It was the right decision, but it wasn't easy to make. It is one that all of us as horse owners hope we never have to face, yet, sooner or later, most of us will.

Carrie Barthem, an employee of Los Colinas Veterinary Clinic, owned a 7-year-old Quarter Horse mare, Ravens Royal Legacy or "Half Pint" as she was found called, who tangled with a fence early in the spring of 2004. The result was a broken leg - an irreparable fracture. Euthanasia. The end of the line.

But not for the legacy of "Half Pint".

Thanks to Joe Landers, who owns and operates Joe Landers Equine Breeding Facility in Weatherford, Texas, "Half Pint's" foal, due in 2005, lived on in the uterus of a recipient mare. Landers is currently the only reproduction specialist outside of a few universities who is able to perform the cutting edge technique of oocyte transfer.

"What I'm really interested in is the life-after-death program," explained Landers, who learned the method using ovaries taken from mares at a North Texas equine slaughter plant. Landers and his team, including six-year resident veterinarian, Dr. Paul Breithaupt, and Dr. Bruce Hebbert, of Weatherford Equine Medical Center, extracted oocytes from "Half Pint's" ovaries, incubated the oocytes, and surgically transferred them to an artificially inseminated recipient mare whose own eggs had been removed.

Oocytes must be harvested within 12 hours of the death of a mare and transferred to a recipient with 24 to 30 hours. Semen from the designated stallion must also be available during this time frame. Shelf life for shipped semen is typically about 24 hours.

"I was involved in a project involving frozen semen and oocyte work 14 years ago when I lived back East," noted Landers, who is completing his 30th year breeding mares. "But when I moved to Texas, I stopped working on it. I think the industry is ready for someone to step forward and utilize the techniques and procedures others have perfected."

Dr. Elaine Carnevale at Colorado State University perfected the technique Landers uses.

"Embryo transfer is old news. In general, it is relatively successful for everyone," said Landers. "But there isn't anyone outside of a university that's doing oocyte work right now."

Oocyte transfer is normally performed on live mares with reproductive problems for which embryo transfer is not an option. But the oocyte procedure is not the answer in every situation, according to Landers. "There are certain criteria that have to fit," he explained. "The mares have to be cycling and they have to have good follicles. Even then, it may not be successful."

Lander's first success on a live mare in 2004 was a pregnancy by Freckles Fancy Twist out of Sugars Starlight. At 24, Sugar Starlight was the first foal out of the great cutting performer and producers Doc's Starlight. Sugars Starlight, owned by Jim and Carolyn Ware of Weatherford, was cycling and ovulating normally, but because of a damaged cervix, she could not conceive. In 2003, Landers arranged to send Sugars Starlight to Dr. Carnevale at CSU and in 2004 Giftware, a healthy filly by High Brow Cat, was born.

"Here we got a baby and pregnancy for next year out of a mare that technically shouldn't be having another foal," said Ware. "But when your dedicated to a mare and really want a foal from her, it becomes an issue.

"When Joe set up to do this procedure on his own, we were elated to have him experiment right here at home with sugars Starlight. One element for this to be successful is that you have to have easy access to plenty of semen, and that becomes a non-issue with the number of stallions around Weatherford. Susan Waggoner graciously arranged to have the semen from High Brow Cat sent to CSU the previous year and everything worked like a clock. But if you don't have a definite plan and an alternative arrangement, this thing can backfire on you."

"This is the future of the breeding business," said Landers. "It doesn't necessarily take a university setting, but it does take someone technically set up to do it. And it is very expensive and time consuming. We've made a lot of sacrifices. Sometimes we're doing transfer surgery at two or three in the morning. It all depends on when we get the oocytes. You have to have a dedicated team. Our team surgeon is Dr. Bruce Hebbert. Bruce has assisted me over the last 14 years and is beyond a doubt the best equine surgeon I have ever worked with."

Landers' main business is artificial insemination and embryo transfer. He currently stands 30 stallions at his facility and on an average day, send out 25 to 30 shipments of semen. He has one employee who does nothing but drive back and forth between Weatherford and DFW Airport, shipping and receiving semen.

Each year for the past five years, Landers has bred an average of 1,200 mares with semen collected from the stallions standing at his facility. This year about 600 mares will be bred on site in Weatherford, while another 600 will be inseminated at farms and ranches from California to Australia with semen shipped from Weatherford.

Landers also expects to impregnate more than 225 recipient mares via embryo transfer this season. This past spring, one of Landers' embryo transfer clients got eight foals from the same dam. The mother, a valuable cutting horse producer, was treated with a fertility drug known as FSH - another relatively new procedure. Although eight foals is a record for Landers, he has produced five sets of triplets from five different mares.

"The key to a successful program is good recipients and knowing how to manage them," he explained. "That's where it's all won or lost Our resident vet, Dr. Paul Breithaupt, is responsible for so much of the success we have had in that area. He synchronizes all the mares and always has recipients available for a transfer when we need them. He is the catalyst of our program."

Landers has found that he needs at least two recipient mares for each donor in order to match ovulation cycles. On an average day during the breeding season, he will flush embryos from four or five mares, although during peak season, he might flush eight or nine.

"We're continually buying recipient mares," he noted. "You can't wait until a couple of months before breeding season and put that number of mares together. I've already started buying them for next year."

Two separate facilities near Weatherford house Landers' recipients. "I use a mare one year, the next year they're raising a foal for the customer, and the following year they go back in the program," Landers explained. "A mare can be 12 or 15 years old and only have had three or four foals. Good recipient mares are a hot commodity."

With the addition of oocyte transfer and the FSH drug, Landers' work load has drastically increased, along with his need for recipient mares. "Everyone thinks breeding season is over in July, but I look at hundreds of mares year-round," he pointed out. "My work is continuous, non-stop."