What if the Jockey Club allowed AI?
 

I've read a lot of articles since Monday about Barbaro, and 2 topics keep coming up: cloning and AI. I'm putting absolutely no weight on this as it would be pointless to clone Barbaro and AI is not allowed, so no point in keeping any semen either. But one of the horse racing correspondants for MSNBC even said in an interview "I have to believe that at some point they've collected Barbaro's semen". This got me thinking about this.

What would happen to the breeding industry of AI were allowed? Would stud fees be affected? Or would anything at all change? I'm not voicing an opinion either way on this, just curious about what anyone involved in the industry thinks.

Genetically speaking, it would serverely limit any sort of remaining diversity in the breed because one popular stud could produce thousands and thousands and thousands of foals.

Here's The Explainer on Slate on the question:

http://www.slate.com/id/2158610?nav=tap3

I don't know though, if you're still paying $500,000, I doubt there's going to suddenly be a glut of Storm Cat foals out there simply because artificial insemenation was allowed.

What does artificial intelligence have to do with breeding. With some of these matings, AI surely is being used already. ;)

LOL, that's funny. My boyfriend trains horses and went to an ag college, so he's always referring to it as AI. The first time he said it, that movie with Haley Joel Osment popped into my head.

It would make it more affordable for breeders to mate to their preferred stallion. If you are in NY and there is a stallion in La...now you don't mate because of the travel...With AI you could.

the short answer is that there isn't much point debating the merits of AI because it will NEVER happen with the thoroughbred breed...not because of any great concern for the animal but because it would devestate the entire industry which relys on the boarding of mares and foals...they wield the most power and they will not let it happen.

I wouldn't say never. It is obviously already done with s-breds. If the Arabs start to demand a higher number of horses from a certain stallion...

perhaps I should have said never sanctioned and endorsed...as the state breds that do it shouldn't be eligible for registration...

Quarterhorses are also able to be bred by artificial means.

I had no idea Allen Iverson even liked horses.

It would have been very tough (if not nearly impossible) for them to obtain semen from Barbaro. It requires this...



I worked on a Trahehner farm one summer, breeding stallions to one of those things, and let me tell you, it's just as tough on a stallion's hind legs. They get really into it. LOL :p

The stud fees would likely drop on all sires because the stud farms could make up in quanity what they'd lose in lowering the stud fees. I absolutely think there would be a glut of popular sires if it were permitted- suddenly, supply can absoultely meet demand.

But I agree that it's not likely to happen any time soon, if ever. Too much money in breeding as it is to change. I imagine SBs and QHs permit it because they're much smaller and the breeding industry doesn't call the shots in those industries? (purely a guess; I don't know much about either one)

Couldn't they allow AI and cap the number of mares that can use one stallion each breeding season?

it's not impossible to collect them from the ground though...we used to collect an older morgan without him mounting the phantom...he just came into the shed took a sniff of the mare and voila.

but he is obviously the exception to the rule...in fact he is still fertile and breeding a few mares a year at 32 :eek:

the problem goes beyond the number of mares on stud can breed...AI eliminates the transportation of mares (huge business in KY) and the boarding of mares (huge business in a couple of states)...it would enable someone like me to own a mare and keep it at home in my backyard and still have the opportunity to breed to a stallion in Kentucky...the farms would lose a lot of revenue...and jobs would be lost etc... IMO it is all about $$ and jobs not the breed itself...it just sounds better to argue the breed aspects..

Yeah, I know they could have (forgive me for the lack of better words) jacked him off, but it would have been tough in his case, because he'd never bred a mare to begin with. We had to train most of the younger stallions to learn how to mount the phantom. Once they got the hang of it, it was "love" at first sight. HAHA :D

It sucks for people that have to find new jobs but that sounds like the best part of it to me.

Found this article...

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/dai...e_3.guest.html

You'd run out of names that start with Storm or end with Cat!