Apparently he has now bought Bretton Woods…or not?
I would consider that good news for the breeders since right now Bretton Woods frozen semen doesn’t work. Paul Schockemoehle seems to have a much better system and I hope BW semen will be available through him for the next breeding season.
That’s what I was gonna say…not a good purchase unless he gets the semen problem fixed! Wonder if the old owners are going to take care of all us dissappointed clients before the change of hands. Sure hope so!
Go, Paul! 
Wonder if the old owners are going to take care of all us dissappointed clients before the change of hands.
I don’t expect they will do anything for frozen semen clients, unless you managed to get a LFG (pretty rare with frozen from European-based stallions).
Wonder if Schockemohle knows there is a problem with the semen. He’s gonna have a lot of gun shy buyers in the US after this disappointing season. The only way I would buy BW semen again is if I am reimbursed new semen and it actually works. Then I will put BW back on the roster. Time will tell…
Did anyone have luck with a pregnancy? Siegi I thought I read somewhere here that you did? There is a lady in my area that just got a confirmed pregnancy with BW (took two tries).
We love this stallion… almost bred to him this year, but had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t get the timing right… looks like waiting a year or so may not be a bad thing. We’ve used semen from stallions that PS owns or reps, and have always had great success, so it’s huge plus to us if Paul gets Brenton Woods… love and trust Paul (and Judy)… but after reading that article, I am now wondering about BW having OCD. That can’t be good, though I guess it’s not totally unexpected in a large-boned, fast-growing, very large animal. I suspect we’d still risk breeding to BW, and just be very careful about how we raise the foal.
[QUOTE=Donella;5748376]
Did anyone have luck with a pregnancy? Siegi I thought I read somewhere here that you did? There is a lady in my area that just got a confirmed pregnancy with BW (took two tries).[/QUOTE]
Yes, we had a client whose mare took on the first try.
http://www.keywarmbloods.ca/HorseDetail.aspx?ID=512
I think she is now in foal. Should be a really nice cross.
I am very curious on the OCD issue; I applaud the Dutch for acknowledging that “it” is present in some of the breeding population and (maybe) approving some stallions; this way I can go in “with my eyes wide open”. Thank you!
Yes, I have one mare in foal to Bretton Woods - that was before I found out that the semen didn’t work! 
Couldn’t get the second mare to come up pregnant though and then found out that hardly anybody had positive results.
And don’t for a minute think that there will be any reimbursements! I’ve been up and down that road and have even written to the Dutch Association for Stallion Owners with no results. At this point I only trust Dutch frozen semen coming from VDL Stud and Team Nijhof - those folks are business people and know what they’re doing.
Do not buy anything coming from the Van Uyterts, and that includes Krack C, Gribaldi, Vivaldi, etc. etc… All the frozen semen they produce is crap and they certainly won’t own up to it.
And I don’t even think it’s the stallions so much as the procedure they have for freezing semen.
Just my opinion…
Siegi,
Do you know who did the freezing on Bretton Woods? Our motility was 40% which should have worked but my vet (top repro vet at Iowa State University) was pretty sure the semen was worthless based on it being froze improperly…most likely damaging the membrane but still allowing for motility. We lost 3 doses as we started out trying for an ET. Mare took the first time once we switched stallions. Bummer about reimbursement…without any olive branch being extended I will never use BW or anything by that owner or semen service again. And I will make sure to warn others so they don’t waste their valuable time and money like we did. The brokers are not to blame and did their best IMO. As far as I know, you and maybe 2 others got pregnancies…but I am pretty sure ALOT of his semen was sold…so not good odds.
Good for you, though, fingers will be crossed for a safe pregnancy and delivery! With only a few BW foals, I am sure it is gonna be very anticipated by all.
A
For me the Class III OCD is a no go on this stallion. Shame because he is super lovely - but I am glad KWPN released that data
Wow, I am a bit stunned by the problems getting in foal with him. Arthur and I really went back and forth on breeding to Bretton Woods this year. It took a few weeks, but we’d finally found a great repro facility that was only about a hundred miles away. There were several points where Arthur was about to place the order, but something would come up at the hospital (a high risk patient or complicated delivery)… or there’d be something with the dogs, and we’d put off ordering the semen for a day or so… and eventually the days stretched to weeks, and then we felt it was too late in the year to breed.
We were a bit bummed that we didn’t use him this year… but now I am so glad we didn’t. Like most of the breeders on this forum, we’re not rich, and we have very very little free time. Arranging to get the mares to a repro facility is a huge odyssey for us, and overall, breeding is a huge investment of time and money. Had we gone to that sort of effort, for semen that was improperly processed to start with, it would have been infuriating. Looks like we dodged a bullet.
Still and all, I think we’ll try him. As for OCD, I think people would be surprised at how many high profile stallions either have or produce OCD. Especially the KWPN stallions, which people seem to think are less likely to have or transmit OCD, because there is the requirement of xrays. In our experience, a breeder would be wise to assume that OCD is a possibility regardless of the stallion or the registry, and take care with exercise and diet of young horses.
and this is an opinion that we have come to share, Siegi. We had a mare at VDL, bred her there and shipped her with the VDL auction horses. Everything occurred as promised, perfect communication, payments reasonable and made easily and receipts received…in short, the experience was such that we are now repeating it. And with the Nihofs, when a dose of Calvados that I had purchased in this country from a third party was discovered to be 1/2 Calvados and 1/2 Prestige, Jeannette stepped up to the plate and “made us whole” by arranging for a replacement dose to be shipped from CA which we used this year on our Ana Bella ( Condios x Ekstein).
These people have become big and successful for a reason–they keep their word and go the extra mile to make transactions pleasant and productive.
Not to say that we have not had pleasant and productive experiences with others, but I did wish to endorse Siegi’s assertion above.
Lots of top stallions have had OCD. Most Americans - in the dressage world - seem to be scared to death of OCD. Jumper riders believe that if a horse is in work, have never shown lameness, and can jump, then it’s a good bet. If the ONLY way that OCD is ever discovered is by x-ray examination on a pre-purchase exam, or for a screening for a licensing exam and the horse has never taken a lame step in it’s life, most Europeans and most jumpers pay it little mind - what’s the big deal - the horse is working and winning. However, if OCD is only discovered on a pre-purchase exam on a horse with a good show and work record, buyers run screaming from the room.
Of course, if a horse is lame, if a lesion is in a joint, and has to be taken out of work constantly, that’s a problem, but that’s a horse of a different color - so to speak.
[QUOTE=Tiki;5750175]
Lots of top stallions have had OCD. Most Americans - in the dressage world - seem to be scared to death of OCD. Jumper riders believe that if a horse is in work, have never shown lameness, and can jump, then it’s a good bet. If the ONLY way that OCD is ever discovered is by x-ray examination on a pre-purchase exam, or for a screening for a licensing exam and the horse has never taken a lame step in it’s life, most Europeans and most jumpers pay it little mind - what’s the big deal - the horse is working and winning. However, if OCD is only discovered on a pre-purchase exam on a horse with a good show and work record, buyers run screaming from the room.
Of course, if a horse is lame, if a lesion is in a joint, and has to be taken out of work constantly, that’s a problem, but that’s a horse of a different color - so to speak.[/QUOTE]
Agree completely. I think people go a bit overboard with x-rays and doing OCD surgery on working/showing horses that have never been lame.
My understanding is that with this stallion, there is no chip. It’s just a flat area on the bone.
Dan
[QUOTE=siegi b.;5747869]
I would consider that good news for the breeders since right now Bretton Woods frozen semen doesn’t work. Paul Schockemoehle seems to have a much better system and I hope BW semen will be available through him for the next breeding season.[/QUOTE]
I am hoping you are right!
More to the point, his people and staff know how to properly handle, prepare, and freeze the semen and do so expertly and carefully. He’s a businessman - he does not want unhappy, angry customers. He’s also not stupid - the stallion would have undergone extensive veterinary examination including extensive semenanalysis. It is quite possible his people did a test freezing procedure to determine if they could make it work. The other alternative is that if even his people can’t get the frozen to work right, then the stallion will not be offered in the P.S. frozen semen list.
