Best way to cover a mare

It's likewise for us htobago 90% of our bookings are for fresh chilled semen within the UK for McJonnas and frozen semen for Umenno within the UK and over seas but would not say its because that's what most people want but because there are no other alternatives / or for practicality reasons such as not wanting to travel mares long distances.

However as many studs will tell you there is still very much a demand for natural service especially withijn a stallions local vacinity. E.G. We have a few clients that return every year and will opt for whatever stallion we may be standing for natural service because that is what they want, but in the main we tend to point mare owners in the direction of our local AI centre as we really do not want to be taking in mares during the busy summer season.

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Most of them are great, but some had some odd ideas and ways of doing things. My YO was worried about one vet, for example, who receved the chilled semen, shipped overnight, before 9am, as promised, but then put it in the fridge and waited until the evening to inseminate??? YO was like "er, surely the best place for semen is in the mare, not sitting in a fridge for 12 hours"????

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On the whole the majority of the vets and AI centres that we have dealt with over the years have been fantastic as many mare owners tend to be sport horse breeders who have access to experienced vets and AI centres but yes things do crop up from time to time that makes you raise your eyebrows.
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More often that not I find the difficulties arise when the single mare owner chooses to breed the mare at home using her own local vet and it's at times like these we notice that the success results tend to decrease. A few clients who have gone down this route despite advising them to find a local experienced AI centre have ended up extremely disapointed with the mare not in foal and a massive bill to boot! and I find that quite frustrating.
 
Congrats! Our first is also due in April our colts first mare is at 14 days today since first covering, so will have her scanned tomorow or Sunday.
 
Will cross my fingers for you! My last foal was born on August 1st and I definately wanted an earlier one, late April should be ok, with it getting warmer. (Though I might wish I'd had her covered later when I'm getting up shivering in the depths of night!) Think May has seen some of the best weather for the last 2 years.
 
I have to say that the vast majority of the vets and AI centres inseminating Tobago's mares have been great too! As you say - it's just the odd one or two that are a bit worrying.

I'm really not expert enough to know whether it was completely daft of that vet to stick the semen in the fridge all day - but the YO at Cliveden is very experienced, and she was worried by this.
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This year we have covered most of our mares by AI - and this is our first year doing so - usually we send them away and they're covered in hand.

The huge plus point for us with AI is that it massively broadens the choice of stallions available.

We also covered one mare in hand and the stallion was very well behaved and it was very straightforward.

When we have our own boys up and running we will train them to use a dummy and AV - and will probably AI our own mares on site, purely to cut out risks of kicks etc
 
Hi Druid. Surprisingly she is not grey :-) She is a dark chocolate palomino...... her baby coat is/was cream, mane and tail cream but she is shedding out at the moment, the photo was taken in low evening light so the warmer colour is not coming through, she is by our cremello stallion McJonnas out of a Bavarian mare by the now deceased Bavarian stallion Kataract that stood at Straloch Stud I believe. Her owners are going to call me when she is fully shed out and I will go and take some more photos in better lighting. Oh and her mom is liver chestnut. Now I want a liver chestnut mare :-) However have no idea if the same colour will ever be reproduced, I am very interested to see if she produces the same colour foal next year.
 
Dammit - I wanted one the colour in the pic
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Palomino sounds good though - please post pics when you get some of her fully shed out
 
Can i jump in on this thread too?.I have worked at a stud where they had three of there own stallions and 20 odd mares with a few visiting mares.They used to mainly cover in hand but the older of the three stallions was a complete gent and would run with his girls.There wasen't alot of talk back then of AI (we are talking shire horses).Although the super premium stallion Trelow Father Abraham then was shipped to Australia and now does AI.

I too have a maiden mare (she is 8) and i am doing the research into whether to have her AI'd,natural or frozen or chilled.The particular stallion i like does natural and chilled but i want to do best by my girl and give her the best chance of taking with the least chance of causing her problems.I find this thread very interesting with everybody giving good advice and prefering thier own way of covering.God it's such a minefield isen't it!.So any advice regarding my mare would be appreciated.Thanks.
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Hbtago yes its a bit of a silly thing to do some practices just aren't aware that semen stores better in the mare than it does in the fridge..
 
Thanks Opie - I thought it sounded a bit daft. I hope to goodness the mare is in foal (waiting for scans atm), as this vet was responsible for AI-ing two of the very best mares we had this year - big winners in the show ring, fabulous pedigrees, etc., etc. Really top-class mares. If they are not in foal I will be very cross!
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