Recipient Mare Application Form
The Recipient Mare Application Process
Mares will need to come to the centre for a check before we can officially accept them. This examination ensures that the mare is suitable to join our recipient herd and is reproductively sound. Before any mare comes to the centre they must have negative results for CEM, EVA, EIA and Strangles Blood Please contact the office to make arrangements as to when the mare can come for a check.
The Recipient mare is an extremely important part of the embryo transfer process and we rely on having a large, good quality and varied recipient herd at Tomlinson Equine Stud. We are often looking for suitable mares to add to our herd.
The Recipient Mare Application Form needs completing and returning to us for any mares you wish to be considered as potential recipient mares. Please return the form to the office with a few photos of your mare preferably from side, front (including front legs), rear and a close up of the feet. Ideally the photos need to be of the mare standing square on a level surface with no tack or rider. These photos are to purely gauge the conformation, size and type of the mare; please do not worry if the mare is dirty! If you feel there are any specific problems with your mare (eg. bad feet), please provide additional photos highlighting these problems as much as possible. If your mare has a lameness history, it is extremely helpful if the clinical history can be emailed to us by your vet.
Size is extremely important so please measure on a hard flat surface, using a measuring stick and state whether the height is with or without shoes.
The information within the completed form and photos is passed to our vets and they make a decision as to the mare’s suitability. Decisions can be made very quickly regarding suitability as long as we have as much information about the mare as possible. The more information we have about the mare, the easier it is for us to make a decision prior to the mare coming to us, and hence avoid wasted journeys to the centre.
If the mare looks as though she may be suitable to come to us, she will need to be brought to the centre for a check to make sure she is reproductively sound. If confirmed suitable, mares are able to stay from the day of the check.
Before your mare comes to the centre for a check, she will need tests taken for CEM, EVA, EIA and Strangles Blood: these are routine reproductive tests and samples can be taken by your vet and sent to the lab for testing. Recipient acquisitions spend an initial 10 days in isolation upon arrival with us, followed by a second Strangles Blood test that is paired with the first, therefore use of the same lab is very useful to us.
We take mares on a gifted or loan basis depending on the owners requirements and wishes (minimum loan period is 2 years). Mares can be loaned on a permanent basis whereby we keep them as long as we need them, after which the mare then returns back to the owner. Mares stay with us at the centre while they get pregnant with an embryo transfer pregnancy. When they are 60 days in foal, they leave the centre and go to the owner of the foal that they are carrying. They subsequently return to the centre once they have had the foal and it has been weaned. For mares loaned to Tomlinson Equine Stud, owners will be contacted at the point of loan renewal to organise the mare’s return to the owner or the renewal of the loan period. Recipient mares are unable to return to the owner if they are pregnant or nursing a foal, so often renewals will be done at the time of weaning and return to the centre. A mare can be used as a recipient with us until about 15 years of age. If a loaned mare is still with us at this time, the owner will be responsible for either taking her back or rehoming her within 2 weeks of notification. Tomlinson Equine Stud is happy to arrange disposal on behalf of the owner but the owner will be responsible for any costs associated with this disposal.
We do embryo transfer with a lot of top class competition mares and due to client confidentiality, if mares are loaned to us, we can not give owners information of the foals that they are carrying or where the mares go to foal. However, we always know where the mares are and can get updates and pass on any information. Pregnant recipient mares live in or out depending on the client wishes and yard structure. Tomlinson Equine Stud does not stipulate how pregnant recipient mares
are looked after when they are away from the centre, but we do insist that they are looked after well, regularly foot trimmed, wormed and mares are in good body condition. It is often the case that the recipient mare is carrying a very valuable embryo pregnancy, so the mare is very important and is looked after accordingly.
During the loan period, Tomlinson Equine Stud will be responsible for any routine and minor veterinary costs, including all worming and foot trimming, however major veterinary costs (e.g. colic surgery, joint flushes and fractures) are not covered by Tomlinson Equine Stud and the owner should insure against these, as they deem necessary, or be prepared to pay for them if they wish the procedure to be performed.
Please contact the office should you have any queries or wish to discuss the process further.
Please contact the office should you have any queries or wish to discuss the process further.