I should have been more clear. They cannot canter straight because they are not allowed to.
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He is, and I had a conversation with him a few years ago about the difference between “then and now”. We discussed training a park horse or saddleseat horse using dressage and developing it over years instead of months and how much better the horses would be, and he agreed…except that clients would never give a main ring trainer that much time. I believe he is glad to have found dressage and is enjoying it.
His brother Gene is doing thoroughbred race horses now including racing a few of his own and doing layup conditioning.
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If I had large sums of money, I’d bet a LOT of it on that chestnut having some serious hock issues (or possibly even farther down to the fetlocks, or both) and the not sitting not having anything to do with a flat croup.
I’ve always been told the same thing, and have always found the flat-crouped horses with good hocks and good training have no more difficulty truly sitting than horses with ideal croup conformation.
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That is so interesting! I bet that was an amazing conversation!
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Fresh semen doesn’t come in straws at all. Fresh semen arrives in a whirlpac baggie or in a syringe.
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Do they do that during the actual class or just the victory pass? That looks so odd.
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The actual class. I think it started when the rule came out that both hands had to be visible to the judge…and now has turned into this.
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Eek 
. I haven’t shown Arabs since the 1980’s. What the heck?
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Definitely strange but it’s during the classes. It makes it a little easier to correct or bump in the bosal and for it to not be noticeable per my Arabian wp friends. I don’t think it looks comfy but it definitely is what’s winning right now.
I would have paid good money to see those people show in front of Peter Cameron.
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Look Ma, no hands!
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I think it’s important to note that this “frozen/thawed/frozen” partial-straw semen is probably not going to be viable for traditional AI breeding technique (into an ovulating mare). My guess is the progressively motile numbers in those “used” straws are very low and insufficient to survive a mare’s uterus for 4-6 hours to produce a typical pregnancy. However, since ICSI is extremely precise, the sperm quantity and motility can be much lower in a lab setting compared to a live mare. Perhaps it explains how someone like Kate would acquire her diverse semen collection… partial breeding doses and low-quality doses floating around the stratosphere 2nd/3rd hand have to be more economical than a proper LFG contract with full dose guaranteed 500M-1B sperm per purchase directly from the stallion owner.
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I don’t think you need to thaw and refreeze. My understanding of that you keep the straw frozen, slicing off only what you need, thawing the sliced off bit, using it, and then tossing what is left of the thawed part.
It’s true that it leaves less than a full straw for whatever you want to do next which limits future use and the value of what’s left.
But I don’t think you thaw and refreeze the whole straw with ICSI.
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@vxf111 I would have assumed as you said, just cut off a piece of it. However the
excerpt posted by Omare above says the semen actually might be thawed and re-frozen, specifically at lower concentrations for use in ICSI only. So not only might you purchase “0.7 straw,” that re-frozen straw may have started out with 1M sperm instead of standard 200M+.
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thanks, that makes sense.
I’ve probably got it wrong. 
Just in case anyone finds a project, you can train it out of them. I have a darling little QH mare that was trained western pleasure, down to the sideways lope. It took me about a year to completely fix. Now she is a dressage lesson horse for my trainer, packing kids around. She can even do half pass and flying changes if you ride her well.
The thing that is so heartbreaking about it is that she actually has a very sensitive mouth. She prefers light, steady contact. The only time she can get naughty is if you hold her mouth too hard. She is also very light off my leg.
Just the thought of those people ripping her face off and spurring her hard, which they absolutely did, makes me feel ill. She doesn’t even need spurs at all.
At least she’s living the dream now, we treat her very well!
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The article omare linked is talking about frozen semen specifically made for ICSI with the intent that it be used for that purpose. I don’t think many of the straws at issue here were created for that. Given the stallions listed (some deceased for some time) and the time period when ICSI became more widespread, coupled with the partial straws for sale-- I think a lot of these are “traditional frozen” straws. And with those, which are more concentrated, you don’t defrost, use, and re-freeze. You just cut off the piece you need for ICSI, thaw, and use that piece. I guess we’ll never know what is actually for sale here because the FB ad is not very specific but I doubt this is all semen frozen specifically for ICSI use.
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Well whatever it needs to leave. But it’s been mainstay for at least 15 years so it seems to be here to stay.
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Yeah - Mr. Cameron did not suffer much foolishness (tho he was fun at an exhibitors party 
)
I don’t recall exactly what year the junior horse classes got put in (I don’t recall them back in the 70s), and the $$$$ involved in them now is kinda off the charts.
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