Frozen semen from Mokhtar soon available for shipping
It’s all in the title. Mokhtar is the black desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion bred by the Shammar, and has been a recent fixture on this blog.. His owner Chantal Chekroun says that professionally frozen semen will be available for him this coming September, to respond to international demand.
The horse is turning 24 next year, so the clock is ticking.. Soon, with Bedouins becoming sedentary and more integrated in the global economy, the notion of a desert-bred horse born under a tent will itself come to and end. Below is a photo of one of Mokhtar’s sons in France, the stallion Quarzai, who recently earned third place at a 90 miles endurance race.
A couple of questions.. How much is his fee? And can you keep frozen semen for a few years and still have it be viable.. And how about the registration protocols. Not to sound morbid, but does he still have to be around for foals to be registered?
The other question I have is if I have understood it correctly, This particular line of Krush traces to the Krush of Feisal aL Daweish of the Mutayer(sp)if I understand it correctly. Were those the horses that were used in the Bedouin Ikwhan revolt against the Saudis and then subsequently confiscated by the Saudis to prevent anymore uprisings, and which then ended up going to other Tribes?
best wishes
Bruce Peek
Bruce, on your couple questions, I will relay them to Chantal and get back to you.. no details yet.
On the Krush line Mokthar traces to, the answer is both yes and no. It is accurate to say that Mokhtar’s antecedents and those of the mare of Faisal Al-Dawish traced to the same mare. This mare was the ‘white Krush’ of the Mutayr who lived in the late nineteenth century.
I have asked Mokhtar’s owners for hair samples, so we can compare his mtDNA with those of well established Mutayr Krush lines, such as Lady Wentworth’s Dafina, and maybe, King Faruk’s El Kahila (the line of Safinaz and Shahm in SE breeding). Will keep you posted.
Frozen semen can be kept for years and still be viable, IF it went in viable. Some stallions cannot freeze successfully, even if the thawed semen looks good under a microscope, the final proof needed is a pregnancy.
I am not familiar with AHA’s procedures with frozen semen from overseas, but with an AHA-registered stallion, the owner first has to buy a permit to transport semen (this is for both cooled fresh and frozen) and have the horse DNA tested if it wasn’t already. Any foals born of transported semen require a $35 certificate from the registry in order to be registered, but the stallion need not be alive.
(I have frozen semen from Palisades CF, and ADA Skylarking is my proof that it works. 🙂
It would be a fine idea to have a bank of frozen semen of asil stallions for use in the future. There are only some problems with it:
Old stallions may not give good enough semen to freze.
Some stallions do not even have semen quality for freezing in young age (a big problem with some egyptian lines already, even if they breed successfully naturally)
Very expensive testing has to be done in order to get the allowence to ship semen to another country or even inside a country (in Europe at least)
Getting mares in foal with frozen semen sometimes is not easy, depending on the mare (insemination must be within 6 hours before or after ovulation).
Still I think it would be a great idea to establish such semen reservoirs and have it for the future.
We have it done for our proven and now old stallions.
I am not agree with the last statements regarding shipping worldwide. While you have done all the procedure for freezing, these are just some more blood tests to run and the stallion has to stay in “quarantine”, but it is not the main cost in freezing, so it is really worthy to do it for worldwide shipping.
Your are right, Clothilde, these cost are not so much but still are about 300 to 400 euro.
In order to complete Clothilde and Matthias replies, I would like to tell that it is very important before making tests, to know first in which countries and how many containers we need to send. For example: for Mokhtar as well as Hussam, if battery of tests are expected to be made whithin a couple of weeks in september 2010, that means we have to know roughly how many to USA, how many to Europe countries and how many to France. Then the stock of frozen semen will be definately done for each possibility within five years and could be dispatched at any moment. In fact the cost for one container is approx 400 euros plus speditions custom and sanitary (sdv agreements) charges and plus of course the price of the stallion frozen semen…So please if you know before september that you will be interested for years coming, please advise Chantal for Mokhtar or me for Hussam.
I take the opportunity to tell that on Mokhtar’s daughters, to put Hussam on its, will be a very good choice.