1. Will you be able to determine the color and pattern of the foal?
Let’s address this by separating out color and pattern.
For color, you will need to test for your mare’s color panel. This is a simple test that can be ordered online with either UC Davis or Animal Genetics. You will then pull some mane or tail hair (including the bulb) and send out for testing. From there, we will be able to accurately tell you the potential colors when paired with one of our stallions.
There are four basic coat colors (black, bay, chestnut and brown) that are controlled by two gene interactions. There are then an additional five genes which can dilute the basic colors noted above. The dilution genes are cream, champagne, dun, pearl and silver. For example, one copy of the cream gene results in palomino, buckskin or smoky black depending on the base coat. Two copies of the cream gene produces cremello or perlino (smoky cream).
Pattern is another added layer of complication. If your mare is anything but a solid, you will need to test your mare’s color pattern to be provided an accurate calculation on resulting offspring coat pattern potentials. Our one stallion, Pax, is homozygous (meaning he carriers two copies of the gene) for both the leopard complex as well as the PATN1/pattern complex. The result is that he always passes on one copy of leopard and one copy of pattern. This combination results in a near leopard or leopard foal every time he is bred to a solid/non-patterned mare.
To produce a leopard or near leopard you need a single copy of the leopard complex and either one or two copies of the PATN1 complex. Two copies of the leopard complex results in what is called a fewspot. These horses tend to roan out with age. Horses with just the leopard complex will not have a leopard pattern – PATN1 in combination with the ONE copy of leopard complex is what produces the gorgeous pattern many of us strive for. PATN1 behaves in a dominant fashion when combined with LP – whether just one copy (heterozygous) or two copies (homozygous) are passed on to the foal, the result is still the same.
For mares that are of colored/patterened breeds, the possibilities can get more complicated but we are happy to work through them with you.
2. For stallions with a genetic leopard pattern guarantee how is this possible?
For our stallions that are homozygous LP and PATN1, they can only produce either a near leopard or leopard when bred to a stallion, genetics doesn’t allow for any other result! If you have a gray leopard foal, the gray can cause the leopard to fade as they age as a result of the graying gene but a true non-solid gray horse, when bred to our stallion will only provide you with one outcome – LEOPARD. Depending on the amount of white that the foal is born with, this will appear as either a nose to toes leopard or what we call a near leopard. There are instances where a foal is born with very little white patterning. This is called suppressed leopard. The white will continue to develop as the horse matures but they are technically still a leopard.
Due to genetics, we are able to commit to guarantees of color and pattern outcomes.
3. How do we time our mare’s cycle to meet the dates the stallion will be available for collection?
In order to keep our breeding schedule somewhat reliable, we ask mare owners to administer an ovulation inducing agent which allows everyone to predict when ovulation will occur and consequently optimize insemination time. These medications, such as Prostaglandin, are incredibly affordable and save both the mare and stallion owner the headache of timing semen shipment dates or live cover dates with their human work schedules. Some of the newer formulas also increase pregnancy rates. We strongly suggest you call us so we can coordinate any breedings.
4. How do I secure space in a stallion’s book?
In order to secure space, you will need to contact Renée via email (renee@murderhollow.com) or phone/text 215-272-6116. A signed contract and the booking fee (deposit) will need to be paid in order to secure space.
5. Where do I find the stallion’s breeding contract?
Please contact Renée via email (renee@murderhollow.com) or phone/text 215-272-6116. Once availability is confirmed and your mare is approved, you will receive a contract for signature.
6. Why do you request a uterine culture for my mare?
Uterine cultures are an affordable and easy way to determine a mare’s uterine health. The process of breeding a horse can be costly and time consuming for both the mare and stallion owner. Limiting the impediments to a successful pregnancy are crucial.
A veterinarian will swab the uterus of the mare and submit to a lab for testing. The testing will determine if one or more microorganisms are present or if the mare is ‘clean’. Many times, this is a routine portion of a breeding soundness exam. Should a mare have a uterine infection, the odds are very low that the mare will become pregnant or stay pregnant. Mares that have never been bred have a very low probability of having bacteria in their uterus. Some breeds tend to aspirate air and potentially bacteria into their vaginal vault (i.e. ‘windsuck’). Should an infection be present, antibiotic therapy can be initiated and properly treated.
7. Why do you confirm pregnancies at various dates?
It is important to have a veterinarian perform an ultrasound to effectively confirm the various early stages of pregnancy in your mare. Below is an outline of the recommended post insemination dates and what the vet will be determining at each interval:
Days 14-16: 1st exam which will determine if mare is bred and if a twin is suspected and needing to be “pinched”
Day 30: 2nd exam which will determine the embryonic heartbeat
Day 35: 3rd exam which confirms pregnancy. You can rebreed successfully if abortion occurs before this time. You cannot rebreed post 35 days as the endometrial cup forms and will leave her unfertile for 3-4 months.
Day 55-60: After day 60, it is much less likely for a mare to abort or absorb the pregnancy. We normally check at day 60 or 90 as a final pregnancy check.
8. What mare registrations are approved outcrosses for Knabstrupper offspring?
There are many registries that are approved outcrosses. For a mare to be approved for cross-breeding, she must be by an approved outcross organization or inspected by KNN. If bred to a licensed KNN stallion, the resulting foal will have a KNN passport. The approved outcross list includes the below or the USA equivalent:
9. When should I breed my mare?
There are two factors we consider before breeding a mare – the mare’s age and also the time of year.
We strongly recommended performing a breeding soundness exam on your mare prior to breeding if she is not a career broodmare. Most do not breed mares before the age of four. The gestation is 11 months so your mare would foal out around 5 years old. You also want to ensure that the mare’s weight is healthy. Mares that are over or underweight can struggle to become pregnant or stay pregnant. Mares are most fertile between the ages of 6-7 years old. Fertility begins to decline around 15 years of age. Aged mares may need to be bred over more estrous cycles, on average, to establish a pregnancy than younger mares. Mares can continue to produce foals well into their late teens or early to mid 20’s. However, mare owners should realize that the prognosis for fertility of an older mare decreases each year. Maiden mares over the age of 14 can struggle to get pregnant due to tilting of their vulva over the pelvic brim.
There are a multitude of therapeutic techniques that may be beneficial including correction of perineal defects with a Caslick’s procedure, administration of an ovulation-inducing agent (i.e. hCG or deslorelin) to help predict when ovulation will occur and consequently optimize insemination time, uterine lavage and/or oxytocin administration after breeding to remove any accumulated uterine fluid and possibly administration of exogenous progesterone (i.e. Regumate®) to help support the ensuing pregnancy.
In terms of time of year, we personally prefer to breed during natural heat cycles. For our area, this usually begins in March but can take up until the end of April depending on the mare. For younger mares, we are okay breeding later in the season as their bodies can recover much quicker. For older mares, the earlier the better as it’s much easier to keep weight on an older mare when the grass is growing and the weather is warm enough that they do not need extra nutrition to keep weight on. This allows us to wean a foal and still have a couple months of good grass growing weather before the cold sets in. For those who are in harsher climates, this could mean you would want to start sooner or wait a bit longer. In colder climates for example, you might want to wait until later so that you do not have a foal being born in the middle of a snowstorm.
When rebreeding a mare with a foal at her side, we will often breed on the foal heat via live cover. For A.I. we wait for the heat AFTER the foal heat.
10. Why do you not offer a live foal guarantee?
We have chosen to keep our stallion's breeding fee as low as possible. To ensure the highest level of services for our breeders, we use Select Breeder Services (SBS) to perform quality control testing on ALL semen we ship. SBS is the largest provider of fresh and frozen semen services in the world. With unrivaled expertise accumulated over 25-years in the business they are recognized by breeders and veterinarians as the most trusted source of fresh and frozen semen in the industry. SBS independently verifies motility, velocity, and concentration of the fresh and frozen semen to ensure the semen meets their recommended minimum for commercial distribution of progressive motility. Based upon the results by SBS, we can also ensure each dose includes the industry recommended minimum number of progressively motile sperm per dose, optimizing your chances of conception.
If you are looking to breed but want a live foal guarantee contract, we can certainly provide but please understand there is an added cost to do so.
11. Do you keep fertility data?
Yes. We keep fertility data on live cover, fresh and frozen semen breedings. We have a very detailed record of all mares bred down to whether or not they have uterine cultures in advance of their breedings along with their age and prior foal status. This helps breeders understand the true quality of the stallion's semen.
12. May we visit the farm?
Murder Hollow is a private estate. We are not open for the public but can arrange for outside visitors should you be interested in a foal or horse that we have for sale. Our stallions are very rarely on premises due to their breeding and training schedule.
Let’s address this by separating out color and pattern.
For color, you will need to test for your mare’s color panel. This is a simple test that can be ordered online with either UC Davis or Animal Genetics. You will then pull some mane or tail hair (including the bulb) and send out for testing. From there, we will be able to accurately tell you the potential colors when paired with one of our stallions.
There are four basic coat colors (black, bay, chestnut and brown) that are controlled by two gene interactions. There are then an additional five genes which can dilute the basic colors noted above. The dilution genes are cream, champagne, dun, pearl and silver. For example, one copy of the cream gene results in palomino, buckskin or smoky black depending on the base coat. Two copies of the cream gene produces cremello or perlino (smoky cream).
Pattern is another added layer of complication. If your mare is anything but a solid, you will need to test your mare’s color pattern to be provided an accurate calculation on resulting offspring coat pattern potentials. Our one stallion, Pax, is homozygous (meaning he carriers two copies of the gene) for both the leopard complex as well as the PATN1/pattern complex. The result is that he always passes on one copy of leopard and one copy of pattern. This combination results in a near leopard or leopard foal every time he is bred to a solid/non-patterned mare.
To produce a leopard or near leopard you need a single copy of the leopard complex and either one or two copies of the PATN1 complex. Two copies of the leopard complex results in what is called a fewspot. These horses tend to roan out with age. Horses with just the leopard complex will not have a leopard pattern – PATN1 in combination with the ONE copy of leopard complex is what produces the gorgeous pattern many of us strive for. PATN1 behaves in a dominant fashion when combined with LP – whether just one copy (heterozygous) or two copies (homozygous) are passed on to the foal, the result is still the same.
For mares that are of colored/patterened breeds, the possibilities can get more complicated but we are happy to work through them with you.
2. For stallions with a genetic leopard pattern guarantee how is this possible?
For our stallions that are homozygous LP and PATN1, they can only produce either a near leopard or leopard when bred to a stallion, genetics doesn’t allow for any other result! If you have a gray leopard foal, the gray can cause the leopard to fade as they age as a result of the graying gene but a true non-solid gray horse, when bred to our stallion will only provide you with one outcome – LEOPARD. Depending on the amount of white that the foal is born with, this will appear as either a nose to toes leopard or what we call a near leopard. There are instances where a foal is born with very little white patterning. This is called suppressed leopard. The white will continue to develop as the horse matures but they are technically still a leopard.
Due to genetics, we are able to commit to guarantees of color and pattern outcomes.
3. How do we time our mare’s cycle to meet the dates the stallion will be available for collection?
In order to keep our breeding schedule somewhat reliable, we ask mare owners to administer an ovulation inducing agent which allows everyone to predict when ovulation will occur and consequently optimize insemination time. These medications, such as Prostaglandin, are incredibly affordable and save both the mare and stallion owner the headache of timing semen shipment dates or live cover dates with their human work schedules. Some of the newer formulas also increase pregnancy rates. We strongly suggest you call us so we can coordinate any breedings.
4. How do I secure space in a stallion’s book?
In order to secure space, you will need to contact Renée via email (renee@murderhollow.com) or phone/text 215-272-6116. A signed contract and the booking fee (deposit) will need to be paid in order to secure space.
5. Where do I find the stallion’s breeding contract?
Please contact Renée via email (renee@murderhollow.com) or phone/text 215-272-6116. Once availability is confirmed and your mare is approved, you will receive a contract for signature.
6. Why do you request a uterine culture for my mare?
Uterine cultures are an affordable and easy way to determine a mare’s uterine health. The process of breeding a horse can be costly and time consuming for both the mare and stallion owner. Limiting the impediments to a successful pregnancy are crucial.
A veterinarian will swab the uterus of the mare and submit to a lab for testing. The testing will determine if one or more microorganisms are present or if the mare is ‘clean’. Many times, this is a routine portion of a breeding soundness exam. Should a mare have a uterine infection, the odds are very low that the mare will become pregnant or stay pregnant. Mares that have never been bred have a very low probability of having bacteria in their uterus. Some breeds tend to aspirate air and potentially bacteria into their vaginal vault (i.e. ‘windsuck’). Should an infection be present, antibiotic therapy can be initiated and properly treated.
7. Why do you confirm pregnancies at various dates?
It is important to have a veterinarian perform an ultrasound to effectively confirm the various early stages of pregnancy in your mare. Below is an outline of the recommended post insemination dates and what the vet will be determining at each interval:
Days 14-16: 1st exam which will determine if mare is bred and if a twin is suspected and needing to be “pinched”
Day 30: 2nd exam which will determine the embryonic heartbeat
Day 35: 3rd exam which confirms pregnancy. You can rebreed successfully if abortion occurs before this time. You cannot rebreed post 35 days as the endometrial cup forms and will leave her unfertile for 3-4 months.
Day 55-60: After day 60, it is much less likely for a mare to abort or absorb the pregnancy. We normally check at day 60 or 90 as a final pregnancy check.
8. What mare registrations are approved outcrosses for Knabstrupper offspring?
There are many registries that are approved outcrosses. For a mare to be approved for cross-breeding, she must be by an approved outcross organization or inspected by KNN. If bred to a licensed KNN stallion, the resulting foal will have a KNN passport. The approved outcross list includes the below or the USA equivalent:
- Fredricksberger
- Danish Oldenborg
- Trakehner
- Arab and Angloarab
- Danish Warmblood
- Holsteiner
- Thoroughbred XX (approved with Danish Warmblood, Trakehner or Arab Societies)
- Lusitano approved by APSL
- PRE approved with ANCCE
- New Forest pony
- Welsh Pony (NOT cob)
- Connemara pony
- Danish Sport´s pony
- Dartmoor pony
- Shetland pony
- Many Dutch & German warmblood registries
9. When should I breed my mare?
There are two factors we consider before breeding a mare – the mare’s age and also the time of year.
We strongly recommended performing a breeding soundness exam on your mare prior to breeding if she is not a career broodmare. Most do not breed mares before the age of four. The gestation is 11 months so your mare would foal out around 5 years old. You also want to ensure that the mare’s weight is healthy. Mares that are over or underweight can struggle to become pregnant or stay pregnant. Mares are most fertile between the ages of 6-7 years old. Fertility begins to decline around 15 years of age. Aged mares may need to be bred over more estrous cycles, on average, to establish a pregnancy than younger mares. Mares can continue to produce foals well into their late teens or early to mid 20’s. However, mare owners should realize that the prognosis for fertility of an older mare decreases each year. Maiden mares over the age of 14 can struggle to get pregnant due to tilting of their vulva over the pelvic brim.
There are a multitude of therapeutic techniques that may be beneficial including correction of perineal defects with a Caslick’s procedure, administration of an ovulation-inducing agent (i.e. hCG or deslorelin) to help predict when ovulation will occur and consequently optimize insemination time, uterine lavage and/or oxytocin administration after breeding to remove any accumulated uterine fluid and possibly administration of exogenous progesterone (i.e. Regumate®) to help support the ensuing pregnancy.
In terms of time of year, we personally prefer to breed during natural heat cycles. For our area, this usually begins in March but can take up until the end of April depending on the mare. For younger mares, we are okay breeding later in the season as their bodies can recover much quicker. For older mares, the earlier the better as it’s much easier to keep weight on an older mare when the grass is growing and the weather is warm enough that they do not need extra nutrition to keep weight on. This allows us to wean a foal and still have a couple months of good grass growing weather before the cold sets in. For those who are in harsher climates, this could mean you would want to start sooner or wait a bit longer. In colder climates for example, you might want to wait until later so that you do not have a foal being born in the middle of a snowstorm.
When rebreeding a mare with a foal at her side, we will often breed on the foal heat via live cover. For A.I. we wait for the heat AFTER the foal heat.
10. Why do you not offer a live foal guarantee?
We have chosen to keep our stallion's breeding fee as low as possible. To ensure the highest level of services for our breeders, we use Select Breeder Services (SBS) to perform quality control testing on ALL semen we ship. SBS is the largest provider of fresh and frozen semen services in the world. With unrivaled expertise accumulated over 25-years in the business they are recognized by breeders and veterinarians as the most trusted source of fresh and frozen semen in the industry. SBS independently verifies motility, velocity, and concentration of the fresh and frozen semen to ensure the semen meets their recommended minimum for commercial distribution of progressive motility. Based upon the results by SBS, we can also ensure each dose includes the industry recommended minimum number of progressively motile sperm per dose, optimizing your chances of conception.
If you are looking to breed but want a live foal guarantee contract, we can certainly provide but please understand there is an added cost to do so.
11. Do you keep fertility data?
Yes. We keep fertility data on live cover, fresh and frozen semen breedings. We have a very detailed record of all mares bred down to whether or not they have uterine cultures in advance of their breedings along with their age and prior foal status. This helps breeders understand the true quality of the stallion's semen.
12. May we visit the farm?
Murder Hollow is a private estate. We are not open for the public but can arrange for outside visitors should you be interested in a foal or horse that we have for sale. Our stallions are very rarely on premises due to their breeding and training schedule.