Suffolk Horse Society
We were delighted to have a visit in September of members of the Suffolk Horse Society. We have always had an interest in rare breeds at Twemlows Hall and last Christmas Richard Matson gave his wife a two year old Suffolk filly. She is now in foal to Whatton Albert but on the way to achieving that we learned that hardly any Suffolk semen is available for AI. The only frozen semen from our first choice of stallion was not successful and we had to turn the clock back and take the mare to Nottingham where Albert resides on a top class thoroughbred stud.
There have been some problems with breeding pure bred Suffolks possibly due to the closely connected bloodlines; some mares have difficulty in maintaining a pregnancy and one such mare came here for embryo transfer and the largest mare in our herd of recipients is now carrying a pure Suffolk foal. We keep our fingers crossed that all goes well. We believe it will be a “first” for the Suffolk breed.
The members of the Suffolk Society showed great interest, and many of them incredulity, at the attention to detail that we go to obtain a pregnancy in problem mares. Noelle Lowry MRCVS our resident vet at Twemlows Stud Farm, Tullis Matson and Ben Ryder-Davies MRCVS all gave talks on aspects of equine reproduction and the members went away with much food for thought.