Re: Breeding Lease

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@ici.net>]

DESERTRYDR1@aol.com said:


>This is not exactly on topic, but it does involve my former endurance mare, 
>and the possibility of a new endurance horse for me some day.  Has any one 
>out there had experience leasing a mare out for breeding purposes?...The 
>gal who wants her has forty acres, and her horses are out on pasture at least 
>some of the time.  She is  nationally known within her breed, and has both 
>leased other peoples' horses, and sent her own out on lease.  Any words of 
>wisdom would be sincerely appreciated.  Thanks,  jeri

The thing is here, mares can be ruined during the breeding process.

There are two main worries:  infection from the stallion, and
injury during the breeding process due to a hostile stallion
and/or incompetent handling during teasing and mounting.

Who is this woman going to breed your mare *to*?  Will she
handle it, or send the mare away to yet a third party?  What
is her reputation for handling mares and breeding on her
own farm.  If she were a Morgan owner, you could find out
who her stallion (if she has one) has been bred to, and call
up those mare owners and find out how the whole process went.
You can probably do the same thing with Arabs.  If she's
sending the mare out, then you've got to find out about
the reputation of the stallion and farm where she will be
actually be bred.

I know a Morgan farm that will lease out its mares--but
all the person who leases a mare does is pay money.  Because
of all the uncertainties I list, the mare stays on
her home farm and the home farm handles all the breeding,
foaling, and raising.  When it's all over, you get the weaned
foal.

It is encouraging that she is nationally known in her breed, but that
doesn't necessarily mean anything other than a whole lot of money.
Has she been doing this all breeding herself, or did she have a
superb breeding manager and is that breeding manager still in
residence?

What does the contract say about the case where the mare fails
to settle?  Has she been paying you a monthly fee for the mare,
or just taking on the cost of maintenance?  (First rate mares
command a monthly fee.)  Does the woman pay for a "base line"
examination including culture and possibly biopsy from *your*
veterinarian so that any changes in the mare's status when
she returns can be documented?  (Lots of people leasing mares
insist on this so that they don't spend a whole year wasting
their time and money on a mare who has almost no chance of
settling in the first place.)

And so on.  A tricky business.  On the plus side, what you have
going for you is that this woman wants a heathly, weaned foal
out of your mare, and the best way to get that is to take superb
care of the mare.  But in a lot of people, common sense doesn't
stop stupidity (or even slow it down much).


Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA