With all of the latest information right at our fingertips there is no doubt that the world is a smaller place than it was just five years ago. The equine industry has been significantly impacted by the growth of foreign markets and the services of stallions in the United States are now being offered overseas due to the demand of savvy breeders abroad. Here stallion brokers discuss their role in international development, the strict regulations and how overseas breedings are implemented. Stallion owners here and international mare owners also provide insight into why there has been such a compelling response.

David Maisonnette of France is an international Quarter Horse breeder and broker. He has 10 of his own Western Pleasure broodmares for breeding and enjoys showing the babies. He also tries to find them good show homes to promote his mares. Through the years, he has seen real growth in breeding in Europe with the main business for Western Pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle, and all-around horses in northern European countries like Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden.

Stemming from the demand to breed to Quarter Horse stallions in Europe, Maisonnette has become an overseas stallion broker.

“I am not a broker just to be a broker,” Maisonnette says. “I really try to keep the quality high and believe in the stallions that I represent. All the stallions that I showcase, I believe will help promote higher quality horses in Europe.”

Maisonnette has been very involved with Quarter Horses for many years now and knows a lot of people in the business, which really has aided him in developing connections to broker stallions.

“I really try to do a good job. When people ask questions I try to get back with them right away,” Maisonnette says. “I really work hard at being a good broker. There are a lot of papers to be handled, phone calls to be made, and special regulations to be met.”

Maisonnette represents several popular US Stallions including: VS Code Red, Watch My Potential, Winnies Willy, Lazy Loper, Hot Ones Only, Zippos Mr Good Bar, Coats N Tails, and RL Best of Sudden. He stores their semen in two facilities in Germany: Select Breeders South Germany and Landgestute Celle. Both facilities are very large and store semen for many disciplines and breeds from all over the world.

As a broker, Maisonnette is in charge of getting all the information together like contracts for both shipping and breeding, getting all the contracts signed, ensuring payments are made, and releasing semen from the facility to wherever the mare owner needs it throughout Europe.

Most of all, he credits the internet with the expansion of interest in breeding overseas. Many of his customers choose a stallion from websites and Facebook pages where they can easily view videos and photos of stallions and offspring.

“Facebook has really made seeing stallions and babies very easy. A lot of stallions have their own pages that show videos and pictures of babies,” Maisonnette says.

With the rise of money futurities in Europe, Maisonnette also makes sure all the stallions he brokers are eligible for the German Quarter Horse Association or in German the Deutsche Quarter Horse Association (DQHA) futurity, which offers the most money of all the futurities in Europe. Maisonnette explains because there aren’t really Halter horses in Europe, performance bred horses are shown in Halter futurities as weanlings and yearlings to earn money. There are also no 2-year-old under saddle classes, so all the big futurity money is put into 3-year-old events.

“Germany has become really professional with Quarter Horses,” Maisonnette says. “The largest futurity class is a 10,000€ added DQHA Western Pleasure Futurity, which is really huge for us.”

International Horse Breeders Pty Ltd located in Australia was started in 1989 by Glenis Dyason and Eil Kingma who brought in the first import of frozen semen into the Australia from Germany. At first, only one stallion, a German State Hanoverian, Wenzel 1, was eligible to pass the newly established protocol. Since then, a whole range of stallions of different breeds can be exported throughout the world. International Horse Breeders markets Warmbloods, Friesians, Paints, Quarter Horses, and some ponies.

“Since 1989, the importation of superior equine genes into Australia has given Australian breeders the opportunity to select the best breeding stallions to improve the temperament, conformation, and performance in their progeny no matter what breed,” Dyason says. “It gives breeders the choice of bloodlines to mesh with their breeding program and opportunities for stallion owners to breed into new bloodlines with the fillies they have bred. Frozen semen has opened the door to breeding with many valuable breeding sires that would not otherwise be available and making a wider gene pool accessible. Since the coming of frozen AI the improvement in the foals bred in Australia is plain to see and this is what it is all about.”

Dyason describes the American term “Stallion Broker” as someone who sources out specific semen suppliers or stallion semen from overseas for importation and sales.

“International Horse Breeders sources semen form Europe and America and markets in Australia and New Zealand,” Dyason says. “They work with each semen supplier to ensure that semen meets both Australian and New Zealand government quarantine regulations. A good working relationship with semen suppliers and Government bodies is critical.”

Another important aspect of being an overseas stallion broker to Dyason “is to endeavor to bring in frozen semen of sufficiently high quality for producing foals.” As she explains, some semen looks great under a microscope but may not really be fertile and other semen can be average looking but have a great strike rate.

“The best quality control system is the number of inseminations per pregnancy and IHB consistently achieves around two inseminations per pregnancy overall,” Dyason says.

For the past 10 years, International Horse Breeders has marketed Quarter Horse and Paint stallions.

They carry semen from stallions like Certain Potential and A Scenic Impulse from Rodrock Ranch, RL Best of Sudden and Its All About Blue from Masterson Farms, Iron Age, These Irons Are Hot, and No Doubt Im Lazy from Gumz Farms, and Lazy Loper from Ohio Pine View Farms to name a few.

“International Horse Breeders handles the import, advertising, and distribution of semen across the whole country, liaising with breeders and vets and supplying information and support in any way they can,” Dyason says.

Pioneers in the industry, International Horse Breeders is now the longest serving company in Australia and also the largest supplier of imported frozen semen into both New Zealand and Australia.

“Sometimes the choice is the hardest thing for breeders to decide,” Dyason says.

Michael Middel, of Olpe, Germany, is the owner of MM Quarter Horses and has been in the Quarter Horse business since 1995. Since then he has earned the German Quarter Horse Association leading breeder award three times (2008, 2012 and 2013).

“My first AQHA show was in 1996 with my first mare, Sheera the Princess, that I still own,” Middel says. “In 1999, I won the DQHA Pleasure Maturity with her. We have been breeding Quarter Horses since 2001 when MM Quarter Horses started in business. In the following years, our offspring accomplished titles such as Reserve European Champion, DQHA Futurity Champions, AQHA International High Point Champions, World Show Qualifiers, and DQHA Weanling Cup Champion with Huntin Blue Dream (Aint It the Blues x Huntin A Dream) and Rap My Blues (Aint It the Blues x Rap Zee).”

Middel typically breeds five mares each year for both Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle disciplines. This year he is expecting the following foals for Western Pleasure: Impulsivescarletrose in foal to Lazy Loper, Huntin A Dream (full sister to Huntin Big Dreams) in foal to Lazy Loper, Hot Mahogany in foal to Nite Chip, and Sheera the Princess is in foal to Only Invitational. He is also expecting a Hunter Under Saddle foal this year, Call Me Sweet Blaze in foal to Hot Ones Only. His mares are AQHA and NSBA European Champions, German Champions, Congress Top 10 and money, point earning producers.

“We don’t have any RL Best of Sudden foals this year, but we have had four foals by him already,” Middel  says. “We like to breed 50 percent of the stallions of our choice from the United States. I usually choose stallions with an own show record, proven bloodlines, and important titles like World and Congress Champions. U.S. stallions often provide more offspring with a show record and to add new and established sires to our breeding program. I usually work with a broker like David Maisonnette or Gesa and Thomas Meier-Bidmon.”

During his stay in the United States, Middel has attended the AQHA World Show and has visited and watched some of the stallions and ranches where they stand. In addition, he collects information for breeding through websites, videos and Facebook.

Ken Masterson is the owner of Masterson Farms LLC in Somerville, Tennessee and of Western Pleasure stallion, RL Best of Sudden. In the past, Masterson Farms has shipped semen overseas from AQHA sires like Zippos Sheik, Last Detail and RL Best of Sudden. In 2014, RL Best of Sudden’s semen will be shipped to both Europe and Australia. Its All About Blue, who is also standing at Masterson Farms owned by Linda and Ray Monaco will also ship to Australia.

“Well, of course the overseas market is an additional market for breeders and I think for a stallion to have a dominant presence in the industry the overseas market is very important,” Masterson says.

There are a number of steps necessary to ship frozen semen overseas Masterson explains. There are requirements that must be complied with from the US Department of Agriculture and Foreign Departments. For example, labs like those at Masterson Farms LLC are USDA approved. Shipments overseas are complicated and expensive. The Masterson operation uses Fed Ex and credits the company for timely deliveries.

“The International market is an increasingly growing market that significantly impacts the United States,” Masterson says. “I expect the overseas market to continue growing and we will continue supplying enough semen for our horses based on this demand.”

RL Best of Sudden is offered at the regular United States stallion fee plus $500 frozen semen fee for shipment overseas. Everyone has a minimal amount of sperm dosage they send. The number of straws provided depends on the concentration of viable sperm.

“I have been very impressed with the horse markets overseas,” Masterson says. “Their breeders are very astute and their trainers are very advanced. I have also been very impressed with their organizations and how well they manage their activities.”