Process for accessing semen

A selection of established and young stallions is available in New Zealand, with semen is stored at Matamata Vets. There is a live foal guarantee which is outlined in the breeding contract, and our vets have confirmed over many years that the semen quality is consistently excellent. The service fee varies depending on the status and performance record of the stallion and his breeding index, which generally reflects his age. Younger stallions are lower-priced.

To view the 2022 stallion brochure, click here (please note not all stallions are available in New Zealand).

Once you have decided which stallion you want to use, the process for accessing semen is as follows.

1. Fill in the breeding contract form linked below, and email to Jeanette at info@team-nijhof.com. If you wish to breed from more than one mare or stallion, fill in the contract for each of your mares.

2. Jeanette will reply via email with the details of how to transfer the fee – which includes the cost of the semen plus a 100 euro fee to cover importing and storage costs.

3. Once she has received payment, Jeanette will request that the semen be released, and it can be accessed by contacting Georgia Young at Matamata Vets, at georgia@matavet.co.nz or by phoning her at 07 888 8193.

4. Your order will then be couriered from Matamata Vets to your own vet or breeding centre for storage until your mare is ready to inseminate. Matamata Vets has full facilities for breeding your mare, if you prefer to send the mare to them. If not, MVS will charge you for the transport and handling for each shipment. Any unused semen needs to be returned to MVS at your cost, or purchased from Team Nijhof.

5. The transportation, borrowing of a container and handling is expensive, so if you are confident of your mare getting in foal you may only want to get one dose. If you are not sure about how fertile your mare is, you can order up to three doses.

6. If the mare does not get in foal after three attempts, you need to negotiate directly with Jeanette, who may offer another stallion, or a return service the following season. Obviously, because of the cost of each insemination (including vet fees), mare owners need to be pretty confident that their mare is young enough and/or fertile enough to get in foal with frozen semen.

KWPN stallion classification

The Royal Dutch Sport Horse association is known as the KWPN. The following information was retrieved from the KWPN website at www.kwpn.org

The organisation’s general breeding goal aims at:

• breeding a competition horse that can perform at Grand Prix level
• with a constitution that enables long usefulness
• with a character that supports the will to perform as well as being friendly towards people
• with functional conformation and a correct movement mechanism that enables good performance
• with correct conformation that is preferably attractive, along with refinement, nobility and quality.

KWPN-approved stallions are awarded predicates for outstanding traits they pass on to their offspring. Approved stallions are eligible for the keur and preferent predicates.

Keur

An approved stallion can become keur when his first crop of offspring is at least seven years old. The keur predicate is awarded when a stallion demonstrates excellence relative to other stallions with respect to sport and conformation traits of his offspring. In practice, this means that a stallion must have a sport index greater than 140 and a high reliability percentage. A stallion’s ability to pass on good conformation also plays an important role in granting the keur predicate. Even if an approved stallion meets all the requirements of the sport index, he may not receive the keur predicate if he does not pass on good conformation to his offspring.

Preferent

The preferent predicate is the highest honor a stallion can receive with respect to quality. To qualify for preferent, a stallion must first be awarded keur. The preferent predicate is granted when a stallion demonstrates excellence relative to other stallions with respect to movement or jumping abilities and conformation traits of his offspring. Offspring must have a jumping index greater than 140 with reliability of at least 85%. Both female and male offspring must inherit their sire’s outstanding qualities so that these may be passed on to future generations, especially through approved sons and grandsons. A stallion’s ability to pass on good conformation also plays an important role in awarding the preferent predicate. Even if an approved stallion meets all the requirements of the sport index, he may not receive the preferent predicate if he does not pass on good conformation to his offspring. Finally, the preferent predicate may be awarded posthumously.