The use of frozen semen offers advantages to both the mare owner and the owner of the stallion.
Advantages to the stallion owners:
Advantages to the owner of the mare:
- Frozen semen is insurance against injury or death of the stallion.
- Frozen semen allows international shipment of semen, thereby enhancing the equine gene pool in all countries.
- Horses from different hemispheres can be bred even during the stallion’s “off “ season. This may represent an additional source of income to the stallion owner.
- The stallion’s show schedule need not be interrupted for semen collection.
- Overuse of the stallion is minimized since most freezing is performed after the breeding season. Furthermore, the use of frozen semen prevents low fertility due to heat stress in the summer months since semen can be preserved at a different time of the year.
- Frozen semen may allow stallions with behavioral problems to be gelded.
- Frozen semen allows more precise timing of insemination because semen may be shipped many days prior to ovulation, and is available for insemination at the optimal time. This eliminates emergency collections and ensuing anxiety that semen may not arrive in time to cover the ovulation.
Advantages to the owner of the mare:
- Reduces the chances of infection to the mare, since contamination is removed at the time of collection and antibiotics are added to the semen freezing media.
- Allows the ability to breed to any stallion regardless of distance.
- Eliminates the transportation and board fees to the mare owner at the stud farm.
- Reduces the possibilities of injuries to both the mare and the stallion.
- Reduces the management of the “difficult breeder”, i.e. a mare that does not show heat or stand for a stallion.
- Reduces the chance of infection in the stallion.