Stallion Breeding Contract Template (Free PDF): Live Foal Guarantee, Fees and the Clauses That Matter (2026)

By Brian Bickell, who raises paint and quarter horses at Bickell Ranches in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

A stallion booked to thirty mares in a season produces thirty separate contracts, and twenty-eight of them are never read again after both parties sign. The other two are the reason the document exists. A mare that never settles, a shipment that arrived warm on a Saturday, a balance that was supposed to come due when she was certified in foal and did not: on those bookings the contract is the only thing either party can point at, and whatever it failed to say is the part that gets argued about.

Most stallion service agreements in circulation are a previous season's document with the year changed. That holds until the program changes, and programs change every year. A farm that moved from cooled to frozen, added a second collection day, or started charging a separate mare care rate is running this season on last season's promises.

A general template, not legal advice. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Have a lawyer who knows your state review a breeding contract before you rely on it.

Who the Contract Protects

Both parties, in different places, which is why a document written entirely from one side reads as a warning sign to the other.

The stallion owner is protected on two things: getting paid, and the outer limit of what was promised. A stallion fee is earned for a service performed competently, and no stallion owner can promise a foal, because conception happens in another state under another veterinarian's management. The clauses that matter on the stallion side are the fee triggers, the definition of the guarantee, the limits on what the semen may be used for, and the termination terms if the horse dies or stops standing.

The mare owner is protected on delivery and on remedy. They are paying in advance for something that has not happened yet, to a farm they may never visit, and the mare is the asset at risk. The clauses that matter on the mare side are the shipment terms, the veterinary obligations the farm can impose, what happens if she does not settle, and the registration paperwork that turns the foal into a registered horse a year later.

A contract covering both lists is longer than the one-page agreement most farms started with, and shorter than the argument it prevents.

Parties and Horses

The opening block is the part everyone skims and the part that decides who is actually bound. It names the stallion by registered name and registration number, the mare the same way, and both parties by legal name with an address, a phone number, and an email.

The registered name is the identifier that matters. Barn names are not unique, and a season's worth of records filed under "Doc" is unrecoverable. Most farms also require a copy of the mare's registration papers to come back with the signed agreement, because the owner on record with the registry at the time of breeding is the owner reported on the stallion breeding report, and a mare whose transfer never completed is a foal registration problem waiting eleven months to surface.

The recital under the names states the plain fact of the deal: these two parties, this mare, this stallion, this season. If the agreement is a return breeding owed under a previous contract, the recital is where that belongs, because which breeding a return is owed against is a term of the deal rather than a footnote.

The Fees, and When Each One Is Due

Three numbers, and they behave differently.

The booking fee holds the mare a place on the book. It is normally non-refundable and is stated as such, because what it buys is the slot rather than the outcome. A contract that leaves the booking fee ambiguous invites a refund conversation on every mare that does not settle.

The stud fee, also called the stallion fee or the breeding fee, is the price of the breeding. The contract states the amount and, separately, the event that makes it payable. The triggers in common use are at booking, before the first shipment, on certification that the mare is in foal by a fall date, when a live foal stands and nurses, or at the sale of the resulting foal. Those are five materially different deals at the same headline price, and the trigger is what the stallion owner is actually financing.

The per-shipment and per-collection charges are their own line. Collection, packaging, courier, and the return label are costs the farm incurs whether or not a mare settles, so they normally sit outside the guarantee entirely and are stated that way.

The clause worth writing carefully is the one that says which charges survive a refund. A no foal, no fee guarantee that refunds the stud fee "less the booking deposit and less any collection, shipping, and veterinary charges already incurred" is a specific promise. The same clause without that phrase is an argument.

The Guarantee

The guarantee is the clause the mare owner reads first and the clause most often left as a slogan. Three questions have to be answered in the text or the promise does not operate.

What counts as a live foal. The workable definition is a single newborn foal that stands and nurses without assistance and lives for a stated number of hours after birth, with twenty-four hours the common figure. Twins satisfy the agreement as one live foal, which is worth saying out loud rather than discovering.

What proof, and by when. A guarantee applies only to mares certified in foal by the attending veterinarian, and the certification carries a deadline. October 1 of the breeding year is the date HorseBook's built-in template uses, and it is a date many stock horse contracts in circulation use. The loss side needs the same treatment: a notice period after a foal is born dead or a confirmed pregnancy is lost, a statement from the attending veterinarian, and a sentence saying that failure to give the notice ends the remedy.

What the remedy is. This is where the named guarantees differ, and the names are not interchangeable.

Guarantee	What the mare owner gets
Live foal guarantee	A return breeding the following season at no further stud fee
Live colored foal guarantee	The same, and a rebreed if the foal does not qualify on color with the registry
No foal, no fee	The stud fee back, less the booking deposit and the charges already incurred
No foal, free return	A return breeding to the same stallion next season, other charges still the mare owner's
No guarantee	Nothing. The fee is earned on shipment or on breeding and is not refundable

No guarantee is a legitimate offer, common on a proven horse in demand, and it is honest as long as it is written plainly instead of implied by the absence of a guarantee clause.

Mare Care and Board While She Is on the Farm

A mare standing at the breeding farm turns the agreement into a boarding agreement as well, and the paragraph covering it is short but load-bearing.

It states the daily rate and what the rate includes, since dry lot, stall, and mare-and-foal rates are three different prices. It states who pays the farrier and the veterinarian while she is there, and whether routine calls are billed through to the mare owner. It gives the farm authority to obtain emergency veterinary treatment when the owner cannot be reached, with a dollar ceiling above which the owner has to approve, which is the clause that gets used at two in the morning. It names an arrival date and a pickup deadline, and the rate that applies to a mare left past it.

Every one of those is a bill somebody will send. Writing them down before she unloads is the difference between an invoice and a dispute.

Shipped and Cooled Semen

For a program shipping cooled or frozen semen this is the longest clause in the contract and the one that generates the most correspondence during a season.

It sets the shipment fee and what it includes. It states how many doses go per breeding, because that number moves between seasons and mare owners plan around it. It disclaims warranties on the characteristics of the semen delivered and on delayed or mishandled deliveries by a courier the farm does not control, since that is a risk neither party can price. And it states plainly that the semen may be used only on the mare named in the agreement, and that dividing it, reselling it, or using it on another mare forfeits the fees and voids every guarantee in the document.

The container is its own paragraph. A shipping container and a semen tank remain the property of the farm or the collecting facility, and they are expensive. The clause names the return deadline, normally the next business day after it is received, the per-day late charge, and the replacement cost of a container that comes back damaged or does not come back at all.

Requesting a shipment gets its own short section, written as instructions rather than as legal prose: who to call or text, by what hour, on which collection days, how many shipments per cycle are included at the stated fee, and a sentence making clear that timing the insemination to the mare's cycle is the mare owner's job and the mare owner's veterinarian's job. That sentence prevents the most common bad conversation of the season.

Rebreed and Substitution

Rebreed privileges are the operating detail behind the guarantee, and they need dates and limits. Which season the return is available in, whether it is the following season only, what happens if the stallion is no longer standing when the return would fall due, and which charges the mare owner still pays on a return breeding.

Substitution runs in both directions. If the mare dies or is found unfit during the season, most contracts let the mare owner substitute another mare acceptable to the stallion owner, and refund on stated terms if the parties cannot agree on one. If the stallion dies, becomes unavailable, or is found unfit before the mare is bred, the agreement terminates and the fee is refunded on stated terms. If that happens after she is bred, the mare owner's remedy is the guarantee already written above. A well-drafted contract also says the mare owner is not required to accept a substitute stallion, which is the fair answer and stops the question being asked.

Transfer belongs in the same neighborhood. If the mare is sold or leased, an unused rebreed does not travel with her unless the stallion owner agrees in writing. If the stallion is sold, the mare owner should get written confirmation from the new owner before counting on a return breeding. That is one of several places where a mare changing hands mid-agreement creates paperwork, and it is worth reading alongside the broodmare lease agreement template if the mare in question is leased rather than owned.

Veterinary Requirements at the Mare's End

The stallion owner is entitled to set conditions on what arrives at the farm and on what the semen is used on, and the contract is where those conditions live rather than in a text message in April.

The standard shape is a representation by the mare owner that the mare is in sound breeding condition, current on her vaccinations and deworming, and free of communicable disease. Many contracts add an examination requirement for maiden, barren, and older mares before the first shipment, and the right to ask for a uterine culture and cytology dated within the current season. Genetic panel results for the breed, exchanged in both directions, are increasingly standard on stock horse contracts.

Two more sentences earn their place. One reserving the right to decline to breed, or to continue breeding, a mare that does not meet the conditions, with the refund terms that apply if the farm declines before the first shipment. One stating that the care, handling, insemination, and veterinary management of the mare remain the mare owner's responsibility throughout. Contracts also commonly commit the mare owner to a vaccination schedule during the pregnancy, and the specifics of that schedule belong to the attending veterinarian rather than to a template.

Registration Paperwork

The clause that decides whether a foal becomes a registered horse is usually the shortest one in the document, and it has two halves.

The stallion owner's half is the annual stallion breeding report, the filing that tells the registry which mares the horse covered that season. APHA describes it as filed by the stallion owner at the time of breeding, listing the stallion, the exposed mares, the breeding dates and the breeding method. It goes to the registry, not to the mare owner, and a foal from a mating that never made it onto the report cannot be registered no matter how complete the mare owner's paperwork is. The report is also why the contract asks for a copy of the mare's registration papers up front: the owner on record with the registry at the time of breeding is the owner who gets reported.

Both AQHA and APHA set that filing at November 30 of the breeding year, which lands in the same weeks as booking season for the following spring. APHA states the November 30 deadline as a postmark date and sets it at May 31 for stallions standing south of the equator. AQHA's help center puts the same date on filing the stallion's exposure to mares and notes a late fee charged for each amendment made after it.

The mare owner's half is the breeder's certificate, and the terminology is worth getting right because both registries use the same word for the same thing. AQHA mails a pre-printed registration application, also called a breeder's certificate, to every stallion owner who files a stallion breeding report. APHA says the same in plainer words: a breeder's certificate is the same thing as a registration application. So the document the mare owner is waiting on is the registration application with the stallion owner's part completed, not a separate letter.

Most contracts condition that certificate on payment in full, including veterinary and recipient mare expenses, and on the foal having been born and reported back to the stallion owner. That condition is normal, and it is also the most common reason a foal sits unregistered into its weanling year, so the mare owner's side of the clause deserves the same attention as the fee schedule.

Fees and forms change from year to year, so check the current schedule on the registry's own site before relying on any of it: AQHA at aqha.com and APHA at apha.com. The fall and winter filing dates that catch breeders out are laid out in the foal registration paperwork guide.

Cancellation

Cancellation is separate from termination, and a contract with one but not the other leaves a hole.

Termination covers the events nobody chose: the stallion dies, the mare dies, a horse is found unfit. Cancellation covers the mare owner who changes their mind in February, which happens on every book every year. The clause states whether the booking fee is refundable at any point, what notice the mare owner has to give, what the stallion owner does with the freed slot, and whether a cancelled booking can be carried to the following season instead of refunded. A carry-forward is often the answer that keeps the customer, and it only exists if it is written.

Governing Law

The closing section names the state whose law governs, and the state's equine activity statute is why it is not boilerplate. Most states have one, they differ in what they require, and several condition their liability protection on specific warning language appearing in the contract or posted at the farm. An attorney licensed in the governing state is the only reliable way to know whether a given document qualifies.

The section also normally carries a mutual acknowledgement of the inherent risks of equine activities, a carve-out preserving liability for gross negligence and willful misconduct, a counterparts clause so the parties do not have to sign the same sheet of paper, and an agreement to attempt mediation before filing suit. That last one is cheap to include and occasionally saves a season.

How a Season's Contracts Get Tracked

Thirty contracts is thirty documents, thirty fee schedules, and thirty sets of dates coming due at different times. The failure mode is not losing a contract. It is losing track of which mare is on which version of it.

HorseBook's Breeder plan generates the contract from the booking instead of starting from a blank document. The mare, her registration number, her owner and their contact details, the stallion, the season, the stud fee and the shipment fee are already on the booking, so they fill themselves in. The guarantee is picked from the five named variants above and the clause text changes to match the one selected. The fee due trigger is picked the same way, from the triggers listed earlier, and the fee clause rewrites itself accordingly. Every section stays editable before the contract goes out, because a template that cannot be edited is a template nobody uses twice.

The document HorseBook seeds runs through the sections covered on this page: the parties and horses, the stallion fee, the contract type, the breeding method, mare health and suitability, semen shipment, requesting a shipment, registration papers, the guarantee, rebreed privileges, transfer of the agreement, the breeder's certificate, termination, governing law, counterparts, and payment. A disclaimer sits above the editor stating that HorseBook is not a law firm, that the seeded text is a starting point rather than a finished contract, and that an attorney licensed in the sending party's state should review it. The same notice is repeated inside the generated document.

Per-stallion season templates are the part that matters at book scale. A template is set once for a stallion for a year and every contract generated for that horse that season inherits it, so a farm changing its shipment instructions or its doses per breeding changes them in one place rather than on thirty documents. Editing a draft contract still edits only that contract, which is how an exception stays an exception.

The rest of the stud book sits around it: the mares booked and their status, collections and the freezing log, shipments tied to the mare they went to, fee schedules split into a deposit and balances that come due at different events, and one-tap mark-paid as the money lands. Payment links are the operation's own, whatever it already uses, and HorseBook never processes or holds the money. Signed paper from an outside farm belongs in the same place: a scanned contract uploaded onto the booking also shows up under the mare's documents if she is in the account.

The stallion book is the Breeder plan on both the web dashboard and the iPhone app. Mare-side records, the cycles, covers, pregnancy checks, foalings and progeny, are on every plan. What belongs in the book beyond the contracts is in the stallion book records guide, and the fall work that has to happen before any of it starts is in the pre-breeding season checklist.

The Document Is the Season's Memory

A breeding contract is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the only surviving statement of what two operations agreed to, written at the one moment when both of them are happy. Eleven months later, when a mare is empty or a foal did not make it, the document is either specific enough to settle the question or it is not.

The template below covers the subjects. The editing is the work, and the legal review is not optional on a document that goes out to a whole book.

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Brian Bickell is the founder of HorseBook and raises paint and quarter horses at Bickell Ranches in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This article is general information about what breeding contracts contain, not legal advice.