Clones, rare breeds and Olympic champions: take a look round Stallion AI Services

Tullis Matson breeding — Tullis Matson with Big Star, who is currently standing at Stallion AI Services. Previous stallions to have stood at the centre include Jaguar Mail, Arko III, Mill Law, and Demonstrator, who is buried outside

(Image credit: Peter Nixon)

Tullis Matson with Big Star and Arko III and Murka’s Gem (Gem Twist Clone) looking over their stables in the newly built facilities at Stallion AI Services near Whitchurch in the county of Shropshire in the UK on the 20th March 2018

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The Stallion AI team pictured here with Suffolk stallion Craikhow Hall Jenson

The bright, spacious collection area features a fully rubberised floor, as well as secure stables for the ‘teaser’ mares. Here, the Olympic stallion and prolific sire Jaguar Mail is in action.

On arrival at the centre each stallion is allocated his own headcollar, bandages, boots and grooming kit, as well as specific collection coats for his handler and his semen collector.

Among the new facilities at Chapel Field Stud is a 54ft horse walker with rubberised floors and CCTV. “It’s important to ensure the stallions have as normal a life as possible so they all go out each day,” says managing director Tullis Matson.

As the UK’s largest equine frozen semen storage centre, Stallion AI is home to more than 1.4million straws of semen, stored at -196 degrees in nitrogen tanks, all colour coded. The centre has collected semen from over 1200 stallions of 47 different breeds.

The centre is home to Murka’s Gem, a seven-year-old genetic clone of the legendary showjumper Gem Twist

The stud’s state-of-the-art laboratory allows the stud to stay at the forefront of technology, developing advanced freezing techniques as well as pioneering work in areas such as epididymal sperm extraction — harvesting sperm cells after castration, or if a stallion has had to be put down suddenly.

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