Looking to hear personal experiences from people before I explore this option with my mare.
=D
I have my first ET on the way as we speak. What exactly do you want to know?
If you’re new to breeding and/or have a limited budget- Don’t do it. You need a very, very experienced vet involved not just someone that pretends to be a repro specialist.
Plan to spend several thousand extra dollars to get that foal on the ground.
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We have done it a few times as our performance mares were both older maidens. Definitely worth it for us thus far. Here is my advice:
- Just like above poster, have a large budget, in addition to semen and mare care, you need to factor in the AI, flushing (potentially multiple cycles), care for your mare at a facility/board, lease of a recipient and care of the recip, including other unforeseen costs.
- A repro specialist in ET is a must - I recommend sending your mare to a reputable facility with good pregnancy rates in recips. You may have to go a ways for this depending on where you are located.
- Make sure the place you use has a good sized recip herd with mares that fit with your mare. The first time we did it, the clinic we used in that state ended up having mostly quarter horses and smaller paints, so they struggled to find mares that would fit the bill for a sporthorse. The second place we used when we moved had mostly thoroughbreds, which worked out well in terms of size but one of the recips had a TERRIBLE attitude and was difficult to handle. Colleagues and friends who have used Standardbreds say they are some of the best mamas.
- Consider what you will do if your mare double or triple ovulates and you get multiple embryos, do you have a budget for more than one? Will you transfer or freeze or destroy?
- Insure, insure, insure! If you are a one-time breeder with a mare that you aren’t planning on breeding often or doing again, I highly recommend insuring the pregnancy with a pro-foal benefit. It’s an extra cost, but can add some peace of mind. We lost our very first ET baby 24 hours after she was born and the insurance covered the entire cost (semen, ET, recip lease, associated care and vet costs) so we were able to repeat the breeding the following year. If you have the budget to try again or are planning on multiple this may be an extra cost you don’t want to deal with. But I recommend for a first timer that is breeding for themselves.
- Be prepared for a less than amicable recip - in my experience, most have been really sweet and good mamas, but occasionally you get less than ideal recip. If you aren’t set up for an additional mare or are worried about it most repro facilities will board the mare with their herd and foal out at the facility.
That’s most of my advice. We had two born via ET last year and both are great colts - one out of a 24yo and the other out of a 20yo (she lost her first pregnancy when she was younger post-100 days so we did ET on her the second go around). Never would have had these two guys without it! Good Luck!
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How much is the cost in general over the cost of doing ai with frozen? In general. I have a performance mare I would like to breed that is a maiden and will be 10 next year. 6 digit worth mare. Repro facilities with huge recip herd 30 minutes from my trainers, 50 minutes from me. And I have the ability to take them home and keep in pasture with my other broodmares. I take them back to foal out 30 days prior and take them home when confirmed back in foal.
Did it with my mare in 2005 for a 2006 filly. Dutch mare donor, Morgan broodmare recip. that belonged to a friend. We used CSU after I took a Repro course there. It was a good experience as my mare stayed in work after the recip mare settled. Having a recip mare and agreement with my friend is what made it workable for us.
We had a bit of a scare because after the transfer, ultrasound showed THREE! Monitored with ultrasound as we tried to prepare a plan. On day 30, there were still TWO, both implanted and showed heartbeats: vet pinched down to one. Very unusual, spontaneous triplets from a single embryo after transfer. (We had synced the mares’ cycles, so there was no outside breeding of the recip., she was open and ready when we transferred.)
We expected to lose the pregnancy after pinching, but she held on to the single embryo that developed normally. Went long on gestation, but we had a lovely filly who grew up in a Morgan here.
considering ET with my Connemara mare…she coliced when 9 months pregnant in February 2019, had emergency surgery; survived and foaled w/o incident in April 2019. LOVE the colt and would like to repeat the breeding in 2020, but worried about her carrying another foal. I was told about $4K for ET in my area (Central Coast, CA), excellent repro vets in the area.
Sansarita - Depending where you are, you could be looking at $3K+ over the cost of breeding with frozen. For us in Northern Virginia it was approx $5k all in. This included the breeding, management of donor and recip while at the facility, up to four cycles, and lease of pregnant recip. It did not include board for the donor mares, that we paid on a daily basis depending on how many cycles they needed. It might be a bit less in OK - my brother in law used to work at one of the major ET facilities out there and I know that the mare care was a lot less.
Thank you. I was just looking for an idea. Am not sure yet but am looking at this option in the next 1-2 years as I want to keep this mare competing
