"Happy New Year! And happy birthday to all the Percherons who, like Thoroughbreds, celebrate their birthdays on January 1!

Here at the farm we have been very busy getting ready for foaling season, which for us begins in a few weeks. 

DIY

When we started breeding Percherons, a vet used to do all of our reproductive work. She was a very sweet young woman and we enjoyed learning what she had to teach us. The only problem was that her conception rate was not so good and it ended up costing us literally thousands of dollars to get our mares in foal. Being thrifty, as all horse owners are, we decided simply to teach ourselves to do our own reproductive work and bid a fond adieu to the repro vet.

Many people wonder how we have come to be so successful breeding our mares since we are able to achieve a 100% conception rate on foal heats. The average conception rate on foal heats, as stated by Dr. Bob Judd and widely held, is about 72% nationally. 

Magic spell? Crystal ball? Luck?

I suppose part of the plan is good genetics and good husbandry. We practice good husbandry all year, not just during show season or breeding season. We always tell folks that there is no short cut to good husbandry, ever. A healthy mare is easier to get in foal and has fewer, if any, issues carrying her foal to term.

The other and probably bigger part of the plan is that we are able to do for ourselves what a vet cannot do for us. If a vet needs to come and do an ultrasound to tell you if your mare is ready to be covered, you have to work around his schedule. If he has an emergency colic or it is out of office hours, he may get to the mare later or not at all on the day you need him. 

Here, we are able to scan whenever we feel that the mare may be close to ovulating, be that at 7am or at 2am. [Editor's note: It is illegal in the UK to scan mares unless you are a qualified vet, but not in the US]. We are also able to do multiple scans in one day if necessary and by doing multiple scans, we are able to ensure that the semen gets into the mare at the most opportune time.

The beauty of technology

To be sure, there is education and skill involved in doing a successful scan and artificial insemination. Nobody should ever attempt to ultrasound a mare without training. Here at North Point, we have spent countless classroom hours learning to ultrasound a mare and that has paid off for us. We also own a state of the art ultrasound machine and that is helpful in making sure we get the images that we need. Our ultrasound was expensive, about US$6000, but it paid for itself the first year we used it.

Practice and learn

To be successful breeding from your mare, you need to know what a mare’s reproductive system looks like on the ultrasound and how to identify what you are seeing. You need to know what drugs, if any, to use to encourage ovulation, and how big follicles need to be before you can administer those drugs. Follicle sizes prior to ovulation are different in draft horses then they are in light horses and this is helpful to know. You need to know when to order semen and how to perform the insemination itself. None of this hard but it does take a level of skill and knowledge as well as practice.

Ultrasound

My photo is an actual ultrasound which we did of a thirteen day old embryo. Our mare Larissa is currently carrying that embryo, sired by the current World Champion Percheron stallion, and she is due to deliver this foal in about three weeks! 

We have a whole library of embryos at various ages for each of our breeding mares which is helpful resource year to year. We also have videos of the embryos taken with our ultrasound machine which are always fun to look at.

So as foaling season begins, so does breeding season.  It is an exciting time for all of us here at the farm as well as the students from some of the equine colleges that will visit with us during this time to observe. 

Until next time, please send 'pink' thoughts to our mares as they prepare to foal! And as always, please keep up with us on our website or on Twitter. You can also see what the month of February is like here on the farm by reading about it in Farm and Ranch Magazine, Febrary/March 2011.