I have been considering purchasing a few recip mares for my breeding program and was very curious to hear anyone elses experiences purchasing recip mares. How much would you pay, where did you find them, do you think they have to be papered, Etc. It seems like I have been seeing people advertise grade maiden mares as recips for 3,000+

Thank you in advance!

Its cheaper to pay the rediculous rental fee on a recip.

Last year was my first year to use recep mares-  I payed $3000.00 for each of them-  the mares had a few issues once I was to bring them home- one would not go in a horse trailer, so I had to get a Stock Trailer to bring her home in- this is a big nice bay mare and she is so sweet- it seems like she has been abused in the past because she was so head shy- the other recep mare is a paint mare and she did not want to get out of the trailer once I got her home- IMO, I would make sure the mares can be handled and not scared to death when you approach them- also, make sure you can clean their feet out because both of these have had an Abscess while I have had them- good luck 

I came here to say this too

I would pay for a nice mare that just happened to get hurt but was broke and handled.    If I were looking for a recip, I would look at anywhere from 7500+.

Don't expect someone to give away a nice mannered mare.  Papered or not, if you are using that vessel for your precious cargo, I would want it as nice as I could get

Buy a few young draft mares.....