In January we will celebrate 4 years at our new facility in Chesapeake City, Maryland - how time flies! If you have not been here to visit us, you must come for the tour – we’d welcome you at any time! Right now we are preparing for our Select Breeders Services Annual Meeting which we will host Nov 6-7th. We look forward to catching up with our affiliate members from around the world and sharing our educational program. Before the Annual Meeting we have a training session for new affiliate members Nov 3rd-5th, so it will be a busy week! We have 5 new affiliate labs joining the SBS International Network this year, stay tuned for an announcement of our new partnerships in the December issue of the SBS Newsletter.
At this time of year we are busy freezing semen both at the main office and Jonathan Clark is on the road with the mobile lab. Currently he is visiting several farms in New Jersey and in November will switch to freezing at Hanover Shoe Farm in Pennsylvania.
A trip to Maine is scheduled for the New Year as usual. Please contact us if you have interest in the mobile lab visiting your farm or clinic.
We also take time to reflect upon the recent breeding season and begin preparations to start all over again. In addition to onsite collections for cooled semen shipments at Iron Spring Farm in PA, Hilltop Farm in MD, and Hidden Lakes Farm in NJ, we serviced Hassler Dressage and our local trailer-in clients at our office in Chesapeake City. This year we also stood several stallions for cooled semen including Laroche, Great King Pine and Iron Enterprise. It was a particularly great season for Iron Enterprise who joined us for advanced semen processing that enabled him to service his out of state mares successfully. Please contact us for more information on standing your stallion at SBS-MD in 2015.
In November 2013 we said goodbye to our distribution manager, Rosella Saville, who left to work full-time with her husband in their Thoroughbred training business at Fair Hill, MD. In her place we hired Katie Wilhelm who joined us from Cazenovia College, although we first were introduced when she was an intern at Hassler Dressage. Our affiliate manager, Julie Skaife, traveled to Australia in February to meet with our affiliate members from Tamworth Equine and Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital for continuing education purposes. Julie also welcomed her first child, Amelia Jae Skaife (photo above right) on June 17th, and is experiencing the trials and tribulations of being a working mom, but also appreciating the joy of watching her daughter grow, with changes every day at this age. Paul Loomis also had quite a bit of travel this year with a trip to New Zealand for the International Symposium on Equine Reproduction in January and to Qatar for a visit with prospective new affiliates in April.
SBS-Veterinary Services started and ended the year with a flurry of activity. As the breeding season neared, the staff at SBS-VS were busy putting the final touches on two wonderful new foaling stalls (photo left) with added night vision camera capabilities, new neonatal foal turnouts, six lighted outdoor runs (photo below right) for boarding mares and foals, and a new large recipient pasture to help accommodate our expanding recipient herd.
The season itself, was packed full of foaling, breeding, and managing difficult mares. We were happy to have so many clients utilize our foaling services and expect that our success with that program will lead to further development of the foaling services here at SBS-VS. We also had three great undergraduate students spend time here during the season to help diversify their experiences in the equine profession. Students from University of Delaware, Colorado State, and Penn State all spent significant time with Dr. Scofield and the mares at SBS-VS. We look forward to expanding our educational partnerships and furthering the education opportunities for interested students.
We have a spring and summer internship available at SBS-VS for 2015, see our employment page for more info.
After breeding season was over, we were busy developing plans to further provide for our clients and expand our services into new and exciting territory. Dr. Scofield traveled to Texas to practice and hone his skills at Trans-Vaginal Follicular Aspiration of oocytes, a procedure we will offer in the coming breeding season. Much more information and explanation will be shared outlining this exciting expansion of technology at SBS-VS to service mares in the Mid-Atlantic States, stay tuned for an update in the New Year.
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