Monday, June 17, 2013

Ruined T-Shirts

It's a sign of breeding season:  permanent green/brown stains on the right sleeve of my white t-shirts.  For Father's Day yesterday, my kids bought me a pack of black t-shirts, so the stains won't show...thoughtful.

Still no pregnancy for Werites, but Eliscia SSF (UB-40 x Pass the Glass xx) is in foal to Florianus.  This should be a really beautiful foal.

I was up WAY TOO EARLY this morning to breed Mistral.  Perfect cycle, perfect follicle, perfect timing...so I decided to try Chagall one more time. I was within two hours of ovulation; the mare's 30 day heat; wide-open cervix...couldn't resist at least one shot at a Chagall x Vincent x El Corona x Rechter x Doruto baby.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Two mares to breed this week, LaVita and Werites.  Anyone have any bionic semen out there I can use on Werites?

Sunday, June 9, 2013

This Morning's Post-Scanning Musings

Michaela and I just saw a 30 day, healthy Everdale baby in Orchis! Knock on wood this pregnancy lasts and Orchis stays healthy. Mistral has two follicles coming for her 30 day heat. If I use Sucramate, then I'll get a double ovulation...maybe it's worth a shot trying the Chagall at least once on her. The mare has a collection of cysts at the bottom of her left horn, so picking up twins immediately could be a challenge. LaVita came home last night for breeding. She has a really fancy Contango filly at her side, Isabella, bred by LaVita's new owners, Sean and Melissa Hardy. My family is stumping for a Wynton baby from LaVita. We're all quite nostalgic to have her home. Should be a busy breeding week. Beautiful day in New Hampshire! Off to ride.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Breeding Update

I was so hoping for an easy breeding year this year...it's not to be. Good news, Orchis is pregnant to Everdale. Bad news, three doses of Santano and one dose of Chagall result in no pregnancies. This is my fifth dose of Chagall, over two years, with three different mares, and no pregnancies. I still have five doses, but I'm hesitant to waste my time or another cycle. The stallion owner reports that people in England and Germany are having no trouble with the frozen, so it must be me. Who knows, I got three pregnancies with three doses of Totilas, frozen at the same stallion station. At any rate, all my mares are getting one chance with frozen then switching to fresh-cooled. Thank goodness for Iron Spring Farm. Werites (Freestyle x Jazz) went to Sir Sinclair last week, and Eliscia (UB-40 x Pass the Glass xx) to Florianus. I bred D'Orites (Donatelli x Jazz) with a second dose of Santano because I think I screwed up the timing on the first breeding. She's off at Roddy Strang's for a month or more, so I won't be able to check her until she gets back. This coming week, I'm breeding Mistral (Vincent x El Corona) and LaVita (Elcaro x Belisar)--both will get one shot with frozen, but I probably won't know until I open the tank to thaw the semen to whom. Tank inventory: one dose Lyjanero, a few doses of Donatelli, one dose Wynton, five doses Chagall, one dose Santano, one dose Voyager, one dose Everdale. I am not buying any more frozen this year. Maybe if I say it again I'll be more convinced. I am not buying any more frozen this year.

Dutch Stallions in North America

My friend Meghan just posted on FB about her frustrations with breeding with frozen semen so far this year, and how she's just covered her very well-bred jumper mare with a dressage stallion because she just can't afford to keep breeding unsuccessfully with frozen or continue to pay collection and shipping fees for a fresh-cooled stallion. How many of us have been in this situation? The lack of quality KWPN-approved stallions, available at a reasonable price with fresh-cooled semen in North America, is probably the single biggest contributing factor to the stagnation of our studbook. We need more stallions, to incite more breeding, to increase our membership, to increase our breeding pool, to get new people involved--all in order to grow a healthy, non-incestuous organization and breeding population. At this point in time, we would be better off without a North American office or studbook and just use the Dutch office for registrations, reporting, keuring and event organization, and promotion. This move might also, finally, get our horses recognized in the KWPN breeding indices. For how many years has the membership been asking for our mares and offspring to be recognized and recorded within the KWPN system? For over 12 years. Given our current state of technology, you can tell me it takes over a decade to make this happen? Ridiculous. It's purely inefficiency and lack of direction. If our membership were as strong as our Dutch counterparts within the KWPN, or if we had enough stallions to have a stallion owners lobbying group, changes as simple as combining data bases wouldn't still be unaccomplished after 12 years. The KWPN-NA is a top-down organization. The KWPN, although beset with its own political issues, is very much a member-driven organization. OK. That's a vent that took me a little off topic. We don't have more KWPN-approved stallions in North America for a number of reasons: One, KWPN-approved stallions are more expensive than German-approved stallions; two, our breeding base is smaller, so the opportunity to recoup the investment of purchasing one of these stallions is less assured; three, promoting and competing a stallion is significantly more expensive in North America than it is in Europe; four, the number of top riders who can successfully stand, train, and compete a breeding stallion are few and far between; five, the KWPN does more to promote stallions standing in Holland than the KWPN-NA does to promote stallions standing here. These are formidable odds for a potential stallion owner. The only way Dutch breeders are going to have access to a larger selection of quality stallions in North America on a consistent basis is if we form some kind of collaborative effort. Otherwise, we're bound by a large organization that is delighted to promote its frozen semen and a small organization that ineffectively promotes what few stallions it has available.