Quinte Shire farm offers breeding through artificial insemination and is available through shipment of chilled semen anywhere in Canada and the United States or by insemination on our farm. The use of artificial insemination (AI) presents many advantages to the mare owner. You do not face the expense of transporting, housing and boarding your mare to the stud farm or the stallion to your farm. There are no questions of the stallion and the mare finding each other attractive and completing the coupling. Additionally there are no risks of injury to your mare or to a foal if she has just foaled.
Semen may be handled in different ways after collection depending on the time interval to insemination. Fresh semen may be used within a very short time from collection; usually within an hour. Semen that is to be kept for longer durations of time, such as for shipment prior to insemination, needs to be preserved. To the semen is added a suitable liquid which provides nutrition and helps preserve the semen. Quinte Shire farm provides chilled preserved semen as we believe it is the best method of prolonging the deliverable time frame of vitally active fertile sperm to increase the likelihood of successful conception of your mare.
The retention of reasonably fertile preserved semen kept at room temperature is usually considered to be limited to 12 hours. The retention of chilled (to 5 degrees Celsius) preserved semen from the majority of fertile stallions is in some cases for more then 48 hours. This allows sufficient time for the shipment from our farm for delivery to yours and for insemination of your mare. Some suppliers provide frozen semen but we believe that the drawbacks of frozen preserved semen outweigh the successes.
In natural covering the sperm normally survive for at least two days in the mare. There should be no need to recover more then once every 48 hours if the mare has not ovulated. Preserved semen for artificial insemination tends to survive a shorter duration of time in the mare and it is therefore increasingly important to monitor the mare’s cycle in order to inseminate close to ovulation. It takes considerable skills to judge in advance the correct time to order the semen and inseminate the mare when she will ovulate. There is seldom a chance with AI to inseminate more then once on each cycle if the mare does not ovulate when predicted. It usually requires the skill of an experienced veterinary surgeon employing a scanner to correctly predict the time of inseminate.
A drawback to using AI is that there often is no means of determining oestrus and predicting the approach of ovulation through teasing the mare. Prior to ordering semen the mare should be swabbed and examined by a veterinary to ensure that she is not infected and is otherwise healthy and likely to conceive. Due to the challenge in assessing approaching ovulation accurately and the need to inseminate close to ovulation, it is wise to have an experienced veterinarian surgeon monitor her last few days of cycle. The veterinary surgeon should be familiar with stud work and with the use of equine AI. The mare should be examined 24 hours after insemination to ensure that she has ovulated. If she has not come back into season three weeks later, it is a sensible precaution to have her checked again to determine whether she is pregnant.
The use of AI or the covering of your
mare at the “foal heat” can be a topic for discussion. The endometrium
lining of the uterus is essentially repaired 10 days after foaling in the
normal healthy mare. In some circumstances such as in aged mares,
etc., the uterine involution (contraction) may be delayed. This would
be the case if the mare had a difficult foaling or even the retention of
afterbirth. Successful conception under these circumstances is unlikely
and we would recommend the mare be left until she returns to her normal
21 day cycle before considering AI.
We also offer AI to light horses crossed by a Shire to give you a good solid riding or driving horse.
Interested in Breeding Contract?
To request a breeding contract please phone:
(613) 477-3214, fax (613) 477-3308, or
email: djwoodhead@quinteshires.com
your request.