlines.

2.) You just can't find a horse bred like this any more and I want to add speed to this baby.

3.) This horse is know for throwing babies with kind, willing, and trainable attitudes.

4.) I loved him as soon as I saw him.

5.) His filly to colt ratio is 70-30%...  (0:

6.) He is affordable.  Age and no babies performing at super high levels (right now) have his stud fee pretty low.  And I think he really offers pretty good bang for my buck.

Colt or filly, this baby stays here...  As Chad's horse.  Of course my butt will be on it far more that Chad's, but for all intents and purposes, it will be Chad's horse.

Solid or colored I don't really care.  

Secretly though, I'd like a bright sorrel filly with a bald face, three high whites ( just enough white for regular registry), and two blue eyes with eye liner (if the white is over the eye..).

Mindy would call that a cow faced horse, she has NO love for a bald face...but love me a bald faced horse!  (0:

So really.  Would it be cheaper to buy one?  I'm gonna blog it, track it, and be totally honest about it ALL.  

My costs on the road to Chad's foal.  Honest penny for penny costs.  Both direct- stud fee, vet expenses, etc...and indirect (what I consider indirect..) fuel, lodging (travel), etc.

Then once the foal is here, I will try and shop one or two that are similar...and we will see just how much the price difference is.  I will include indirect costs on the "comparison" foal...i.e. traveling to pick up the foal... 

Now there is no real way for me to do price comparison on auction/sale foals because there is nothing close enough to me to make it easy...  (0: 

Of course you can't put a price on the experience of making a foal...but let's see if Stacey's right... 

Stay tuned if you care to find out!  (0: 

The Long And The Short Of It

It's raining again today....

So here are a few more pictures examining the size difference between Remi and Fiona...

Fi is a beast...

Fiona is on the down hill side...

I was hoping to get a good picture of her rear, but she was less than cooperative...

Remi on the other hand was happy to oblige.

Thanks To The Rain...

I've ridden each of my horses twice in...15 days.  

That's not good, not good at all!!  (0:

But it has brought out acres of weeds...and a few flowers!  (0:

This week is supposed to be better, so keeping my fingers crossed! 

So for lack of anything better at the moment...here are a few flowers...I decided to spare you the weeds.

Oh, and the funny little solar lights that Chad got me!  

Funny little things look pretty cool at night.