Stud Medicine

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Wealth of Experience

North West Equine Vets are a BEVA approved AI practice with a wealth of knowledge of stud medicine from conception to foal care. We provide a full range of services from our highly experienced team of stud vets, including an advanced certificate holder in stud medicine.

Our services include:

Fresh, chilled and frozen AI packages - tailored to your mares needs.
Breeding soundness evaluations - including barren mare assesments, infertility investigation and stallion gradings.
Embryo flushing and transfer, cutting-edge techniques to optimize breeding success.

Whether you're breeding for performance, bloodlines, or personal passion, our expertise ensures the highest standards of care and support throughout the process.

Breeding can be an incredibly rewarding experience, but it requires a significant commitment of time, energy, and financial resources. It’s important to carefully consider the type of horse or pony you wish to breed, taking into account factors such as conformation, temperament, and ability. Additionally, you must ensure that you have the necessary facilities to care for both the mare and foal, not only during the first summer but also throughout the demands of the winter months.

Natural Service, Artificial Insemination (AI) or Embryo Transfer (ET)

At North West Equine Vets we are proud to be able to offer our Embryo Transfer service, as well as Artificial Insemination and natural covering.

Artificial Insemination (AI) is the process of covering a mare using semen that has been collected from a stallion. This enables your mare to be bred to a stallion ideally matched to your needs, regardless of his location. Fresh semen has usually been collected on-site, or very near-by, for immediate insemination. Chilled semen has been collected from within the UK or EU and is couriered or flown to your mare. Frozen AI provides the opportunity to use stallions from anywhere in the world, including those who are currently unavailable for collection.

Natural service is an economical option and may be ideal if the stallion you wish to use is available.

For some mares, Al can improve fertility outcomes compared to natural service. Additionally, Al reduces the risk of injury to the mare, stallion, and handlers, as well as minimizing the risk of transmitting diseases. It is also highly convenient in that the semen travels to the mare, rather than the other way around.

It is also worth noting the new advances in breeding techniques available such a Embryo transfer.

Embryo Transfer is an advanced reproductive procedure that enables an early pregnancy from one mare – the Donor – to be transferred to another – the Recipient. This technique relieves the Donor mare of carrying the pregnancy to term which is most useful in competing mares; mares who are not able to carry a pregnancy and when multiple progeny are sought during a single breeding season.

The Donor mare is scanned and bred, and subsequently undergoes an embryo flush procedure approximately 7 days later. Embryo flushing is carried out at one of our clinics to ensure optimum clinical conditions are met. A successful flush yields an embryo which is transferred into an awaiting Recipient. Recipients are required to carry a pregnancy from the time of transfer to birth, and care for the foal as it’s dam until weaning.

Recipients may be owned, or loaned privately, by the owner of the Donor mare. It is important that recipients be selected based on their age, health, temperament and reproductive history. Alternatively, recipients can be loaned from an external provider – for example Twemlows stud in Shropshire. In this case the embryo would be carefully transported to Twemlows stud where it can be transferred into an awaiting recipient mare. External recipient loan requires advance prior arrangement.

Pre-Breeding Examination

A pre-breeding examination is advised to evaluate your mare or stallion’s suitability for breeding and identify potential fertility issues.

Detecting these issues early can save you the expense and disappointment of attempting to breed a subfertile mare. This examination is most effectively conducted with the mare in stocks.

What the Mare Examination Includes:

Assessment of Breeding History: Reviewing your mare’s reproductive history to identify any previous challenges or concerns.
Evaluation of Vulval Conformation: Checking the external reproductive anatomy for abnormalities.
Examination of the Vagina and Cervix: Internal examination to assess reproductive health.
Ultrasound of the Uterus and Ovaries: Internal ultrasound to evaluate the condition of the reproductive organs.

Following the examination, we may recommend specific treatments before or during breeding or pregnancy to improve the likelihood of successful conception and foaling.

Pre-Breeding Health Screening
In addition to the examination, a health screening is advised. Requirements may vary depending on the stud or artificial insemination (AI) centre, so be sure to confirm their specific requirements. Screening typically includes:

Clitoral Swab for Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM): Cultures require at least 7 days to process, so plan accordingly.
Blood Test for Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA): Ensuring the mare is free of this viral disease.
Additional Tests as Needed: Examples include a uterine swab or a blood test for strangles, depending on the circumstances.

Stallion Pre-breeding Examination

All working stallions should receive a breeding soundness examination prior to commencement of breeding activities, and at the beginning of each breeding season. A certified, healthy stallion is more likely to produce disease-free, fertile semen! Breeding soundness examinations are carried out at your stud or yard and may include:

Reproductive history
General health
Examination and ultrasound of external and internal genitalia
Semen collection and assessment
Venereal disease testing

Whether you are a mare owner or a stallion owner, by conducting these examinations and screenings, you can significantly enhance your chances of successful conception and a healthy pregnancy.

Pre-Breeding Considerations

Most mares stop cycling in the winter months and begin cycling in the spring in response to the longer day length.

Breeding an early foal can be more difficult as mares may not have started to cycle regularly. Ask you vet about methods that can be used to attempt to hasten the onset of cycling.

Make sure your mare finishes the winter in lean to good body condition. Overweight mares have reduced fertility.

Ensure the mare is fed a vitamin and mineral supplement or a complete balanced diet.

Maintain good foot care and trimming and remove hind shoes if she is going to stud.

Make sure your mare is wormed and vaccinated up to date for equine influenza and tetanus.

It is also worth baring in mind the pregnancy rates for the various options:

Natural covering or AI with fresh or chilled semen 60%
Artificial Insemination frozen 40%-50%
Embryo Transfer %

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Stud Packages & Considerations

Unless you have good facilities at home, including restraint stocks and experienced people to help, consider sending your mare to a reputable stud to be put in foal.

Mares can also return to stud at the end of pregnancy when foaling time comes.

As a practice NWEV are pleased to work with a number of reputable studs who will take visiting mares:

Country Farm Stud
EJL Stud
End House Stud
Forrest Sport Horses
Tweedfell Stud
Willowsway Stud

It is important that we have suitably equipped and hygienic facilities available, including stocks for the breeding process. Stocks are used to keep your mare and vet as safe as possible. Even a well known mare can be unpredictable during the breeding process. Stocks are used during the pre-breeding examinations and throughout the AI process.

Our Stud Package options include:

3 cycle Package for Fresh Semen (from stallions on site)
3 cycle Package for Chilled Semen (from UK and EU stallions)
Single cycle package for Frozen Semen
Individual cycle Package for Fresh or Chilled Semen
Veteran Mare (15+) Individual cycle Package for Fresh or Chilled Semen

Please call us for further information and prices

Barren Mare Investigation

If your mare has previously been diagnosed with subfertility, or has been bred unsuccessfully in the past, she would benefit from a barren mare investigation.

It is recommended that this be completed prior to commencement of further breeding of your mare in order to achieve optimum, and more economic, results in the coming season. An investigation is likely to include:

General health assessment
Assessment and correction of perineal conformation
Uterine lavage, culture and cytology
Uterine biopsy
Targeted treatments

We recommend presenting your mare for subfertility investigation early on in the breeding season so that she can promptly resume breeding activities in optimum reproductive health.