The mare stood patiently as I invaded the depths of her personal place with the probe of my ultrasound machine. Both Barbara and I looked anxiously at the small black screen but did not see the image we had hoped for. It could have been worsethere could have been twins, or extra fluidbut the black, quarter-sized circle indicative of a single, 14-day pregnancy was conspicuously absent.But the mare felt pregnant. I had learned to palpate mares 10 years before portable ultrasound had been invented, so I learned the feel long before I learned what they looked like on the very expensive 6-inch black-and-white TV screen. (My first one cost more than a new truck.) Without ultrasound, I would have called her pregnant, and that wouldve been the end of the story. But, as youve probably guessed by now, this is not the end of the story.Illustration by Madison Seamans, DVMMaking a BabyMrs. Barbara Goodrich had contacted me in the early spring, asking about the possibility of breeding her mare artificially. She had her eye on a real fancy, blue-blooded stallion in Colorado, but didnt want to take the mare on a long, expensive trip.I told her we could help her avoid the trailer ride by using shipped, fresh-cooled semen and artificial insemination, but it wasnt cheap, and timing was critical. They werent going to send a sample in a pickle jar that we could just use when we had time. The mare had to be in heat, the semen had to be placed in her uterus, and she had to ovulate within 48 hours.Fertility is not a function of how many times the mare is bred. One time is sufficient if it is the right time. Of course, if we didnt want the mare to conceive, she could get pregnant any timeespecially by the fence-jumping 2-year-old down the road that should have been gelded at birthbut thats a whole nother story.I went on to explain that the entire process could take several visits, and the synchronization of several factors was critical. We made an appointment for the following week.After examining the mare, I told Mrs. Goodrich that we were very lucky: if we could have a sample in 48 hours, I thought the mare would be ready. I stressed how fortunate we were, as it seldom happened so quickly. I thought to myself that it might be a sign that this case would be easy.I was wrong.Hiding OutThe next step is for you to call the stallion owner and have the semen shipped to you, I told her. If you can call me when it arrives, I can be here within a couple of hours.The sample arrived as scheduled, and the insemination was uneventful.Its always a good idea to recheck the mare in 48 hours to ensure ovulation, and this mare did so, exactly as predicted. Though the whole process started out dang near textbook perfect, it didnt stay that way.I recommend the first ultrasound on day 14 after ovulation. This will usuallyand the key word here is usuallytell us if she is pregnant or coming back into heat. An exam at this early date also helps us manage twin pregnancies more easily. Although twins sound like a cheap way to expand your herd, they almost always end in disaster.Before I place the ultrasound probe in the right location (this requires a long plastic sleeve, a lot of nerve, and a very cooperative patient), I feel the cervix and uterus. In a mare during early pregnancy, the cervix feels like a pencil and the uterus feels like a banana or large sausage.That is the way this mare felt, but the image on the screen suggested my fingers were either lying to me or they were thinking about something else. The embryo is about the size of a quarter by 14 days, and the uterus is about the size of a large banana, so there aint a lot of room to hide.However, these sneaky rascals have occasionally played hide and seek with me, and I just cant find em. In mares that really feel pregnant, I like to scan again in a couple of days. This often results in the good news that the mare is, indeed, pregnant. On this occasion, however, this was not going to happen.Storming OffMrs. Goodrich was beyond disappointedshe was livid.I cant believe I spent all this money (I think her bill totaled about $250 at that point, unbelievably cheap, even 25 years ago) and you cant see anything on this stupid machine!I told her again how fortunate we were that things had gone this smoothly, and that I was fairly confident we would see the embryo in two days.Nope.I cant believe I thought we could actually do this artificially in the first place, she fumed (the smoke alarm in the barn was just about to go off). I am going to take her to Colorado and let things happen naturally. Its what I should have done in the first place!So she did.The Maths Not MathingThree months later, I got a call from the farm manager at the blue-blood stallion station in Danglongwaysfromhere, Colorado.Mrs. Goodrich brought us a mare a few months back and listed you as the vet of record, he started, but she said she had already spent a FORTUNE with you and didnt want to spend another dime on unnecessary vet bills. We have been teasing this mare every other day for about three months, but she hasnt showed the slightest interest in our stallion. I thought Id find out if you did something to bring her in heat. Mrs. Goodrich was fairly adamant about no vets.I told him the condensed version of the story and that maybe another exam would be helpful. He called me back in a few hours with the news that his vet had examined her and said she was in foalabout 90 days!Sometimes just one more try will give us a victory. Its not like we had been breeding this mare for six cycles with no luck; we had been very fortunate with the timing of the whole process.But lets think about Mrs. Gs decision. One more ultrasound exam would have cost her about $50. Instead, she took a week off work, drove 1,200 miles to Coloradotwiceto deliver and retrieve her mare, paid for 90 days board, and eventually another vet exam anyway to determine the mare was pregnant all along.With that exercise in economics, Im sure she has a promising future in politics. This edition of The Village Horse Doctor appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Horse Illustratedmagazine.Click here to subscribe!The post The Village Horse Doctor: Will She or Wont She? appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.