Pepper Tree Farm Equine Clinic offers and extensive range of services for all your horse’s reproductive needs. Our purpose built facilities ensure the safe handling of your mare or stallion during all procedures.
We have the equipment and experience needed to provide many services including:
The goal of breeding.... A live healthy foal
Artificial insemination using chilled or frozen semen offers owners the advantage of accessing genetics from across Australasia or even the world, while your mare remains close to home.
Chilled semen can be stored for up to 72 hours but should be used as soon as possible (usually within 24 hours). The clinic has a personal courier which is able to collect and dispatch semen at our nearest airport. All semen is evaluated both before leaving the clinic, and for semen arriving at the clinic prior to insemination. Mares are then monitored following insemination to check for ovulation (egg release) and post-breeding endometritis (fluid/inflammation) which when left untreated results in infertility. For good quality semen and where the mare has a routine cycle, conception rates of at least 70% per cycle can be achieved.
Frozen semen can be stored indefinitely with conceptions recorded from semen frozen over twenty years ago. While fresh semen can live within the uterus for 3 to 5 days, frozen semen is only viable for six hours, thus the timing of the mare’s ovulation is critical. The mare is scanned at regular intervals so that insemination occurs at the time of ovulation. To further improve the chance of conception, the semen is deposited deep within the uterine horn adjacent to the oviduct (the tube where the egg travels from the ovary to the uterus). With this technique conception rates of at least 60% per cycle can be achieved with quality semen and a reproductively sound mare.
Pepper Tree Farm Equine Clinic offers a competitive breeding fee structure for both chilled and frozen inseminations. If you have any questions regarding the reproductive needs of your mare please feel free to contact the clinic.
Analysing semen concentration in house
Pepper Tree Farm Equine Clinic also is able to facilitate embryo transfer of your mare. This involves collection and transfer of an embryo from one mare referred to as the donor mare into a recipient mare.
Embryo transfer may be appropriate for your mare if she is still being ridden or competed, is unable to carry a pregnancy to term or is of high genetic value and multiple offspring in the one season are warranted.
The process of embryo transfer occurs in three stages. The mare is bred normally with either live cover or chilled or frozen semen. The mare is then monitored to record the time of ovulation (egg release). A suitable recipient from our resident herd is chosen after careful monitoring of her reproductive cycle to ensure she has ovulated within 1-3 days of the donor mare. Embryos are then retrieved from the donor mare by non-surgical flushing 7-8 days following ovulation. If an embryo is retrieved it is then washed in a medium specifically designed for embryos before being transfer into a suitable recipient mare. The recipient mare is then pregnancy tested via ultrasound 7 days later.
Pepper Tree Farm Equine Clinic offer a competitive fee structure for all stages of the embryo transfer process. Please feel free to contact the clinic with any questions regarding the embryo transfer process.
Searching for a 7 day embryo
Problem breeding mares are often one of the most challenging and frustrating aspects of equine reproduction. There is no easy solution but persistence, hard work and adherence to strict scientific protocol can result in conception for these mares.
Clients are encouraged to have a full reproductive examination performed on their mares to help determine the cause of her infertility and whether an appropriate treatment plan can be formulated for her. When investigating problem breeding mares we look examine the following:
The selection of diagnostic tests are tailored to each specific case so as to best determine the cause of infertility or sub-fertility in your mare.
Endometrial biopsy forceps
Pepper Tree Farm Equine Clinic is equipped with purpose built stallion facilities backed by the 20 years’ experience of stallion collection from Pepper Tree Farm Standardbred Stud. This experience enables us to ensure quality of semen from the collection of stallions and its efficient delivery to its destination.
Stallions are collected in our collection barn, an area separate to the hustle and bustle of the hospital barn. This barn is fully enclosed and lined with a height adjustable collection mount for all shapes and sizes. The stallions are collected using an artificial vagina either over the breeding mount, or utilising our ovariectomized tease mare, depending on how your stallion has been trained. If your stallion has not been trained to collect the clinic is able to facilitate this training for you too.
Once collected the semen is carefully evaluated, extended and then packed into a chilled shipping container for transport. Your stallion is free to arrive at the clinic for a single collection, or alternatively you may agist your stallion either in our stallion stables or idividual stallion safe paddocks.
Our purpose built stallion collection barn
