Replying to @stxxceee ICSI Update

[00:00:00]The past 12 months has been my first like calendar year of doing ICSI with my mares, meaning we aspirate oocytes from the mares. They do ICSI, so they take like one sperm, they inseminate the oocyte, it hopefully turns into an embryo, and then we're able to either put it into a mare to then be grown and birthed, or it's able to be frozen and stored. And so that's something that I've been very new with this past year.

[00:00:28]And so a lot of you wanted to know, okay, what's in the bank? Like how how many oocyte or embryos do we have frozen? And then what just happened with the last round that we did? I'm using Trudy as my model here because she is one that I left open this year to do ICSI with more. So, we have five Trudy Good Better Best embryos in the bank frozen. Uh we most likely will be using one this year. I've contemplated making one available to purchase as well. So, if you're watching this and you want a world-class hunter under saddle horse, let me know.

[00:01:06]Um but Trudy and Good Better Best, they have produced two foals before this, and one of them is a multiple Congress champion, um and NSBA world champion, super successful show horse. So, that's why we did that. So, we have five of those. And then the like last round we just did this past week, she actually gave a ton of oocytes. She had 24, and a lot of them matured. 18 of them, I think, did.

[00:01:32]So, they ICSI'd 18 of them, and they split it down the middle. We did half of them to Allocate Your Assets, which is a stallion who is now deceased, and she has one 2-year-old filly with him, and she's phenomenal, so I wanted to make sure we did that again. And then the others were done with First Things First, which is my young stud. So, hopefully we get some Denver Trudy embryos, some Allocate Your Assets Trudy embryos from that. We won't know for a few more days. We have aspirated Sophie twice. Unfortunately, we have not gotten any successful embryos yet. So, we're taking a break from doing that and during breeding season attempting to just do regular conventional embryo transfers. And so, we are hopefully doing that this coming week. We also have five embryos from Beyonce in the frozen bank that are all to VS Code Red. Um so, the reason we we had two Beyonce VS Code Red babies this year, Ruby and then Gracie's baby that's about to foal. So, I'm taking a break from that for this year doing a Making Me Willie Wild breeding to her this year. But, it's nice to have those in the bank for like, you know, if we want to use them while she's being bred to someone else one year or if I want to sell them or, you know, God forbid something happens to her, we have them ready to breed even if she's no longer alive. Earline's going to ignore us, but we did just do our first round of ICSI with Earline. So, we bred her to VS Code Red. She, unfortunately, only had four mature oocytes that they could ICSI. So, hopefully, you know, I've heard that mares, you know, they could either have four and get none, they could have four and get two, whatever. So, we're really hoping we get a couple of VS Code Red Earline babies to have frozen because Noelle was just so fantastic. And then, Kennedy, we also aspirated this past week. We will be doing her again um due to the fact that I'm leaving her open this year to do that. She is such an asset to my breeding program. So, I want to make sure that I have, you know, plenty in the vault, the frozen vault, you know, in case of an emergency. So, this past time we did her, I believe, 10 oocytes all to Machine Made. So, hopefully, we get a couple of embryos that are full siblings to Kirby here.

[00:03:48]And then, I actually have plans of, you know, breeding her with Invitation Only.

[00:03:53]Um possibly it's a Southern thing, possibly back to RL Best of Sudden, and then I would actually love to see her bred to a couple of hunt seat studs, but I'm I don't think I'll always do that with Ixi. Like, I might just do regular embryo transfers for those. So, yeah, I only have 10 embryos in the vault.

[00:04:09]That's still a lot. Um from two mares.

[00:04:12]Hopefully, we have more soon, and if we do, I'll probably be using one of Kennedy's and probably be using like one from Trudy or two from Trudy. I got to figure out which ones I'm doing. Let me know which ones you would do um from Trudy, Goodbetterbest, Allocate Your Assets, and First Things First.

[00:04:31]So, lots of decisions to be made, but stay tuned for more updates since we will not know how many we get from this last round for a few more days.

[00:04:40]Why is Kirby a keeper this year? What made me decide to keep Kirby, who is a little feral, uh isn't really in love with me, when I do have Noel over here, who is a lover, is in love with me, and I mean, to be frank, neither one of them can be bred to either of my stallions.

[00:04:59]So, if that was like the discerning factor, obviously, I would go with the one I could breed with my stallions, but neither one of them can. So, why would I choose Kirby over Noel? And let me just say, I didn't know Kirby was going to be bay roan, okay? The bay roan, that is a nice touch, and I'm so happy about that, but that has nothing to do with it. So, I'm very excited for Noel. I think in the future, I definitely will keep an Earline VS Code Red or Earline Denver baby. I absolutely will. But I only have so many stalls. I only have so many keepers in a year that makes sense as a a business decision, and so it makes more sense in my brain to keep Kirby because I want to ensure she gets in the show pen and proves her mother more. So, why does it matter that Kennedy is proven more? Kennedy's a four-time NSBA world champion, she's a reserve world champion, she's a multiple Congress champion. Like, she herself as a show horse is very proven. But, she's also the mother of my young stallion, Denver. And he is, I think, the oldest of her progeny. So, he is the oldest, the first one getting into the show pen.

[00:06:08]So, she has multiple foals before I bought her, but they're not showing yet, they're not proven yet. So, I want to ensure more of her foals get into the pen and start proving her as a producing mare, because that's going to end up positively affecting both of my studs.

[00:06:28]See, she's a daughter of VS Code Red, my old stud, and the mother of Denver, my young stud. So, her baby's doing well not only proves my young stud, which at the very beginning of his career is crucial, it also just further proves my older stallion. And it doesn't hurt that she's built like a brick house, got a booty on her that's to die for, has a crazy flat front leg. I think she's perfectly put together, um, and I'm just really excited for the VS Code Red machine made cross. Her sire is phenomenal as well. And keeping her in the future, no, I can't breed her to my studs, but she will be open to breed to a lot of talented stallions in the industry. With Noel being her mama's first baby, I did sell her to a show home. So, I'm very excited to see her, you know, shine and show and all those things. But, her mom's young and I have time, you know, to breed her to my studs again, have more foals that are hopefully as amazing as Noel. Um, I just feel like the timeline, it's a little bit more crunched on getting Kennedy's babies into the show pen, if that makes sense. And I love that Noel still has her little floof. Thank you for being such an angel.

[00:07:42]Hope that made sense. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[00:07:45]It's time for baby Huckleberry to go outside to the pasture for the first time. I was literally leading the other two like oldest earlier and so being next to him, it's so neat.

[00:07:56]>> Did you pet him real quick? Do you want to pet him?

[00:07:59]Isn't he so sweet?

[00:08:02]>> Annie does not know what to think about all the yearlings wanting to look at her baby.

[00:08:07]He's also not staying right where she wants him.

[00:08:10]>> [laughter] >> Sophie, do you like that baby?

[00:08:15]Oh, there's literally a squirrel just watching.

[00:08:19]Ooh, Annie.

[00:08:21]She wants him right in front of her at all times.

[00:08:25]She'll just She'll get used to it here soon that there's no way those mamas can get to her baby.

[00:08:34]They want to see this baby so bad. They are all so intrigued. Mama being a little crazy. She has you sitting here at the gate. That's no fun. I love your stinking little face so much. Oh, you know, all that first run around was a lot. We got to get a little snack. Okay, we look alert but not as freaked out as before. I think we realized that our baby is not in danger. He can have his little snack. Everybody else is behind a fence on both sides even though they are being very nosy. Water, why are you looking so majestic right now with your mane blowing in the wind? Your girlfriend biting you?

[00:09:12]What the heck? Lots of the first days are spent licking and sniffing and just kind of exploring.

[00:09:20]He doesn't know what real life is yet.

[00:09:22]What What are y'all feeding Salem right now? Is that a marshmallow?

[00:09:26]>> It's mini marshmallows.

[00:09:27]>> Oh my gosh. Um, can [clears throat] y'all stop cribbing and chewing on stuff?

[00:09:32]I don't think they're cribbing really. I think they're just chewing. Stop being babies and ruining things.

[00:09:37]He just took off from you, mama. She keeps stopping him, though. Let him go.

[00:09:42]Go have a little romp around. There we go.

[00:09:46]And then miss Oh, Indy and Sophie are both being nosy. They want to see the baby.

[00:09:53]Look at him in that little trot. Oh, I heard that contact.

[00:10:01]I already know what your nickname's going to be, but it's not appropriate for social media.

[00:10:05]Are you looking at your friends across across the fence?

[00:10:09]Look how little he is compared to Walter.

[00:10:12]You're not even a year apart. Wally's not even 12 months old yet. And that's that's how much he's grown in a year.

[00:10:19]Which to be frank, I don't think Walter was ever this small. You know, you don't have to eat that little tiny patch of grass. You could You could go down here.

[00:10:28]There's a lot more options. Oh, he said, "You know what? I'm tired of this, too. I'mma just take mama all the way down here." How about that?

[00:10:37]Look how pretty you are down there. He wanted to go see the trees.

[00:10:41]There's good grass down there. Um y'all better trust Salem has been here the entire time.

[00:10:48]Would not be a video without Salem. And back up to the front we go. I think we're kind of going off of where Huck wants to go, personally. I don't think Annie has a whole lot of pull here. Also, I'm really loving Matt's do at the moment. You want to give us a little front view of it? I like it. It looks like Noelle and her little floof.

[00:11:07]Look at that little lope.

[00:11:10]Oh my goodness.

[00:11:12]All right, well Annie has decided that her and Huck are just going to stay at the gate. Not going to be fun. Not going to go run around. So, we are going to put them out in the morning and film um all the foals tomorrow. Not together, but all of them for the YT channel. So, we'll be doing a lot more of them tomorrow. It's so beautiful. And we're also going to be giving the mini cows baths. So, stay tuned for all of that.

[00:11:33]Let's load up the cattle trailer with some mamas and babies. Earline and Noel, uh Kennedy and Kirby, because I forgot about Ixi today and I'm panicking.

[00:11:41]Luckily, we got Trudy there really quickly. They have started aspirating her, and that gave me a little bit time to come down and get the mamas and babies. So, let's let's take them on their first road trip. I also forgot to get semen for Trudy sent to Equa Embryo, so she's getting bred to Denver. That was already going to be in the plans later. It's just happened a little faster.

[00:12:00]I don't know. Let's go ahead and take a guess. Who's going to be easier to load?

[00:12:04]I think I think Noel will be a little slow.

[00:12:11]We're coming.

[00:12:12]Maybe doesn't.

[00:12:21]Oh!

[00:12:25]That was just practice for the trailer.

[00:12:30]Easy, Kirby.

[00:12:32]Good girl.

[00:12:34]Your mommy's up here.

[00:12:37]Well, that wasn't as glamorous.

[00:12:53]No.

[00:13:00]I'm not looking.

[00:13:03]Just calm down.

[00:13:07]Look how big she is. She's gigantic.

[00:13:12]Okay, so Trudy's sleepy. She's at first.

[00:13:14]She's being aspirated. So, basically what that means they go in, so all the little oocytes, which are these little like sacs that have the egg in the middle, they go in and they basically get the egg from in in the o- or in it's a called an oocyte. They get it out of the follicle. Then they go see how many of them were like good looking under the microscope and then they send it off to Equiembryo.

[00:13:39]And that's where they do all of the insemination and they let them like mature and see which ones turn into actual embryos.

[00:13:46]Yeah, leaving them there at the clinic because we we'd already planned things for the day. We're like filming YouTube, we're doing a photo shoot for the merch store.

[00:13:55]And so I just completely spaced on it being the ICSI day and that's just I think that's that's a wrap up of of my week. Um anyway, let me know if you have any questions. We're going to go pick them up this evening, bring them back.

[00:14:09]Hopefully, after all said done, we will have embryos of Earline and VS Code Red, Kennedy and Machine Made for little Kirby full siblings, and Trudy and Denver. So.

[00:14:22]What do we feed our horses here at Running Springs and why?

[00:14:27]Oh, [clears throat] she said she needs me fed more. That's what she said. So all of our horses go out every single day. So there's a mixture of grass, two different types of grass hay, alfalfa, and Tribute grain. Now we have multiple different types of Tribute grain that we go between. So the Resolve is what we feed the majority of our horses.

[00:14:47]The Synergize is a little bit higher fat content and so we feed that to our horses that either don't keep on weight as well or that we're trying to keep weight on during nursing. And the Essential K, that's what I feed my minis. It's kind of something we add to the mares who are nursing. It's what we feed our yearlings. It's what we feed our young horses who need all the minerals, nutrients, protein without a lot of added sugar or calories. And what's awesome is how we figured out what each of our horses needed. Tribute has this great process of you being able to send pictures of your horse, what their daily life is like, and then they will give you a feed plan for your horse for free. [music] They also have this amazing constant comfort line, which comes in different forms. This is a pellet. They have a like a mineral block. They have a paste.

[00:15:35]It's a gut health supplement. And we're actually doing a constant comfort giveaway right now. So, I put it and pinned it on my Facebook page, but I'll also put the link for you to sign up in my link tree. That giveaway ends today at midnight. [music] So, you have the rest of today to enter for a full year of constant comfort care uh sent to you and your horse. So, be sure to enter that. And for those that are going to ask about the hay, so almost all of our horses are on a little bit of alfalfa, whether it be uh again, some of the horses that need a little extra weight, whether it be our mamas who are lactating, whether it be our foals who are growing. Um they get a little bit of alfalfa. They also get either our grass hay that is a fescue grass hay that we bale ourselves here. Or if they are mamas who are getting ready to foal for the last few months of their pregnancy, they eat Timothy Orchard hay um because of the fescue, it can cause uh the endophyte in the fescue can cause a lot of issues with pregnant mares, so they don't eat that for the last bit of their pregnancy. So, that's what we feed our horses. Let me know if you have any questions. And if you've got one that you think would benefit from the constant comfort little series of products, go ahead and enter that giveaway. The link is in my link tree.