Pregnancy Rates with Cooled Equine Semen Received in Private Practice

The equine shipped semen industry has developed and grown during the past few years, especially since the largest horse registry within the U.S., The American Quarter Horse Association, has recently sanctioned its use. However, a tremendous variation exists in the quality of shipped semen. This is due to factors ranging from the inherent ability of the stallion’s semen to withstand a particular cooling process, to the expertise of the person collecting, processing, and preparing the semen for shipment, to differences in transport containers, to events that occur with commercial couriers during the transport to the artificial insemination facility. Pregnancy rates in mares are dependent on, among other criteria, the fertility of the semen with which they are inseminated. This study examines the pregnancy rate per cycle that can be expected with semen shipped from many different sources into a private equine practice.