THE PIT FALLS OF FROZEN SEMEN By Judith Matthews Matthews Hanoverians, May 2002 I think that this is one of the hardest parts of breeding. The vets all tell you all you need is a nice young mare with a healthy uterus. So okay we start with one of these and then three goes later still no pregnancy, so we try fresh and lo and behold its’ in foal. Okay so maybe it was because it was a maiden mare. So we try again with foal at foot (we know it can get in foal) and two goes later back to fresh and we’re in foal again. Well its not all bad as Frozen is really exciting when it works. But it's costly, generally a service is 3 inseminations, because the average chance of getting mares in foal worldwide with frozen is 33%. With fresh it is 65%. As with fresh the service fee varies, and I will sell one insemination at a time, and people have luck with this and only had to buy the one insemination so the mare is in foal at a reasonable cost. Some Vet services have a set fee for frozen (per insemination or some you only pay when the mare is in foal) This usually requires the mare go and stay so you have the added cost and risks of grazing etc. At home here my Vet comes here so the mare is at home. Serving with frozen semen requires that the mare is checked when near ovulation. This means every 6 hours as the semen only lasts 6 hours once thawed. The mare is served post ovulation, this is different to fresh chilled semen which is put in pre-ovulation and will generally last up to 48 hours in the mare so can wait for her to ovulate. We have a regime where we scan them at 6am, 12 midday, 6pm and midnight. (Not at all good for sleeping.) Thawing for the different stallions, can vary, it seems to depend on whether the semen was frozen quickly or slowly, the directions come with each stallion. The story doesn’t end there, for some reason the medium the semen is frozen in doesn’t always agree with the mares uterus and you get this horrible reaction which to me looks all the world like pus. The vet then has to come a couple more times to irrigate the uterus to clear this up before an infection sets in. Then you have the waiting to see game, to see if it has been successful or you have to try all over again. The result after 11 months when these lovely elegant good moving foals trotting around your paddock makes it all worth while though, I think. There is the chance to breed as good if not better then you can buy overseas. Just remember though the semen can’t do everything you must have a quality mare to start.