“It’s a specialty niche …” said Janice VerMerris, who, with her sister, Amy Kroll, owns FC Stallions in Dorr.
A key component to their success — Mintse384, one of the fine st Friesian stallions in the world, at his prime during a time when the breed’s popularity in this country is climbing.
Friesians originated in the Netherlands, bred to carry knights in armor during the Crusades, VerMerris said. The “luxury model of the horse world,” VerMerris said, Friesians are “a very romantic looking horse, kind of a fairy tale horse.”
Mintse 384 is a near perfect specimen, passing along to his offspring his coal black coloring, flowing mane and tail, even a flashy trot characteristic of the breed. So far, there’s no shortage of mare owners eager to have their horses bear Mintse’s foals
The fairy tale does not extend to the other part of the sisters’ business niche — cold, hard science. They manage the collection, division, and shipping of semen from Mintse and other stallions, as well as artificially inseminating mares brought to the farm.
It’s demanding work that requires long hours, physical strength, mathematical formulas, exacting laboratory analysis — and FedEx.
Started with single mare
Their father, Robert DeBoer, a Dutch immigrant, imported his first Friesian mare from the Netherlands 27 years ago after a trip to his homeland reminded him of the breed he had known as a child, Kroll said. It was the second Friesian in the state of Michigan. DeBoer added more mares, then stallions, and the operation grew to today’s Friesian Connection.
The sisters worked closely with their veterinarian, Jim Connell. They took courses in equine reproduction, and eventually assumed responsibility for the growing stable’s reproductive work. For the past 10 years, the sisters have managed not only their own family’s horses but also contract to manage breeding of other people’s stallions and mares as well.
All in the timing
In the wild, a stallion covers a small herd of mares when Mother Nature suggests the timing is right. In today’s horse breeding business, though, the only time Mintse and the other stallions interact with the few mares on the farm is from afar, during the daily, teasing, promenade past one another — the mare’s response to the stallion’s presence is used to gauge her approaching ovulation.
Breeding stallions are led every weeknight to mount the oversized pommel horse used in semen collection, and afterwards each sample is studied under the microscope and by computer to allow proper division into 10 to 20 portions, each containing the optimum number of sperm to accomplish fertilization, with shipping times factored into the equation.
Semen from top stallions is shipped all across the country and Canada to service the demands of hundreds of mares.
“Breeding is hard work, it’s physically hard on stallions,” VerMerris said. “It’s quite a drain on them.”
To maximize production of sperm and protect its motil-ity, VerMerris said, stallions are carefully guarded against overheating. They are exercised lightly, cooled by fans and sometimes bathed in cool water, all practices designed to protect their sperm.
Precision important
Semen is good for 48 hours, but the mare’s follicle — egg— must be fertilized within 24 hours of its release.
The mares on the farm — Friesians owned by the family or others brought in for breeding — are checked daily, with ultrasound exams as they approach ovulation so that their insemination can be precisely scheduled. Outside mares are checked by their own veterinarians and the semen order scheduled to arrive just as the egg is ready for fertilization.
“We have two of the most popular stallions in all of North America, Mintse and Sipke (owned by an Ithaca breeder), and there’s a huge demand on their semen,” VerMerris said. “I want to give everyone what they need, so I don’t want to waste a drop of it” by having to repeat an ill-timed breeding.
Science isn’t enough
Having great stallions — even mastering the science of reproduction and the challenges of overnight shipping— aren’t enough for a breeding operation to flourish, though.
“A successful breeding program isn’t just an incredible horse,” Connell said. “It’s promoting, showing … Keeping a stallion out there and showing what he can do — people want a piece of that.”
Plenty of people got a good look at Mintse’s qualities during the opening ceremonies of this year’s World Equestrian Games, where he was one of 10 stallions to perform in the elite Friesian Train, a dressage exercise designed around intricate maneuvers once used in battle.
“We had to keep Mintse breeding, but we wanted him prepped for this huge event, too, so four days a week we would trailer him to Kalamazoo” where he would be schooled by world-class dressage rider Brad Cutshall of Landmark Farms.
“He was a busy boy this summer,” VerMerris said.
They can rest up this winter, looking forward to another busy summer next year, Connell predicted.
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