Category Archives: mare

EVA Outbreak in Canada

Posted: | September 22, 2023

Canadian Equine Viral Arteritis! There has been an EVA outbreak in Canada reported in Prince Edward Island. Equine Viral Arteritis is predominantly a respiratory disease, which has reproductive implications. Symptoms vary dramatically from none (“asymptomatic”) to a wide variety which may present as any combination of the following: elevated temperature, depression, loss of appetite. Affected animals may also… Read More »

Can Embryo Transfer Success Rates be Improved?

Posted: | September 16, 2023

Can Embryo Transfer Success Rates be Improved? Embryo transfer success rates are recognized as having a variable outcome dependent upon technician technique as well as mare suitability. While the flush process is usually fairly stable in results and less subject to variability, the subsequent transfer often does not maintain that same stability of success between all practitioner groups.… Read More »

Oxytocin Use to Support Pregnancy?

Posted: | September 9, 2023

Oxytocin Use to Support Pregnancy Instead of Regumate (Altrenogest)? It seems initially counter-intuitive to consider oxytocin use to support pregnancy instead of Regumate or other altrenogest treatments which are commonly used to potentially increase – or at least maintain – progestin levels during early pregnancy in the mare. Oxytocin causes uterine contractions and will expel the pregnancy, right?… Read More »

Endometrial Biopsy in the Mare

Posted: | September 2, 2023

Endometrial Biopsy in the Mare – is one sample enough? An endometrial biopsy in the mare is a useful diagnostic to determine cellular health of the uterine lining which will be directly responsible for pregnancy maintenance once placentation has occurred. The biopsy score is correlated to the likelihood of live foal production by use of different scales, such… Read More »

Older Subfertile Mares

Posted: | August 19, 2023

Improve Pregnancy Rates in Older Subfertile Mares! How can one improve pregnancy rates in older subfertile mares? This category of mare is notorious for having lower pregnancy rates, and this becomes even more annoying when one is performing a higher-cost procedure such as embryo transfer. A perennial question therefore is “can we improve pregnancy rates in those older… Read More »

The Uterine Cytology Slide

Posted: | August 10, 2023

Preparing the Uterine Cytology Slide – Pre-breeding diagnostics should include the simple, rapid and easy-to-perform uterine cytology slide, which takes only about 15 minutes By Jos Mottershead & Kathy St. Martin A very useful, rapid and easy first step diagnostic prior to breeding a mare is to prepare and read a uterine cytology slide. Minimal equipment is required,… Read More »

Dead Sperm

Posted: | August 6, 2023

Dead Sperm Do Not Cause Greater Uterine Immune Response! We know that sperm are the primary instigator for initiating the mare’s post-breeding uterine inflammatory response[1], but one not infrequently hears commentary to the effect of concerns that there may be a greater response if the insemination dose contains a higher number of dead sperm. Cousseau et al have… Read More »

Obese Mares

Posted: | August 6, 2023

Obese Mares Have More Problems Than We Thought! It has been previously documented that obese mares have a higher tendency towards early embryonic death, particularly in hot weather and this has been put down to the core temperature of these mare potentially being higher than other mares, with a negative impact on embryo survival[1]. At ISER XIII Meikle… Read More »

Words To Lose!

Posted: | April 15, 2023

When lecturing on equine reproduction our lead lecturer Jos Mottershead often comments that there are several words to lose in order to avoid confusion and – plainly – being incorrect. The words he always cites are “never” and “always”, because the moment that one uses those words, invariably someone in the audience comes up with a situation which… Read More »

Short Courses

Posted: | November 2, 2022

Horse Breeding Short Courses and Tuition from Equine-Reproduction.com Imitated by some – duplicated by none! These courses are considered by many to be the most complete single equine reproduction short course and tuition available. 2024 Course Dates to be Announced Shortly! 2024 Spring Equine Reproduction Short Courses are Now Completed! Please check out our one-on-one individual tuition program!… Read More »