Bred by myself Dr Greg Clark and raced by the Wagner syndicate, I consider Ben, as he is known by his paddock name, to be somewhat of a miracle horse who owes a lot of his good fortune to blackcurrants and the horsemanship of Cambridge based trainer Tarissa Mitchell.
Involved in the early development of the blackcurrant supplement Equine Recoup, I was fully aware of the scientific studies reporting the ability of blackcurrant extracts to improve cardio vascular function and general health in humans. With this in mind and to be honest a wee bit of wishful thinking I set out to see if blackcurrant anthocyanins could have a similar impact on horse health in particular fertility.
You see I’d been given, for free, from Totara Park thoroughbred stud in Whangarei a barren mare to act as a paddock mate for a broodmare of mine to keep her company. The mare was believed to have become infertile after the stud had tried for several years unsuccessfully to get her in foal after producing two foals early on in her breeding career.
This was all fine, she made a great paddock friend, until a nephew of the mare won his first 8 races in a row in Australia. With bloodlines everything in the racing game and a rising star in the family I had to try to get the mare in foal. This is where Equine Recoup comes into play. Could the anthocyanins in the product impact the mares fertility in a positive way and allow her to get in foal and carry a pregnancy to full term?.
The thought here was that potentially the mare’s reproductive issues, or so I’d read, could be the result of poor blood flow to the uterus, a common link to infertility, and that the anthocyanins within the product could help improve oxygenated blood flow to the area. What did I have to lose and so I began feeding the mare a handful of the berry extract once a day in the month leading up to her visit to the stallion and for the months following.
Fast forward to today I now, in syndication with members of the Sujon team, have two sons of the mare racing and am convinced that these two horses grace the tracks because of the role Equine Recoup had on their mums fertility leading up to conception and throughout each pregnancy.
Watch this space with these two horses. Wagner is now a race winner of 3 races and multiple placings while his half-brother Ohthoserussians has just kicked off his racing career and has a third to his credit from 3 starts. Both horses are feed daily with Equine Recoup at the racing stables of Tarissa with the role here of the anthocyanins being to
improve oxygenated blood flow to the working muscle to aid recovery and assisting Tarissa to get maximum training and racing efforts from the boys.
I love the racing and breeding game and I’m looking forward to a great summer of racing particularly over the summer carnival at Riccarton with Tarissa now based out of stables in Christchurch.
Obviously, I can’t say I’m not biased but speaking from experience I would urge anyone experiencing fertility issues with their broodmare or stallion for that matter to give Equine Recoup ago and of course I consider it an essential part of the diet and wellbeing for any performance horse be they thoroughbred, trotter or three day eventer.
Cheers and good luck with your horses and keep an eye out for Wagner and Ohthoserussians
All the best Greg