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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1095
 
Location: GA | My to-be 18 year old mare is a maiden and I am breeding her live cover this year. We have had trouble getting her in foal in the past because she is older and never had a baby. We tried fresh semen AI, and shipped frozen semen. My question is, if we got her in foal and carried the baby to term via live cover this year, should I stay with live cover for future breedings? Or if she has a baby, she can get in foal easier with shipped semen in the future? |
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 Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: EDGE OF INSANITY | are you certain the reason she wouldn't take was because of her age? If the semen is good, the route of entry doesn't matter (unless the person doing the AI doesn't know how to handle the semen) has your mare had a breeding exam? she could have cysts, uterine infections or any number of things. Also some mares need to be put on regumate to maintain pregnancy. hope you get her bred  |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
  
| If you haven't, you need to have her cultured. Frozen semen is tricky both in its handling and the timing of the breeding. The extenders and antibiotics used with fresh semen can be the reason a mare doesn't take. The mare's age (18 or younger, since you've tried before) is not so great that it should be a factor. |
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They Don't Know Me
Posts: 3299
Location: Bastrop, TX | Bred an 18 yr old maiden mare, live cover and no issues. Vet said it is harder to get a maiden to take AI. As funny as it sounds he said the VERY BEST TIME to breed them either way is LATE evening hours. All of her exams were fine prior to breeding and he suggested keeping her on regumate. We ultrasounded at 12-15 days, then started her on it. He wanted her on it the entire pregnancy and weaned her off during the last month. Got a super nice colt out of her. |
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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | If it were me and I got her in foal (and to delivery) via live cover, with her age, I wouldn't mess around with shipped semen. I would continue with live cover in the future. |
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 I Love My Mares!
Posts: 1613
Location: Moved to Montana | Do you know for sure she is ovulating shortly after being bred? I wasted a ton of money and a season a few years ago with a vet that never checked to make sure my mare was ovulating when he thought she was. With a vet that double checks my 23 yr old mare has a very high conception rate and that is with frozen and cooled semen. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1095
Location: GA | This is our third breeding attempt with her. 4 years ago, we took her to a halter horse breeding farm with an on-site vet and we got frozen semen shipped from South Dakota to Georgia. We actually got two shipments and bred her with 2 different shipments. They watched her closely and inseminated her when her follicles were huge. Before we took her there, we got a culture done on her and she was clean. We took her home 1 week after they bred her and she never checked in foal. Then last year we took her to Auburn University in Alabama to their reproductive facility where a stallion we were breeding to happened to be standing. They did a biopsy of her uterus and ovaries and did another culture on her. They said she had minor cysts, but nothing serious enough to keep her from carrying a pregnancy full term. They watched her daily and bred her with fresh semen AI. We left her there for 2 weeks before we took her home and she appeared to have a baby at 14 days, and then at 30 days, there was nothing. We have been told by the vets at Auburn and also by other vets that have handled her that her cervix is extremely tight and live cover could help open her cervix up and get the semen where it needs to be. We have been told by some breeders in the industry that live cover is sometimes the steady choice to try to get a mare in foal. This Spring, we are giving it one last good try with people we trust with a nice stud that will live cover for us. |
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Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| Shii Got The Jackpot - 2014-01-12 8:41 AM This is our third breeding attempt with her. 4 years ago, we took her to a halter horse breeding farm with an on-site vet and we got frozen semen shipped from South Dakota to Georgia. We actually got two shipments and bred her with 2 different shipments. They watched her closely and inseminated her when her follicles were huge. Before we took her there, we got a culture done on her and she was clean. We took her home 1 week after they bred her and she never checked in foal. Then last year we took her to Auburn University in Alabama to their reproductive facility where a stallion we were breeding to happened to be standing. They did a biopsy of her uterus and ovaries and did another culture on her. They said she had minor cysts, but nothing serious enough to keep her from carrying a pregnancy full term. They watched her daily and bred her with fresh semen AI. We left her there for 2 weeks before we took her home and she appeared to have a baby at 14 days, and then at 30 days, there was nothing. We have been told by the vets at Auburn and also by other vets that have handled her that her cervix is extremely tight and live cover could help open her cervix up and get the semen where it needs to be. We have been told by some breeders in the industry that live cover is sometimes the steady choice to try to get a mare in foal. This Spring, we are giving it one last good try with people we trust with a nice stud that will live cover for us.
I will agree that sometimes the huzzy's want the real deal. I bred a mare for 4 seasons and got nothing. Covered her ONE TIME with one of my stallions and got a foal. Crazy mare's . . .
One thing to check - hormone levels. I've never had to do it so I'm not conversant on what to have checked and when, but if you're working with breeding professionals they should know what to test for. I know that regumate is the typical fix, but don't know what exactly it's fixing, nor the timing of application.
Good luck. It sounds like you're doing everything you can for your mare. |
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Who Wants to Trade?
Posts: 4692
| So she gets pregnant but won't stay pregnant is the issue it seems.
So the semen isnt an issue. Live cover isn't going to solve your problems.
The made likely needs to be pur on regumate to help her maintain the pregnancy. This will keep her hormones at pregancy levels since what you describe sounds like she isnt producing them on her own. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1095
Location: GA | kuhlmann - 2014-01-12 1:25 PM So she gets pregnant but won't stay pregnant is the issue it seems.
So the semen isnt an issue. Live cover isn't going to solve your problems.
The made likely needs to be pur on regumate to help her maintain the pregnancy. This will keep her hormones at pregancy levels since what you describe sounds like she isnt producing them on her own.
Thanks for that insight about the hormone levels. We did have her on Regumate the first time we tried to breed her with the Frozen semen shipped across the country...I will get her homone levels checked before I take her to the breeder, couldn't hurt at all. You know, now that I am thinking about it, she is a VERY level headed mare-I have owned her and competed heavily on her for 10 years and I have NEVER been able to tell when she is in heat, other than occasional winking only when I squirt her with warm water from the water hose... |
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Who Wants to Trade?
Posts: 4692
| Shii Got The Jackpot - 2014-01-12 3:51 PM kuhlmann - 2014-01-12 1:25 PM So she gets pregnant but won't stay pregnant is the issue it seems.
So the semen isnt an issue. Live cover isn't going to solve your problems.
The made likely needs to be pur on regumate to help her maintain the pregnancy. This will keep her hormones at pregancy levels since what you describe sounds like she isnt producing them on her own. Thanks for that insight about the hormone levels. We did have her on Regumate the first time we tried to breed her with the Frozen semen shipped across the country...I will get her homone levels checked before I take her to the breeder, couldn't hurt at all. You know, now that I am thinking about it, she is a VERY level headed mare-I have owned her and competed heavily on her for 10 years and I have NEVER been able to tell when she is in heat, other than occasional winking only when I squirt her with warm water from the water hose...
Checking her hormone levels before bring bred likely won't tell you anything.
She did take and lost it, which could be anything. Most common it is she isn't producing enough progesterone long enough to sustain the pregnancy. |
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 Champ
Posts: 19623
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | Shii Got The Jackpot - 2014-01-12 6:41 AM This is our third breeding attempt with her. 4 years ago, we took her to a halter horse breeding farm with an on-site vet and we got frozen semen shipped from South Dakota to Georgia. We actually got two shipments and bred her with 2 different shipments. They watched her closely and inseminated her when her follicles were huge. Before we took her there, we got a culture done on her and she was clean. We took her home 1 week after they bred her and she never checked in foal. Then last year we took her to Auburn University in Alabama to their reproductive facility where a stallion we were breeding to happened to be standing. They did a biopsy of her uterus and ovaries and did another culture on her. They said she had minor cysts, but nothing serious enough to keep her from carrying a pregnancy full term. They watched her daily and bred her with fresh semen AI. We left her there for 2 weeks before we took her home and she appeared to have a baby at 14 days, and then at 30 days, there was nothing. We have been told by the vets at Auburn and also by other vets that have handled her that her cervix is extremely tight and live cover could help open her cervix up and get the semen where it needs to be. We have been told by some breeders in the industry that live cover is sometimes the steady choice to try to get a mare in foal. This Spring, we are giving it one last good try with people we trust with a nice stud that will live cover for us.
This statement jumped out at me. When they are A-I'd the pipette is inserted through the cervix into the uterus. The difference between live cover and A-I in getting through the cervix is nothing.
It sounds like she isn't coming into heat strong enough. I'm no vet, but the experience I've had over the years, sometimes you can bring a mare into heat stronger by putting them on regumate for 2 weeks and giving them a shot of estrumate when you take them off the regumate. Often the regumate is all it takes to bring them in stronger.
The difference between live cover and A-I is.... Extender. It contains nutrients that feeds the sperm and antibiotics. Every time you put something into a mares uterus she will have an inflamatory response. Some mares have a higher response to the extender than others and have a harder time clearing the fluid from that response. There are also different brands of extender that can be used. Some sperm has better response to some extenders, it just makes sense that mares could be the same. I was breeding to a well known stallion several years ago. The first year the mares got in foal in one try. The next nothing got in foal. The only thing that was different? They had changed extenders.
The other difference is when you A-I, you seldom have access to a stallion to tease the mare. The act of teasing causes contractions in the uterus. The only way to duplicate the act of teasing is to give well timed oxytocin shots to help the mare clear the inflamation from the semen. |
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 Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24138
Location: Carpenter, WY | kuhlmann - 2014-01-12 4:00 PM Shii Got The Jackpot - 2014-01-12 3:51 PM kuhlmann - 2014-01-12 1:25 PM So she gets pregnant but won't stay pregnant is the issue it seems.
So the semen isnt an issue. Live cover isn't going to solve your problems.
The made likely needs to be pur on regumate to help her maintain the pregnancy. This will keep her hormones at pregancy levels since what you describe sounds like she isnt producing them on her own. Thanks for that insight about the hormone levels. We did have her on Regumate the first time we tried to breed her with the Frozen semen shipped across the country...I will get her homone levels checked before I take her to the breeder, couldn't hurt at all. You know, now that I am thinking about it, she is a VERY level headed mare-I have owned her and competed heavily on her for 10 years and I have NEVER been able to tell when she is in heat, other than occasional winking only when I squirt her with warm water from the water hose...
She did take and lost it, which could be anything. Most common it is she isn't producing enough progesterone long enough to sustain the pregnancy.
Edited by teehaha 2014-01-12 9:01 PM
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