Our Stud
We provide a full service for Stallions, Mares and youngstock including all your breeding and livery needs. This can both be on a long term or short term basis, with personalised packages available.
Mare & Stallion Livery tailored to individual requirements
Our facilities meet the livery demands of both your highly valuable competition mare or breeding stallion and your equally valuable broodmare or pregnant recipient mare.
Individual treatment, hygiene and ventilation are second to none ensuring a healthy and happy horse throughout the duration of its stay.
We can guarantee a livery package tailored to the individual needs of your horse including stabling, feeding, turnout and exercise to your specific requirements.
Long Term Livery, Foaling Down & Weaning
Tomlinson Equine offers an onsite foaling down service on a long or short term basis for your mare. Pregnant mares can stay with us to foal down and remain with us, if required, until the foal is weaned. We provide a safe secure environment where mares are under constant supervision. Mares are stabled around foaling and are closely monitored as well as milk tested daily to help predict the foaling. Then with the use of cameras and stitch in foaling alarms our experienced team are on hand to make sure everything goes smoothly or assist if necessary.
Recipient Mares
We have one of the top recipient mare herds in the United Kingdom and pride ourselves on the care and attention they receive when they join us. Recipient mares are the key to successful embryo transfer. Every year we require more recipient mares to join the herd due to the increasing popularity of Embryo Transfer. At Tomlinson Equine the recipient mares who join us get a new job, being a surrogate.
It is important that the recipient mare is of a similar height and build to the donor mare; although breadth does make up for a small amount of height.
The recipient mares are often gifted or loaned by Tomlinson Equine and discussed at the application stage.
Each year the height criteria of recipients may change but we look for mares throughout the year. Recipient mares come in all shapes and sizes and are usually between the ages of 4 and 15 years – older mares can be used if proven to be good breeders. Native mares have been found to be excellent recipient mothers; they are hardier, more fertile and produce better milk. Mares whose careers have been cut short for any reason, usually mild lameness, can often be re-homed as recipient mothers. Please remember the recipient mares will be carrying an embryo from some of the top mares in the country and do go to live with the donor mares owners once carrying the foal, unless they decide to foal down with Tomlinson Equine.
Recipient Mares must meet the following criteria in order to be considered:
- No vices, although the foal has no genetic connection with the recipient mother, the recipient mother nurtures the foal until weaning so has influence over the foal’s initial learned behaviour.
- Paddock Sound
- Must be able to go barefoot and with good strong feet
- Be able to live in a herd
- Breeding history, if any/know
- Mares can be both maiden and non-maiden and although the birth weights of foals born from maiden recipient mothers can be lower, these foals have generally caught up in size by weaning.
Clients can provide recipient mares if they wish, and if they have suitable candidates. We always synchronise 3 recipients for every one embryo, and therefore ask that, if a client wants us to guarantee to be able to use their own mare, they provide us with 3 mares to synchronise. Often this is not feasible or practical for the client, and we are sent 1 or 2 mares to synchronise; in these cases we always try our absolute best to synchronise the client’s recipient mares accordingly, and are often successful in doing so, however we can not guarantee to be able to do this, and sometimes Tomlinson Equine recipient mares have to be used instead.
Stallions Standing with Us – click here for more information
Reproduction – click here for more information