I’m sorry but even 20 lbs of hay isn’t enough for a lactating mare. Especially with crappy grass fields and no grain. If you use the 2% rule that would be for a 1000 pound animal. My warmbloods weigh in at 1350-1600. Ranging in size from 16.1-18h. She was feeding a diet ration for weight loss. Obviously. IMHO we underestimate the average weight of our horses. It’s eye opening when they actually go on a scale. My lean tb x wb cross was 1380 on the scale. And I was always trying to keep him from getting too lean.
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She’s now selling straws of semen on Facebook. Perhaps she’s gotten the message.
Most pressing though, is what can be done about these poor animals. She has no scruples, morals, or integrity.
Say what you will about the authorities, but it is difficult to seize property for neglect or malnutrition, and hugely problematic. It’s not something that can be done in a short period of time. Her penchant for lying, manipulating, and empty promises will put off any seizure until it becomes a really dire situation for the innocents.
So in reality what can be done?
Has anyone contacted the Marion County Sheriff?
Does anyone know where her horses are currently?
At this point, constructive ideas might be more fruitful than continuing piling on about what a horrible excuse she is for a human.
I certainly don’t have any answers.
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A lot of straws. Like, an amazing amount. Granted, some are very partial straws, but still. It’s like she was buying straws of semen like I buy cashmere sweaters off of ebay.
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Her new profile pic the mare is foaling on what looks like a bare stall with almost no bedding, let alone on straw and then look at the mare’s feet.
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I don’t think there’s much to do, aside from hoping that she’s serious about a herd dispersal and getting out of breeding. It’s unlikely authorities will intervene if bare basics are provided (water, shelter, grass/hay).
The other thing we can do is be vocal on platforms like COTH, so that when people search her name, these threads will rank well and come up toward the top of the list. That’s why it’s important to use her name within the thread (many people are doing this). Not everyone will research a breeder online, but many will, and these threads should be more than enough to convince anyone reading that they do not want to support Kathryn/Kate Shearer.
The pile on may be a bit excessive, but the more engagement these threads get, the better they will rank in search engines.
I think people will take a chance on the babies due to their famous sires, and hope that good nutrition and proper management will turn them around. I do worry about the mares… after all they’ve been through, they certainly deserve a soft landing. I hope they get it.
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Just a thought on the nutrition side of things–with some theories linking lack of Vitamin E in the mare while the foal is in utero and the young/growing horse to neurological disorders such as Equine Degenerative Myeloencephalopathy I would not want to take a chance on these youngsters with the feeding program described. Especially with the explosion of diagnoses in warmbloods these days.
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Totally and completely with you there! I’m afraid there is absolutely a potential for permanent damage due to nutritional deficiencies in the mare and foal. I personally would not take a chance on these horses… but I do think some people probably will, considering their bloodlines.
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The accusations of her hay having been “stolen” make sense if she gave orders for the horses to receive only three flakes a day and the short-term caretakers see that the horses need more and start slipping them extra flakes.
To the owner, the hay appears stolen because she expected X number of bales to last Y months, but there isn’t as much left as she’s expecting.
The caretaker then gets fired, the next one starts off obeying instructions, which keeps the horses thin, then again starts giving more hay and gets fired for “stealing”.
The cycle continues, keeping the horses thin, and the blame can continue to be pushed onto the “dishonest”, “thieving” caretakers. I can’t say for certain that this happened, but it sure adds up with all of the rants about hay theft and the seeming inability to retain staff.
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No KIDDING.
I just looked at her list. It seems like she was planning on doing a lot of ICSI.
What are the average rates for veterinary expenses involved in ICSI and embryo transplants these days? WAs she getting some sort of special deal ? It seems like a very capital intensive way to breed. With high risk of failure.
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Looking at this, I have to assume there is a lively trade in frozen semen, and that she may very well have been buying at a discount from other breeders, not at premium from the stallion owner or broker. Also the in vitro fertilization lets you potentially get multiple embryos from what’s meant to be one dose.
I have no idea what the pricing will be, whether frozen semen holds its value, increases or decreases the longer it’s held by random breeders. This isn’t the first time she’s offered frozen semen for sale, so it may be another lucrative aspect to horse trading. Maybe you can buy cheap and sell for full price.
You do need to pay the vet a fee for storage space.
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Random question from a bystander who has never and probably will never breed anything–how does one end up with 0.7 of a dose? Is someone using just 0.3 of a dose, crossing their fingers, and selling the rest?
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You can use part of a frozen straw for ICSI, without destroying the entire straw.
Here’s a link that describes the processes involved.
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The ICSI process she uses just makes use of a small portion of a dose, rather than the whole thing.
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Thanks, that’s very helpful.
I’m shocked stallion owners have not changed the way doses are packaged and priced accordingly to the method being used.
That seems like an extensive supply for a hobby breeder to be storing.
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A lot of stallion owners have changed contracts and pricing models in response to changing technology.
I’m just guessing, but these might be old doses from before ICSI has become widely available. That’s almost certainly the case for the Galoubet, Baloubet de Rouet and Quick Star doses.
Kate probably bought doses at a discount off another breeder, and is now trying to resell and recoup some of her investment.
An open question is whether or not these doses have been correctly stored and handled as they have changed hands over the years. I personally wouldn’t take a risk on any unless they were being offered at a ridiculous discount.
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I am puzzled by why someone would need all those straws if they had ANY plan at all. Assuming the partial straws were once full straws that’s close to 50 straws purchased. Even if you used the full straw each time and bred 4-5 mares a year, that would last you a decade. And that’s not even assuming getting multiple doses out of each straw or sometimes using fresh. The stallions are all over the place in terms of type and discipline. What could the plan have BEEN here, if there was a plan? Maybe the plan was to be a semen broker, but that seems like a bit of a risky proposition if you have to pay storage fees in the meantime. Looking at all that semen, it’s hard to imagine there was actually a viable business/breeding plan in mind here. It seems a lot more like hoarding 
I wonder how the stallion owners feel?! Especially for the deceased or no longer breeding stallions. Maybe they don’t care and money is money and the straw is sold so it is what it is… but if I worked a long time to stand a stallion and now he could have limited offspring due to death or infertility, I’d be sick about the fact that some of what’s left of the semen was being indiscriminately used to breed with very random DHH mares in a program that doesn’t seem to produce much except skinny and poorly looking foals
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Is there provenance when you buy a frozen straw? Possibly the straws have changed ownership over the years but not location and have been at the same facility, stored properly, the whole time. But how can you tell? When you buy a straw from a private seller do you get that information and is it even reliable if you get it?
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Apparently, it’s “one singular bad person” who’s fault it is that she’s having to sell the semen.
FWIW, I used to work at a place where genetic material was collected and stored cryogenically. Semen straws were well documented (identified from cross-checked donors, date, batch etc) and properly inventoried however there’s always ‘risk’ when it’s handled, transported or thawed incorrectly.
So, yes, I think I’d want all that info as well as proof of motility to accompany what I’d bought at those premium prices ($2000 for one that’s listed).
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There was a very interesting discussion last year on one of these DHH Kate threads where some actual experienced breeders chimed in. As best I can recap:
Once frozen semen and international sales and resales took off, the big stallion owners in Europe pretty much ended up losing control of the end use of the frozen semen. Once the ICSI technique was in use, vets could split tubes and get multiple embryos from what was intended as one dose.
I assume it was much harder to maintain any control over this when the semen has been shipped internationally and the resulting horses registered in North American registries. I mean even trying to manage copyright infringement is much more difficult internationally because laws vary.
Since this stuff needs very specific freezing, there’s likely a chain of control as it will reside at a given repro vet. From what Kate said (which of course isn’t always true), DNA is key to registration and you no longer need a stallion owners certificate tied to a given dose of semen to register the foal.
I expect there is a lively secondary market in frozen semen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kate and others bought at a discount and traded tubes that have been in a vets freezer for years. I could completely see someone offloading tubes, and someone else seeing a chance to make a profit, while these tubes never leave the vets freezer.
The knowledgeable breeders last year said the stallion owners have been increasing the cost of frozen semen alot knowing that tubes will be split into multiple embryos and there is no guarantee the mare will do credit to the breed.
Some bigger breeders were trying to reinstate contracts for their frozen semen.
Thus frozen semen has become a pure commodity that can be bought and sold and speculated on without ever having touched the tubes.
My guess is going to be that Kate gathered up or acquired for a bargain price a bunch of tubes far exceeding any use value for her very modest backyard breeding program, perhaps from some other breeder retiring or liquidating or abandoning them in storage. And that she has been participating in a fairly unregulated secondary market to try to make some cash. She’s certainly advertised tubes on FB before this latest fiasco.
I doubt she ordered all these direct at full price.
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I think it should also be made clear that Kate is one of MANY breeders who operate under the same methods for straws of popular and long dead stallions. The difference may be the quality and care of the mares involved, and the drama level, although a few similar breeders have plenty of their own drama (or is that all breeders???).
I have a 3yo in my barn who’s sire was dead for 10 years before she was born and who was born to a recip mare although in that case it came directly from the stallion owner.
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