Artificial Insemenation (A.I.) and Thoroughbreds

A few days ago my husband posted to his Blog about A.I. and Thoroughbreds, which seems to have sparked quite the debate on another site (Pedigree Query).  You can see his blog post at: http://perfectpeacefarm.blogspot.com/2011/09/rich-people-apparently-get-turned-off.html

He did a good job explaining the situation, but I thought I might go ahead and chime in on this one.

We breed Thoroughbreds for racing and sport, but we also have bred Anglo-Arabians and Half Welsh Ponies.   We have bred mares via live cover and A.I. so we are talking from experience in knowing the costs of both, the in's and out's of both, and so on.

The Jockey Club refuses to allow A.I., one of their arguements is that it would narrow down the gene pool of the Thoroughbred and there woulod not be as much diversity in the breed, but I strongly disagree, because we are already narrowing the gene pool and I think by allowing A.I. it just might spread it back out, again.

If you look at the number of stallions that the big Kentucky farms stood at stud just 10 to 20 years ago, and compare it to now, you'd see that most of the big farms are standing about half the number that they once had.  

When I went to Kentucky in 1990, I went to Claiborne, Spendthrif, and Gainesway, all 3 had just about all their stallion barns full, very few empty stalls.  I lived in Kentucky in 1997 and visited Lane's End, which also had it's barn full of stallions.  I then visited Kentucky in 2006 and again in 2010, visiting some of the same places I'd visited in the past, along with a few I hadn't been to before, and what I saw was a lot of empty stallions in those stallion barns.

These farms weren't really breeding any less mares than before, but what they had done was increased the number of mares each stallions bred, so standing fewer. 

Kentucky seems to get rid of stallions a lot quicker than they used to, if it doesn't get good sales prices of it's first few crops and if it's first two crops to race don't set the track on fire, they quickly send it to a regional market or even sell it to go overseas.  

I have seen on quite a few occasions, that they get rid of a stallion way too quickly and the year after it leaves Kentucky, it gets a hot horse.   Sometimes the stallion is welcomed back to Kentucky, but most of the time they have moved on to the next hot retired stallion prospect.

Now, I realize that the number of mares bred has dropped the last two years, but this is due more to the economy.   I will be perfectly honest here, if A.I. was allowed, I would have a lot more foals than I currently do.

To breed my mares to anything decent, I have to send them out of state, because of the lack of quality stallions standing here in Virginia, these days.   I could go on about that subject, but I'll save that for another time.   We have bred Thoroughbred mares in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, when there was something worth breeding to here.

Shipping has cost us anywhere from $300 to $700, one way, depending on where the mare was going.  Kentucky is usually the most expensive place for us to ship to, but I have looked into shipping to Florida and that would have actually cost me more.   Then, once the mare is at the boarding farm, which is usually not where the stallion stands at stud, it costs $25 to $30 a day for a mare without a foal and $30 to $35 a day for a mare with a foal at her side.   The shortest time I have kept a mare at a boarding farm was about 45 days, because she cooperated, came into heat as soon as she got to the farm and got in foal (pregnant) on that first heat cycle.   You have to wait 14 days, minimum, to see if a mare is pregnant, and a heartbeat can be detected between 28 to 32 days.   I usually try to wait for this 2nd check before I will go ahead and make plans for the mare to come back home.   Add the vet costs ontop of the shipping costs and boarding costs and we have spent between $3000 to $5000 for just one mare, in one breeding season, to get her pregnant, and that doesn't include the stud fee that we pay for the privilege of breeding our mare to the stallion of our choice.

If I could breed via A.I., I would not have the mare's shipping costs to worry about or the boarding costs.   Yes, I'd have vet bills, but my home vet charges less than the Kentucky ones and the cost of shipping semen is no more than the cost of one way shipping of a mare.   There are collection costs and shipping costs for the semen to get to you, but this usually costs me, in total, for one shipment, between $250 to $350, depending on the collection costs that the stallion's vet charges and the distance the semen has to travel, as it has to be shipped overnight, if it is just cooled semen, versus frozen semen, but even that has to be sent quickly.

I'd save anywhere from $2000 to $4000 if I could breed via A.I. and I could put that money towards paying for a higher quality stallion to breed even better stock.

Now, just because The Jockey Club opens up A.I., hypothetically speaking here, this does not mean that every stallion or farm has to do it.  There are plenty of non-Thoroughbred stallions that are in registries that allow A.I. that do not have shipped semen available for a variety of reasons.

There are stallions who's semen just doesn't ship well, for some reason, the stallion may not like the collection process, and so on.   And there are also mares that do not do well with receiving shipped semen, I've had one of these, so know the troubles that can come with a mare that reacts badly to the extender that is used to help keep the semen alive during shipping.

The Quarter Horse registry, AQHA, when it first opened up A.I. to the registry, first allowed only on site use of A.I., which means the stallion and the mare had to be on the same farm at the time of collection and then insemenation, no extender was allowed.

When I was in college, I assisted and watched as one of my riding instructor's AQHA stallions was collected and then we insemenated 3 mares from that one collection.   All 3 mares got in foal.  Then during a breeding class, we went to a Tennessee Walking Horse farm and watched them collect a stallion and then insemenate 4 mares from that one collection.

In Kentucky they have to breed the stallions up to 3 to 4 times a day to cover the number of mares they want to, especially if he is breeding over 100 mares.   If they allowed A.I. they could just collect him once and breed all of those mares at one time.   And if there were more mares than 3 or 4 in heat and needing breeding that day, they could collect him twice and double it to 6 to 8 mares being bred in one day and since he was only collected twice, he's not being overtaxed, overused, and so his semen quality will remain stronger.   This could possibly help stallions that are starting to suffer some fertility issue.

The Jockey Club already allows the collection of the dismount, which not to be crude, but to explain, is the semen that spills out of the mare or is dripping from the stallion, after he is done breeding her.   They can collect this and then put it into the mare, so they are already insemenating her artificially helping.

Collecting a stallion is safer than live cover.  Stallions have been kicked and killed, have been thrown off balance and fallen, breaking legs, which has led to their being put down, and many other injuries to the stallion or mare, not to mention the injuries that can happen to the humans involved in this process.

Stallions that are having back trouble or any other issues that make it uncomfortable for them to live cover a mare, could be used longer if taught to ground collect, which means that all four of their hooves remain on the ground, while the semen is collected from them.

Allowing A.I. and shipment of the collected semen would mean that I could then breed to the Florida stallion I like, the California stallion I like, and so on, I wouldn't have to limit myself to breeding my mares within a few state proximity.  Plus, I could spend the saved money on breeding to a higher quality stallion or even the purchase of another quality mare.

I think opening up A.I. and shipped semen would give others that chance to look all over the US for stallions for their mares and hence would increase the gene pool and not shrink it.   Sure, there will be stallions that will always get over 100 mares, but the farms standing them could always help themselves and limit the number of mares that the stallion breeds, something they already do, but just because you can breed more, don't, so the value of the foals stays up, for those wanting to sell the offspring.  But, for someone like myself who wants to breed a racehorse, not one that looks pretty in September of it's yearling year, looking like a 2 or 3 year old prematurely, it really would help me and the others like me, to get to that stallion who sires consistant solid runners.   I already try to do this, but I have seen stallions in other states that I'd love to breed my mares to, but logistically I just can't do it and can't afford it, as I'm not rich.

And I don't think Kentucky would have to worry about a mass exodus of mares, because they still have the limestone rich pastures that are sought after by breeders and if they have a good incentive program in their state, make it even stronger than it currently is, it will just keep mares there so they can keep producing Kentucky breds.   They may lose some of the seasonal boarders, like myself, but not the year round boarders.

I honestly don't think rich people are turned off by A.I., they don't care, they want whatever will get them the return on their investment.   In fact, I bet they'd go for A.I. if they were a stallion owner and realized their top stallion could sire even more foals, meaning more money.

Part of this is tradition.   Things seem to move at a snail pace, when you talk about change in the racing industry.   They don't want to change their traditions, but times are changing and you need to move with the times to stay alive. 

Again, Kentucky stud farms would not have to offer shipped semen or A.I. if they don't want to and it may not hurt them, because of the year round boarding mares that are already there, they'd stay there to breed to those stallions and if there is a stallion you really want to breed to and shipped semen isn't available, if you can afford to ship the mare and pay for those additional boarding costs, you'll ship the mare to breed to that stallion.   This would only open up choices to everyone.  

If there was a stallion in a nearby state that I really wanted to breed to and it was by far and away what I considered to be the best match for my mare, and they did not do shipped semen, I'd send my mare to be bred, if I had the money.   So, there should be no threat hear by allowing A.I. and shipped semen for the Thoroughbred.

They are restricting trade here and also, I believe, hurting themselves, by not allowing A.I.  I think it is fear of change and such, but I really don't think it would change the look of Kentucky by that much.  So, I sure hope they will start allowing A.I. and shipped semen and sooner than later, please.