How many of you have bred your Kiger mares AI? Was it with fresh or frozen semen? How did it go?
If you are reluctant to breed your mare AI, what is holding you back? (cost, success rate, stallion selection, etc?)
I bred my 12 year old maiden Kiger mare with frozen semen last spring. I used the P&E protocol for 10 days followed by a shot of estrumate and then the vet did lutalyse once the follicle was big enough. She ovulated but didn't have uterine edema, she did not catch. We let her cycle naturally the second time and just monitored her - and Voila! she caught - but she twinned :( It took the vet 45 mins to pinch the smaller twin, he said it was the most difficult he had ever done! After that whole ordeal she was on regumate as a precautionary, but I had no other issues with her and we had a healthy filly 11 months later. I wonder if all the drugs messed up her cycle - I also wonder if they played a part in the double ovulation.... Thoughts?
I need to go back and look at our charts, but we did have a kiger mare that vet recommended we push with a Lute shot follicle wise and everything went smoothly until a later vet check revealed twins. We did the same procedure you did, but ended up losing both. I’ve also noticed my kiger mares are lightweights sedation, lute, oxytocin wise compared to the TBs. They usually have big responses to “regular” vet estimate. So the vet we’ve used knows to back off a little on her estimates after seeing how much it effects them. Lute wise, I only would use it if there’s a corpus luteum holding off a cycle, but otherwise the Kigers seem to run into less issues the less you try to play with their cycle. This is coming from a big TB operation where we do what we need to, to get a mare pregnant for the client. Seems like the Kigers do better on the “less is more” approach and you run into less headaches.
That’s what I was thinking. Thanks for confirming that you guys dealt with twins after using the same produce. That is super interesting!
I’ve done fresh cooled semen once from Rochelle’s stallion Bolero and had great success with it! I think we only did one “cover” and my mare took on the first try. Our vet timed it very well. For anyone wanting to do AI, having access to a great repro vet sure saves a lot of headaches.
Bred a maiden mare with fresh cooled that hadn’t traveled well. The vet was shaking her head saying “We checked it and we’re saying ‘there goes one’ there goes another one’”. But it worked!
We tried Chinook’s frozen with Sedona and got a zgote. But she had so much fluid that it flushed out, even with IM oxytocin shots daily. Good repro vet but disappointing. That’s my only experience with frozen. Not sure how it could have worked better. She was quick to conceive with 3 different stallions live cover.
I took the breeding course at CSU last year. I remember you telling me about this and so I asked one of the profs about the fluid. Basically when they spin down the semen to freeze it, they concentrate the sperm and add a carrier. A carrier is necessary for several reasons, one being that sperm is irritating to the mares repro tract and can cause fluid. They told me that it’s likely the frozen semen that caused the problem rather than the mare, and that the semen may cause similar irritation in another mare. Hence why you didn’t have any problems with Sedona using live cover (fresh cooled semen would have been similar) So we shall see. I hope to use some this spring. I’m glad to hear that Sedona did take with it, but it’s unfortunate that she didn’t hold onto it.
@Kaitlin Knox Chinook was one of the stallions to breed her live cover. Mojito was the result so would have loved another! I wondered if it was the carrier used. Past history, but curious.
Emily said Sedona took on the first round to Nito, so she’s a fertile myrtle when it comes to live cover it seems like.
Haha, yes fertile myrtle. Blue got out when Tasa gave birth. I forgot to hookup the hotwire. He was out five hours. Kitt was the gift from that...
Those kind of stories kinda crack me up in light of how complicated breeding horses can seem at times 😂. Just one cover and done, no help from people or vet to tell you the right timing lol.