Good rebuttal to Last Chance Corral's "shame of the TB industry" nursemare foals.

AI doesn't choose to breed a horse... a person does, and the statistics from breeds that use AI show decreased breeding's over the period of time that AI has been used.....Arabian horse have had a steady decline since AI in the 1970s' breeding's were over 20,000 a year 2000 had 9660 registrations and 2016 had 1806 registrations. AQHA has also had a decline....

I'm sure that it is in the financial interest of Kentucky to not allow AI and thus AI is not allowed in TB's it would cause a decentralization of breeding.

 

AI is a tool and the registries that permit it aren't showing an increase in registered offspring. In the end, horse ownership is in free-fall and that has more to do with those trucks with free horses than AI.

 

Standardbreds went to AI years ago and ET while legal, never took off as trainers believe the ET foal is inferior and they do not sell well, so the market dictated the popularity of ET. I have mixed emotions on AI as AI has allowed the Standardbred to improve dramatically, world records drop every year, the breed has refined a lot, the coarseness is all but gone and many STBs look like Warmbloods or TBs, and even factoring in race bike improvements, horses are getting faster and their gaits are more "set", no where near the amount of tinkering to get a horse set. AI allowed Valley Victory to put a huge stamp on the breed (he had notorious breeding and fertility issues), and even with AI and ET, breedings are way down, from 24K back in the early 90's to barley 7K now. State breeding programs have concentrated the good sires to a handful of North East states (PA, NJ and NY) where robust breeders programs keep racing going.

AI can be misused but we are not really seeing that, plus factoring in the economy, and I'm not sure any breed is putting up great numbers.

 

To add on the AI with horses

It's not like cows where it costs minimum to have the guy come and breed the herd - last I heard it was around $50 a heifer to breed them AI. I'm not sure how many people know this across the species and different animals - I know horses aren't cows and cows aren't horses. But (and really) AR folk could easily try to say that AI in dairy production is as simple/cheap as it is - it could be one day just as simple/cheap in horses.

That last bit is /somewhat/ true though... Unlike cows horses have a smooth cervix (if anyone didn't already know), I went through Gen X's repro course for AI in cows to be certified in high school. I wanted to pursue it further into equine breeding. But cows are so simple, so "cheap" to breed... (please note I do use cheap loosely in relation to the cost of horse breeding)

Horses it goes into the thousands of dollars at times. I highly doubt people want to breed Jane mare to jack stud for the sake of a baby with that kind of money at stake with AI involved.

Although I know we are talking TB and STBs IMO live cover is often more misused across BYB as it's easy - AI isn't, neither is ET. The AI or ET foal is less likely to be thrown to the side and wind up at an auction.