Ugh I hate this. But we all have seen it. I truly believe in mare power. Considering the mare does contribute roughly 50% of the genetics 
but I also believe in mares that donât need âholes filledâ or things âfixedâ. Sure all horses have flaws to an extent. But you shouldnât put that much pressure on the stallion to fix all the things wrong with a crappy mare.
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Small correction - the big price increases started well before ICSI became a thing in the equine world. Specifically, some mare owners in NA were routinely splitting frozen semen doses for regular insemination into their mares. Say, instead of using all 6 straws in a breeding dose to inseminate one mare at one time, the breeders were using 2 straws in one mare, 2 straw in another mare, and keeping the remaining 2 straws frozen for future use (or reselling them). As word got around that mares were âcatchingâ (getting pregnant) on partial doses, more and more breeders started utilizing that method of operation. Mare owners could buy one dose but get multiple foals, even without using ICSI, so they were buying less frozen doses from the European stallion owners, who then started raising their prices to recoup lost earnings.
Some SOs also felt that by charging higher rates, mare owners would be more inclined to use those more expensive doses in high quality mares. IOW, someone spending $5000 for a dose of frozen semen from Mr. Big Shot would hopefully be more likely to use it in a good mare than in some backyard put-together-by-committee mare with a non-descript (or non-existent) pedigree.
Unfortunately things didnât always work out that way, esp. if the stallion was one whose frozen semen doses could reliably be split. The breeder paying $5000 for 3 straws might get her foal using only 2 straws, and might then resell the remaining straw - and sometimes those left-over straws end up in the hands of someone like KS and are used to inseminate mediocre-quality mares. But Hey - the sire is Mr. Big Shot, so uneducated and unethical breeders like KS are going to try to sell the foals for big bucks to uneducated buyers.
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A great example of this is KS herself.
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Yup.
It is yet another thing about this entire situation that makes me twitch.
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The irony is SO DOES KS. She apparently âlookedâ for one of those mares for a long time! And âfinallyâ found it, on craigslist, in someoneâs back yard. She believes 100% those mares are throwing valuable (hunter/ jumper) traits. She has multiple FB posts espousing the virtues of her valuable dams.
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Craigslist? Really?
The whole thing just gets more and more strange.
Is it possible she is related to or best friend with someone at EMS, and they did all the repro work for her for a deep discount?
The amount spent on ICSI just makes no sense to me.
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Haha I stand corrected. I do know this!
Can I get away with saying the quote marks were attributing this statement to a hypothetical dumbass backyard breeder and were meant to be sarcasm/joke? Or was I just dumb posting before my first cup of coffee brewed?
I will freely admit I am not a breeder, and likely never will be, but I do know the by/out of distinction (except early in the morning).
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No worries 
I donât expect everyone to know or always remember stuff like that. But breeders? They should know this.
And yet⊠KS seems to not get it. Which is noteworthy.
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Can confirm. A good friend of mine was big into saddlebreds - rode in/won several World Championships. While riding, her trainer would routinely use firecrackers in the barn to get the horses amped up. Their ears would go forward, eyes would widen and their gaits would exaggerate but they would still be totally rideable. At the World Championships, the entire audience screams. They are loud as hell. These horses really are sensible. We use to trail ride together all of the time, too. Hehe, she also sometimes roached her saddlebredâs forelock. One time on trail ride with lots of riders, someone asked if her horse just had brain surgery. 
Needless to say, he hadnât.
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Er ahem, my old saddlebred would have taken offense at that.
Yes that animation is called âBrillianceâ in the ASB Show World.
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Iâve blocked her and her various âbusinessâ pages due to the braiding drama. So I donât see any of this aside from screen shots. Some times the train wrecks are entertaining to watchâŠ. Sometimes life is more peaceful when you block it all. 
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This for sure!
⊠and this. If you wouldnât be happy with a foal that looked and performed just like the mare, you shouldnât breed the mare.
LOL⊠we used to call it âbrain surgeryâ when gelding a horse.
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No.
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Canadians register through AQHA as well. There is a CQHA, but that is just a registry, all the shows in Canada go though AQHA.
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My DH is like this (though with STBs at the yearling sales). First thing he checks is what the dam has done as far as offspring. He truly believes in mare power, though heâs never phrased it that way, more like one hell of a family!
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Stallions often get too much credit, and too much blame. Any time I ask how a horse is bred, and I get the sire as an answer, I follow up with âwhatâs the bottom side?â People will blame bad traits on a sire, but often I find links on the dam side.
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The other side of splitting doses and getting 2 foals from one breeding dose - the stallion owners forget about the breeder that gets one foal from four or five doses. If you buy by the dose and the semen doesnât work very well there is no recourse for the mare owner. You are just SOL. Sometimes it is the fault of the mare but I bet there are more foals with multiple doses involved than foals born from partial doses. So it all evens out more or less.
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Assuming no LFG or contractual repeat doses. I think itâs less common to have a one and done breeding bought directly from the SO - but I could be wrong. Clearly these old frozen straws are generally bought with no contracts or guarantees.
All of this chaos has certainly convinced me to buy something on the ground - whatever the age.
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I hear there are a few âKWPNâ youngsters by top stallions on the market recently. In case youâre looking.
Badumdumdum.
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HA 
yeah let me just get my $40k out right now
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