KD Performance Horses

02/16/2025

You know what I’ve never seen?

I’ve never seen someone who’s been to the NFR comment on someone’s Instagram post “critique”

I’ve never seen world class trainers comment “hate”

I’ve never seen someone I look up to in the horse world tear someone down online.

Remember that next time you get a hate comment. These are never written by well respected professionals, a professional wouldn’t be giving you “advice” unless you paid them for it.

📸

02/16/2025

The more repro we do, the more interesting things get. One super common misconception is with the sizes of the breeding dose.

Did you know that all these syringes could contain the exact same amount of s***m cells?

If you get a syringe filled with 60cc… it doesn’t mean you’re getting more semen, and if you get one filled with 10cc it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting less.

For a regular breeding dose, industry standard is to ship a billion cells. Now, when we collect stallions, we will test the collection to see how many s***m cells it contains. We test first on the blue box, and then the nucleocounter and at our farm, the nucleocounter seems to be a little higher than the blue box.

Some stallions are incredibly high… 500-900 MILLION per cc. Some stallions are low, as low as 50-100 million per cc. Most of the time, if that low (from what I’ve seen) a farm with centrifuge it (spin it down to a more concentrated dose) if it’s below 100 million.

Some stallions will give 2-5 billion cells per collection and some will give 15-20 BILLION per collection.

So let’s do some math, we will say a collection is getting extended 4 to 1. 4 cc of extender for every 1 cc of semen.

100 mill per cc means I need 10cc of semen to have a billion cells. Which means I need 40cc of extender to add to the dose. Totaling a 50cc breeding dose.

450 mill per cc means I need 2.5 cc semen (a little over but for the maths sake) and 6cc of extender. (Don’t come at me guys I know the farm will add a little more extender to these concentrated doses, this is just to show an example) this would total an 8.5cc dose.

In this example, two of the EXACT SAME concentrations would be 50cc and 8.5cc doses.

These numbers will prob be a little higher volumes when you factor in progressive motility, etc. a lesson for another day.

In real life… people are literally more happy to receive more EXTENDER.

We typically deep horn all of our own mares with low doses to help minimize fluid response from the mare.

Now, there is WAY MORE into the breeding than this, but all stallions are not created equal and I wanted to give a visual representation of what different doses of the same amount of semen can look like.

PS: These syringes are just extender for visual representation only. No semen were harmed by a rubber stopper in the making of this photo. 😅🐟

02/12/2025

2025 breeding season has began here at KD PERFORMANCE HORSES!!

We are standing some amazing Gypsy Stallions throughout the year!!

💥 FLF BISCUITS N GRAVY
💥DELL'S KING OF WINTERFELL
💥 Hermit's Arabian Chief
💥 HSF TATU
💥 STARDUST'S MIDNIGHT BLUE --- live cover only

For the cooled breeding dose or doses you recieve-----one breeding dose is 750 to 1000 million live motile s***m at the time of collection- you need 250 million live motile s***m at the time of ovulation.

We have frozen semen available for many outstanding boys through KD PERFORMANCE HORSES OR our AMAZING CLIENTS

💥SD Taking Care of Business ( Peace of Serenity Ranch ) (homozygous black with grey)
💥 King of the South (black lp)
💥SSFR Light My Fire ( Rumonek Acres ) chestnut with agouti
💥SD Tarzan ( Robyn McCartney ) Black Sabino
💥 Gitt A Hunka Burn N Love (sooty buckskin)
💥 KDPH Rhinestone Cowboy (buttermilk buckskin)
💥 FLF IRISH IMMANUEL ( Footloose Farm ) Ee Zz (silver)

**ALL STALLIONS ARE PSSM AND FIS NEGATIVE**

Message today to book your breeding!! I will get you in touch with their owners if KD Performance Horses is not handling their bookings.

Things to help you prepare and be successful breeding your mare!!

1. Well balanced diet
2. Current on vaccinations for the year prior to breeding
3. Track a cycle and know when they ovulate/know their cycle history
4. Culture them
5. Good communication with your vet and us to track your mare and order semen at the best point in her cycle!
6. Know when your mare is at peak cycle with peak edema and talk with your vet about giving deslorelan at that time, but only when you recieve the semen shipping information. So peak cycle & edema should always coincide with ordering semen for your mare. Most gypsy mares will be between 40 and 50mm follicle with grade 3 edema for this.
7. Set up an account with Anoka Equine PRIOR to requesting a collection so we have the shipping address on file, and billing squared away!

We have already begun shipping and freezing on the boys standing here!

Prior to shipping on all our boys, we do a test collection and determine how their semen should be processed and shipped so you know you will be getting quality doses!! Anoka Equine Veterinary Services is our veterinarian clinic that does our collections & shipping! We are so lucky to have them!!!

We are only accepting outside mare live cover, on a base to base scenario-- if you are interested in that please message Katie Hembree . Between show season, foaling, and collections our schedule is full to the brim!

Thanks for understanding!!

Cheers to an amazing season!!

All images by Samantha Dawn - Equine Photography 💜

02/11/2025

• echoes of winter’s silence

Maybe we’re all just searching for that feeling…a moment where time slows, where we remember what it means to breathe, to exist beyond the noise. Horses do this simply and effortlessly, standing in stillness, unapologetically present. Perhaps that’s one of the many lessons we can learn from them: to be where we are, fully, fiercely, without hesitation. Let the world blur and spin if it must, but stay rooted in your own quiet power. ❄️

A new boy on the block to photograph… it’s been fun to get to know him and his personality. A strong yet quiet type of boy. 🖤 Gypsy stallion; Hermits Arabian Chief. 🖤🤍
Jessica Skaj
Katie Hembree // KD Performance Horses
© Samantha Dawn. All photos are protected by federal copyright. Written permission is required for use or artistic reference.

02/10/2025

♥️♥️

02/06/2025

02/04/2025

Are you foal-ready?

Join AAEP member veterinarians Drs. Chelsea Folmar & Taylor Huffman on Feb. 12 for a webinar discussion that will help you prepare for the foaling season. Learn how to create a foaling kit, the timeline of parturition (foaling), and how to recognize when veterinary intervention is needed.

Registration is FREE but required. A recording of the webinar will be available if you miss the live event.

Register here: https://events.zoom.us/ev/Ats8dN0E2JxrJYoBUPKU7BW_HtYcwxW988ZYvpWRruqNFu98_uws~AnoL_ZTlIx2iZDbk457AKzpEPWgwMyM1m36OoJWUUyiXJPOgKi4PHJJYdQ

This informative session is brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

01/30/2025

Amennn

01/29/2025