For the past several years, Select Breeders Services has had the honor of assisting the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) in the fulfillment of grants they have been awarded through a USDA supported program called the Quality Samples Program (QSP). This program assists in providing monetary support for the export of livestock genetics from the United States to international markets. Rather than exporting live animals, the export of frozen semen allows for a much larger impact in the genetic pool of foreign countries. Most recently, the destination was the Czech Republic in Eastern Europe. Frozen semen from several stallions was processed at the 6666 Ranch, an SBS Affiliate Laboratory, then exported by Select Breeders Southwest (SBSW) in Aubrey, TX to the Czech Republic. Though there have been many frozen semen shipments of American Quarter Horse stallions to Western Europe, this was the first request from the 6666 Ranch for an Eastern European country and the first shipment SBSW has facilitated to the Czech Republic.

Mares can develop problems during pregnancy or be at high risk of losing the pregnancy for a variety of reasons. These include age (old mares frequently have endometriosis in which the uterus is unable to properly supply the fetus with appropriate blood supply and nutrients), physical conditions (placental and fetal fluid abnormalities; body wall tears; chronic debilitating conditions such as laminitis and Cushing’s disease), and acute disease or injury (placentitis, uterine torsion, surgical colic, colitis, acute laminitis, or fractures). When a mare becomes stressed or debilitated, inflammatory chemicals and prostaglandins increase and induce abnormal uterine contractions and potential pregnancy loss. Reproductive problems that arise during gestation, however, when detected and diagnosed early, can still result in the survival of the mare and usually the foal. The abnormalities most commonly seen during the middle to late stages of pregnancy will be discussed in this article.

Those of us who work with stallions are routinely asked to determine a stallion’s fertility prior to breeding mares or to investigate the cause of low fertility. Often this requires sending the stallion to a specialized veterinary clinic or a veterinary school. Advances have been made in stallion fertility evaluations through the use of computerized sperm motion analyzers (CASA) and flow cytometry.

Send Us Your SBS Frozen Semen Foal Photos. Pull out your cameras and start snapping! We'd like to see photos of your foals born in 2019 (2018 if born August – December in the Southern Hemisphere) from semen frozen by an SBS affiliate lab or resulting from embryo transfer performed at one of our SBS affiliate labs. The winner of the best foal photo will win a $75 Dover Saddlery gift certificate (or for Amazon.com for submissions from EU/AUS). Photos will be posted to our website and will be judged on composition by our SBS affiliate members. Click here to see the submission of foals from 2019.