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EQUESTRIAN - Sponsored by Brickfields and Froghill Tack
Corlato’s test-tube
foal
To breed from Corlato, Tim Stockdale has chosen to use a
surrogate mare. It’s expensive, but worth it, he tells Island
Life
It’s been a while since we last talked to show
jumper Tim Stockdale and the latest news is
that his Olympic ride, Fresh Direct Corlato is,
hopefully, in foal.
Corlato though will not be giving birth
herself. Her embryo has been transferred
into a surrogate mare from Twemloes Stud
in Cheshire and a 21 day scan should show
that the transfer has been successful and
that the heart beat of the foal is present.
Tim and Corlato’s owners decided on a
French stallion. “We chose Diamante de
Semilly because Corlato is a pure Holstein
breed and we have to be very careful to
avoid too much interbreeding,” explained
Tim.
The Holstein Warmblood is a horse similar
to the Hanoverian Warmblood, only a bit
heavier and whose breeding can be traced
back to the medieval war horses of the 14th
80
century and, by crossing in Spanish and
Arabian blood, the breed became lighter.
Diamante de Semilly on the other hand is a
Selle Français breed, one of France’s most
important sport horse breeds, and for those
of you whose French is not what it was,
it translates to ‘French Saddle Horse’ and
well away from Corlato’s classic Holstein
breeding.
“Although it was a time consuming and
very intrusive process, it will mean less
time away from top class showjumping for
Corlato who, had she reared the foal herself,
would have been off the road for about
14 months,” explains Tim. Nevertheless,
Corlato had to be rested from mid March
and then artificially inseminated. After seven
or eight days, the embryo was transferred
into the surrogate mare.
It wasn’t a straight-forward process,” says
Tim. “Corlato has never been in a breeding
programme before, and she didn’t naturally
come into season, so she had to have
hormone injections which she reacted to
quite strongly. We were very lucky to have
an embryo at all,” Tim adds.
The costs for breeding a foal in this way
are very high. According to Tim, there is no
change out of £10,000 after vets fees and
costs for the surrogate mare. “You would
only go down this route if you had a very
valuable mare with specific breed lines,” he
explained. And, after all that, there is only
a one in 10 chance of the whole procedure
being successful.
Now that all this is behind her, Corlato is
busy getting fit and Tim is aiming her for a
show in France and he still has his sights set
on selection for the European championships
held at Windsor later in the year.
While Corlato has taken time out, Tim
has been concentrating on his other
horses and, in particular, the eight-year
old Fresh Direct Kalico Bay is going from
strength to strength. After winning a
big class at Royal Windsor Horse Show
earlier in May, Tim said, “I’ll be taking him
to some international shows now. I’m
absolutely chuffed to bits with the way he
went.”
True to his word, Tim took the horse
to France and won a big class there too.
“He has gone from jumping foxhunter
classes in a year to winning international
classes,” says Tim “He has a brilliant
brain. He’s fabulous.”
More from Tim next month when we
check up on Corlato and Kalico Bay’s
progress.
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