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but it has to be a Virginia record,” Dippert said. “In 2001, we had a 21year-old Thoroughbred mare who yielded four pregnancies from just two breeding cycles. But Tammy definitely outshined her.”
With the five recipient mares safely impregnated, they were tinned back out to pasture at ERC and constantly checked for growth and development.
Dippert said that most owners take their donor mares and the recipient mares home after they are rechecked in foal at 65 days. That date, Dippert said, coincides with the time he can usually confirm fetal sex.
“I’ve never been wrong” about the sex of a foal in utero, Dippert said. “There are a few cases where you just can’t tell. In that case, I just tell the owner we don’t know if it’s a colt or filly, but if you can see it on the ultrasound, you can easily tell which it is.”
So, in early fall last year, Tammy and her five-mare harem — all confirmed to be carrying fillies — were shipped a few hours north to Downer’s farm.
The year-long odyssey entered a new phase last week when, at the Walt Downer Quarter Horse Ranch in southern New Jersey, the first of Tammy’s five foals was bom. A second is due any minute. Another foal is due in June, with two — the result of a double ovulation by Tammy last July — due on the same day in July.
Tammy Te is living at Downer’s ranch, as is the sire of all five foals, Downer’s champion pleasure stallion Principle Investment.
“We’re doing a foal share deal,” explained Miller. “So I wanted him to have Tammy and all the girls right there. Plus, if we decide to breed her back in the spring, 111 probably go to Principle Investment again, so she’ll be in the right place.”
“I’m sure well have the whole group turned out together when they’re all bom,” Downer said, adding that he plans to turn Tammy out with the “girls” and the five foals once they are old enough to be socialized to other horses.
“We’ll get a family portrait,” Downer said, with the stallion, Tammy, the five “girls” and the five foals.
“I guess I’ll need a wide-angle lens,” he said with a chuckle.
Dr. Dippert can be reached at ERC at ( 540) 937-9832.
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