A "Hands On" approach to learning!
Our classes will take you through the ins and outs of horse husbandry and stallion management. This class is for the hands on stallion owners that want to learn how to safely manage and collect from their stallions. This means you will have greater control during breeding season without the need for working with an outside source to collect and ship semen. Having the knowledge and more importantly the confidence to collect from your own stallion can be an incredible time and money saver. When it comes to breeding mares we all know when they are in and ready the semen needs to be there! By collecting from your own stallion you are able to send Semen to your mare owners at any time, no more setting up dates or finding a specialist to come collect and ship for you. This also means you get to retain the collection fee for yourself.
Your Safety is always paramount to us. We have seasoned stallions that we use during class for both demonstration and hands on learning. Our horses are well mannered and will make learning a breeze! This will both boost your confidence and allow you to feel safe, making it an optimum learning environment. Horses especially Stallions when excited can be unpredictable and intimidating. Our guys know their job and are very happy to let you learn and practice.
What some of our past students have to say:
What you can expect to learn:
- Mare management
- Mare artificial insemination
- Mare uterine culture, antibiotic infusion and lavage
- Stallion management
- Stallion handling for breeding
- Semen collection using an equine artificial vagina
- Semen processing for fresh AI as well as shipping
- Cushioned centrifuge of semen
- Ultrasound Demo
These are just a few of the topics you can expect to go over. On day Three is an open session where you can ask any questions or discuss any topics that you feel need to be addressed.
A little about our classes:
Our most popular and current class line up offers a two-day breeding and stallion management short course with a third practice day at no cost. We do offer each day individually but recommend you sign up both days to cover breeding and management of both stallions and mares.
Each class is scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but we have in the past altered the Schedule for our students. We have busy lives and understand you do too! We do our best to accommodate our students.
Each class is limited to 6 students so you can have the most hands-on experience possible. It is important to us that you get the most out of your experience with us here at Cedar Hills.
Once class is over, we would be happy to assist you with any questions and concerns that you have once you are at home.
Arrangements can be made if you would like to bring your own stallion to practice with.
Class Overview:
Day 1:
This is our mare day. We start out with hands on ultrasound demo where I will do a live demonstration on one of our mares showing you what to look for during AI. Once you are ready to move on, we will cover how to culture a mares uterus. This includes how to plate the culture. We will follow this up with completing the AI. Once I have finished the demonstration you will be able to have hands on practice. After lunch, we will continue with practicing ultrasound, palpation and I will answer any questions you may have. Our goal is to allow you as much practice time you may need to feel confident in your new found skills.
Day 2:
This is Stallion Day! The main event! We will start by having an overview of record management, input semen sample data, how to calculate dosages (sorry, yes, math is involved.) We will move on to practicing how to prepare, fill, and care for an artificial vagina, collection bottles, and filters. I will demonstrate the process of preparing the lab for semen processing, cooling and preparing a shipment.
Once the lab is prepared and AV ready to go, I will bring one of our boys in to demonstrate the collection process from beginning to end, which is having a sample of semen that has been processed, cooled and ready to ship to a client.
This generally leads up to a lunch break. Once lunch is finished you are given the opportunity to complete an entire collection and process the semen to the point of being ready for shipment. I will be there to guide you and help with any questions and concerns that you may have. I want my students for feel confident in the skills that they are learning, you can never ask too many questions or want to practice too many times. We have multiple stallions who would are use to the collection process, well mannered and happy to comply with practicing with them.
Day 3:
I offer a 3rd day to any who want to complete extra practice on any of the subjects we have gone over on the first two days. This may be an open forum of questions and answers, hands on practice of mare AI and ultrasound, or collection and processing of semen. This is YOUR day to decide what you may need practice with or have more questions on. I also like to go over alternative stallion collection methods such as the Crump method (on ground, in hand). I understand not everyone has the availability of a phantom to assist in mounted collection. We can go over any other information that is requested by the class.
Pricing:
Mare Day (Day 1)
Stallion Day (Day 2)
Practice Day (Day 3)
Other Services:
- Semen freezing classes available upon request.
- Equipure Filtration. Allows you to select the highest motility sperm available from you stallion.
- Private training classes available for one on one instruction, upon request.
- Semen collection instruction using the low cost low preparation and low cleanup "Crump" method also available.
- Instruction on the “Crump Method” for a low cost, low preparation alternative of semen collection.
- Ultrasound sales and training.