An Introduction

I was inspired to delve into the realm of equine reproduction after returning from an internship of sorts in Ocala, FL, as I mentioned previously. Though for the most part the blogging aspect of this information was prompted by a summer class I am taking, I think that my six moths in Florida warrants some reflection. You have to understand that I am not from a horse background. In the city, raised by a single mother who was neurotic about her housework, any pet larger than a small rodent was not tolerated. I went to Ocala in hopes of gaining some kind of education not only about reproduction but also a general confidence about being able to handle horses. The farm was mainly a clinic, though the client horses staying lengths of time for various procedures as well as the large heard of recipient mares made a majority of the chores related to any on a farm. So other than any veterinary work that was required to maintain the general health of the herd and the client horses (including colics, foal temps., diarrhea, lacerations, etc.), the majority of all work done was reproductive. The scope of services offered were not really restricted, we collected stallions to breed mares right away and we also shipped frozen semen that we collected overseas. There are a pretty large variety of breeding options for the mare owner and most of the services depended on the proximity of the mare and the semen or location of the stallion. Aside from the breeding component of the facility, the main source of business came from embryo transfers. The two sources of embryos were as a result of flushing a mare at the clinic or receiving an embryo that was shipped from another veterinarian. The veterinarians would rectally palpate the recipient herd (those that were actively in heat) daily or as needed to see if they had ovulated and armed with a list of client mares that had ovulated, they were responsible for making sure that there was a recipient mare for each client.


Throughout the course of the blog, as I explore the various options and views in equine embryo transfer (and probably other fields of reproduction) I will most likely be referring quite a bit to my personal experience. I am hoping that this will not cause an overbearing bias towards the methods of other clinics, but as I go through the information out there I hope that the comparing and contrasting will be useful. Again the previous bit is just let you know where I am coming from and to warn in essence that there will no doubt be much discussion related to my personal experience as I uncover novel bits of information.