I heard Queen Elizabeth mates her mares (horses) with horses?

Question

that live in Kentucky? Does the actual horse have to be present

or do they just implant them with the s***n (sorry to be so blunt?)

Answer 1

According to the Daily Racing Form, "The queen has 23 broodmares, and none of them are in the States. But she has bred mares to American stallions as recently as last year, when she sent her Riverman mare Arutua, a daughter of the 1983 Horse of the Year, All Along, to Kentucky to be bred to Storm Cat. Other sires the queen has used in recent years include El Prado and Elusive Quality, who both performed well on turf.

""It would be fair to say that, like most breeders, she favors successful bloodlines," said John Warren, the queen's bloodstock adviser. "Nicks and crosses are very important, and when the matings are being designed, one is mindful of what isn't working and what is working. The object wouldn't be to go for fashion. The queen prefers proven stallions and wouldn't just be interested in using a stallion just for the sake of fashion. Having said that, if something is fashionably successful, that is always of interest."

"Warren said that the queen will occasionally purchase mares at auction to add to the royal broodmare band and has done so recently with three or four outside mares that "have helped to diversify the original royal bloodlines.""

Over the years, the Queen has had breedings to some of the most sought-after stallions in Kentucky given to her as presents by various farms.  This isn't entirely selfless;  for one thing, it's great publicity;  for another, it's good for the stallions:  the Queen's broodmare band is very strong, and the chances of the stallion siring a stakes horse, which would help him to get more and better mares, are good.

Thoroughbreds (that's the breed name for racehorses) cannot be begotten by artificial insemination.  The stallion must make a "live cover" of the mare, which can immediately be "reinforced" by an artificial insemination collected from the stallion's dismount spillage.  The Jockey Club, the governing body of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, is a notoriously conservative organization and has steadfastly refused to accept artificial insemination in any way, shape or form as acceptable.  They argue that use of artificial insemination would cause a reduction in the number of stallions at stud, to the detriment of the breed.  There is some logic behind this, because a stallion that can only cover 200 mares during a regular breeding season would inseminate well over 1,000 with a well-run artificial insemination program.  Because the number of mares bred can go up, the price of a breeding can go down:  e.g., Storm Cat, who is bred to over 150 mares per year at $500,000 live foal, could be bred to over 1,000 at a fee of $50,000-- and there would be no lack of takers.

There are whispers that artificial insemination has occasionally been used on some farms, such as when a mare that is sent to be bred is behaving in such a way as to endanger the stallion, or for some reason a mare can't be brought to the premises where the stallion stands, but nobody is going to own up to actually doing this.

Answer 2

She only breeds with live cover.

Answer 3

The Queen breeds thoroughbred race horses, which can only be bred by live cover if they are to be registered by the Jockey Club and be able to race.  Her horses that are bred here would be flown over and boarded most likely at Lane's End until they are confirmed in foal at least 60 days then flown back over to England where they will foal out.  Like Karin said there are rumors that AI does happen, more often than not it will happen when a stallion has too many mares to breed in a day or so and they will somehow get them all covered.  I run a breeding farm and have never done A.I., nor do I know how to, it's success rate is much worse than live cover too so it makes no sense to do so unless you are retarded at covering a mare.  But I will say that no matter how bad the mare is, a cocktail of tranq and hobbles will get even the worst mare covered so that is a bad excuse.  You will find most cases of A.I. in thoroughbreds at backwoods farms in the sticks, any big time farm has seen and dealt with all kinds of mares and (at least with me) loves the challenge of a tough mare, even though it is nice to breed a simple old mare.