W. Charlot Farms Limited

Information about Rio Grande's frozen semen

Rio Grande's frozen semen is of excellent quality.

Each straw contains approximately 1 billion sperm cells with at least 65 % progressive motility after thawing.

Only one straw is needed per cycle. We have had excellent success rates with Rio Grande's frozen semen.

Rio Grande semen was frozen at two different clinics specializing in semen freezing. Feedback we received from

the two clinics were "Rio's frozen semen is in the top 10% of all stallions we have ever frozen at our facility" and

"Rio's frozen semen is as good as it gets" respectively.

Back in 1996, when Rio Grande was competing and never at the farm in Stratford we bred all of our mares with

frozen Rio Grande semen and performed a study of the pregnancy results of our mares. We only had a veterinarian

at our farm every second day to ultrasound the mares. We administered hCG when the follicle was in excess of 3.5 cm

and inseminated the mare (without the presence of a veterinarian) 36 hours after administering hCG. Pregnancy results

should be significantly better than the good results we achieved here at the farm if your mare is stabled at a breeding farm

and / or palpated several times a day before ovulation.

We bred a total of 13 mares to Rio Grande in 1996.

5 mares were inseminated with a total of 1 straw and all five mares were in foal after insemination with the one straw.

Another 5 mares were inseminated with a total of two straws each and four of the 5 mares got pregnant.

The mare that did not get pregnant was bred to two different stallions naturally afterwards and did not get in foal.

One mare was inseminated with a total of three straws (in two different cycles) and was initially pregnant, absorbed later

One mare was inseminated with a total of four straws (in two different cycles) and was pregnant

One mare was inseminated with a total of five straws and did not become pregnant.

In summary, out of the 13 mares bred, 11 got in foal which represents a success rate of 84.62% -

two of the mares (both older mares) absorbed the pregnancy at a later date;

Total of 27 straws used for all 13 mares - average 2.08 straws per mare.

In 2007, after Rio Grande passed away, quite a few of our clients decided to switch to Rio Grande frozen semen.

Based on information provided by mare owners that did report back to us, 62.5 % of the mares that were bred

with Rio frozen semen did get in foal with ONE straw of frozen semen. Two thirds of the mares that did NOT get in

foal with one straw of Rio Grande frozen semen were also not pregnant after being bred with fresh semen of one

of our younger stallions later on.

While there is no life foal guarantee for frozen semen we do offer an "upgrade" to a LFG cooled semen contract with

one of our younger stallions should your mare not become pregnant with our frozen semen. We will work with you

as it is just as much our goal to get your mare in foals as it is yours. However it is crucial that your use a veterinarian

who is comfortable with and experienced in using frozen semen. We know that Rio's frozen semen is excellent, a

good veterinarian plays a crucial role in getting your mare in foal.