Archives for April 2021

By Michelle Marie From FA Ranch

Now it the time to plan your budget for the new foal you want in 2022. This year must be the year of planning and spending carefully. Many of us have worked hard and given up things we want to have the horse of our dreams. Even though the economy is tight, we need to plan for our future and for some a new foal is part of our future. How to we go about this wisely? Stallion breeding fee. Set price no changing that. HOWEVER. Booking fees, rebreeding fees, chute fees, shipping fees are a large part of the costs that we do not look at carefully. Read your stallion contract carefully. If there is not a mention of these costs you’d better ask. Is there a separate shipping contract? Time Management for the Mare. Mares are fickle creatures, given to ovulate on their own schedule, many times on holidays and weekends. If you can be aware of your mares cycle and when it starts and ends, you can start helping your vet and stallion owner plan in advance. The average cycle is 21 days from ovulation to ovulation. You need to have your mare bred the last 12-36 hours of the heat cycle if you are using fresh, or fresh cooled shipped semen. Why?

This is when she ovulates. Too soon is a waste of money and time. After is a crap shoot. If you are paying $600 a shipment, timing is important. Time Management for the Stallion. If the stallion and the mare are in the same pasture who cares. If the stallion is 3000 miles away we care. Why? Is the stallion at a show that weekend. Does the stallion station ship every day, every other day. Odd days, even days, what happens on a weekend? When do you need to call by? The day before? The morning of? Is it noon in Alabama? If you do not know everything there is to know about the stallion’s schedule, the last thing you want to be told is “OOPS, he is gone this week, sorry call us next cycle”. You have just spent money to wait. Your calendar should have a mark for every day you cannot get a shipment. A mark for every time you think you mare is close to ovulating. The vets vacation, every holiday that UPS and Fedex are closed. Communication. Your vet is not a mind reader, your vet is most likely not a theriogenologist, with no other work to do and most likely has a staff of one. If you do not provide clear information, your odds go down. If your vet does not know that the stallion station must be called by 8am PST to get a collection done tomorrow for next day delivery, you are up a creek OR you now have to pay for counter to counter, wait at the  airport for a midnight delivery only to find the airport cargo office is closed until the next morning.

Make appointments for the time you need to beat the clock. Allow emergency / injury delay time, and have a back-up plan in place. Logistics. Know shipping schedules, know shippers. If your delivery is scheduled for 2-4pm, and the local Fed Ex office opens at 9am a 15 minute drive might get you 6 hour fresher semen in the mare. If you were a sperm that had been swimming in a cold pool with a limited diet for the last 24 hours while being tossed by gorillas from airport to airport that 6 hours might be just what saves the day. Technology vs $$ Ultrasound. A critical piece of equipment for the mare. A palpation is a great procedure. It can tell the vet that a uterus feels normal or abnormal, that ovaries feel normal or abnormal. The vet can feel tone and structures. The ultrasound sees what the vet is feeling. The ultrasound can show us fluid in the uterus, indicating a risk of infection or potential problem. An ultrasound can scan the ovaries that are making two eggs instead of one. Twins are not a good thing. A scan can show a pregnancy that a palpation missed. Last year I ran across a story of a mare who was pronounced open, after a $100,000 in- advance breeding fee. Mare was sold as open and cultured before breeding. The culture killed the foal and caused an infection risking the mares life. The $100K was NOT refunded. Moral of the story – Money spent wisely can save money in the future.

If you have a question call me. Michelle Marie www.Faranch.com – faranch@aol.com • 220-4025 Specializing in Equine Reproduction. Michelle Ågren

By Kim Chappell

“Her majesty took my breath away. As the ocean air blew her long wavy mane wildly in the wind, she stood tall and proud, head held high as she inhaled the salty air. In an instant she was gone racing across the open pasture, sharp snorts followed by hoof-to-hoof prancing as she tasted freedom. Her silhouette filled the evening sky.” I was not in the market for a horse but friends of mine told me about this little Morgan mare who was for sale. After a lot of pestering from them, I reluctantly drove 2 hours to go see her. When I arrived, I was not immediately impressed for she was low headed, dull in the eye, and simply had no life to her. While her owners fed and cared for her and were well intended they thought of her more as a pet. A pet that was trapped in a 12×16
paddock where she spent most of her days with the occasional turnout in a round pen. She was 5-years-old. A long time to be in a paddock. A captive with no hope. Resignation hung around her
neck like a shabby sign. And yet her crooked face, incurred by an injury as a weanling when another horse stepped on her, spoke to me. I could not pull myself away from this little mare who stood so quietly, without life, as I “inspected” her.

As I stroked her neck one more time before leaving something in my heart twisted. The 2 hour drive home went by in no time at all, as my thoughts were filled with images of this little mare. That evening I did some research on her bloodlines and I realized that she had remarkable lineage in terms of old Morgan blood. While that is all well and good, there was something beyond the paperwork that kept nagging at me. It was the life blood oozing out of her and a spirit dying on the vine that kept me awake that night. So I brought her home for a 2 week trial period and as each day passed she woke up more and more.

“Again I gasped at her beauty as she pranced in the fading light, the sun dipping below the horizon on the ocean.” When I called the next day to give them my offer, the owners had a change of heart because they couldn’t let go of their pet. Although I upped the price, they still refused. When I upped it again, the answer was a firm NO. I stood in the driveway as they loaded her up, and I felt that twist in my heart, as I stood in the morning ocean fog watching the last of the tail lights fade away. Tears filled my eyes and dropped ever so slowly like intermittent heavy rain drops. And that was it. She was gone. Eight months had passed when completely out of the blue I received a call. It was the owners of the Morgan mare calling to ask if I was still interested in buying her as they could no longer take care of her. Without a moments hesitation I said yes, and left the next day to pick her up before they changed their minds again.

As I unloaded her and set her free in the pasture, I could tell she remembered. Her snort was loud, her hooves danced on the wet earth, she rolled and rolled in joy blanketing herself in dirt, and then off she ran… free… really free… and home. Our adventures began and boy did we have some! She was my faithful friend who carried me in good times and in bad for 19 years; and if I ever trusted a horse to keep me safe, I trusted her.

She was the Queen. And everyone knew it. I spoiled her horribly which is atypical for me, but I did it. She roamed around at will wherever she wanted and I let her. She was always the first to be fed, because she demanded it and I obliged. And she was always the first of my horses to greet me and I delighted in it. She had been struggling in the last year of her life after an illness had gotten the best of her. The vet and I tried everything to get her over the hump and although we had small successes the toll on her body was evident. In her last months, she took to standing quietly out in pasture facing the house. It was a troublesome time for both her and I because the end was near, and a letting go was happening between us. She would stare at me across the pasture and I would stand quietly watching her, working things out in my mind, and wondering how do I say good-bye to my trusted friend.

In her last days, I held her head in my arms, laid my forehead on hers, and whispered, “You can go.” As I stroked her neck one more time before leaving something in my heart twisted. When I came home later that morning she was gone. That night I had a very vivid dream in which she came to me. She was robust, strong, her body dappled and shimmering in the light. She dropped her hip low to the ground so I could get on her with my bum knee, and off we went into the far beyond. Once in a blue moon you have a horse unlike any other. She was that horse to me. (Morgan Mare passed in September 2018)

Kim Chappell, M.Ed., Instructor and Equine-Facilitated Life Coach. For further information on riding programs and Equine-facilitated life coaching, you can contact Kim at kkc827@aol.com or go to www.chappellranchllc.com