I got a text from one of the barn peeps that my mare is showing signs of heat. I’m a little annoyed as we have a breeding soundness evaluation/ultrasound at the clinic next week Monday so I’m pretty sure she’ll probably have ovulated by then. 
The frozen semen I’ve ordered is at the clinic. Should I try to haul her out sooner or scratch this cycle all together? This is my first time breeding with shipped semen so I feel a little out of the loop.
Ahhh… Well - mute point. I called the clinic and they are having me bring her in at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Hopefully we’re not too late!
Mare’s cycles vary and some show heat, while others do not. If you are planning on breeding with frozen, you need your vet’s assistance. He/she should be tracking your mare’s cycle. Even with fresh cooled, this is necessary. Asking here is useless. Time to call your vet.
My mare usually doesn’t show heat so when I got the text, I was a little surprised. I was expecting to take her in next week and do culture/cytology and then plan on doing the P&E protocol to time her ovulation for insemination later in the month. The fact that she’s showing a heat is atypical but I’ll take what I can get. Luckily, the clinic is happy to accomodate her first thing in the morning. If she’s close to ovulation, I’m just going to leave her there so they can ultrasound every 6 hours and inseminate at the appropriate time.
I do not know where you are located, but from the description which includes snow, I’d guess that it could be the case that your mare is still in transition. I would ask my vet to be very certain that she is through transition and into genuine cycles before using valuable semen. This has been a very odd year for many mare’s cycles around the country. Hoping all goes well. Good luck!
Last year, My mare (who is a conistently easy breeder, catches first time, all with chilled). I was worried about expense of frozen and my vet said a perfect candidate. Well on May 23 she had a 40 follicle. May 29 she actually ovulated. Conceived all was wonderful… They are all a bit different.
Boy, if you could boil that down to a precise answer that applied to all mares, you’d save a lot of vets a lot of time with their arms stuck up a mare’s booty! 
[QUOTE=deltawave;7003588]
Boy, if you could boil that down to a precise answer that applied to all mares, you’d save a lot of vets a lot of time with their arms stuck up a mare’s booty! :D[/QUOTE]
haha! Oh so true…
I feel in a lot of ways I’m flying blind here. It’s been years since I’ve bred anything and the protocols have changed a lot since then. Granted, all the breeding I did was with my own stallions so being able to tease and live cover made the process a whole lot simpler.
This is a totally new experience for me and I’m working with new veterinarians as my current vet does not do repro so I don’t necessarily have that rapport yet either, which makes me a little uneasy as well.
Fingers crossed that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill and all goes smoothly.
Mare went to the clinic this morning and she showed a huge follicle (53mm). Timing couldn’t be more perfect. Semen is on the truck and being delivered this afternoon. She did have a little edema in the left horn but nothing dramatic. Culture came back clean. Looks like we’re good to go! Weee! I’m so excited!!!
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