Broker taps European stallions for North America horse breeders

Pinned to a bulletin board in some FedEx office is a note written by one of Carol Austin’s customers.

It reads: “Dear FedEx man, please leave semen on the front porch.”

Snickers are nothing new to Austin, owner of Spokane-based Superior Equine Sires Inc.

She imports frozen semen collected from celebrated European stallions, then resells it throughout North America.

“I buy it in bulk,” Austin explained, “then sort it into individual breeding doses. A breeding dose is based on the post-thaw motility of the sperm, because freezing kills or damages a lot of it.

“A single dose can be anywhere from one to 10 straws, which are the size of those sticks you stir coffee with. What you’re trying to get is 225,000 forwardly motile sperm.”

The price per dose ranges from a few hundred dollars to several thousand or more, depending on the stallion’s performance in dressage, cross-country and show jumping at the Olympics or other competitions.

Prices also reflect Austin’s own performance as a semen broker.

Wrote Kate Palmquist of Autumn Hill Farm in Virginia, “I’ve dealt with several frozen semen importers, and I’m so glad I found Superior Equine Sires. Carol Austin possesses the attention to detail and professionalism that everyone in business should emulate … On my last order, she quickly picked up on an error in my request, and contacted me to confirm my intent. All my correspondence with her has been lightning-fast, and she truly gets excited when you report a birth or pregnancy.”

During a recent interview, Austin discussed her unorthodox introduction to riding, and the conception database she created to help American breeders.

S-R: Where were you raised?

Austin: All over the West. My dad was an air-traffic controller who liked to move, so he bid on jobs in Washington, Utah, Nevada, Montana and California.

S-R: What were your interests growing up?

Austin: Horses. But because we moved all the time, I could never have one.

S-R: How did you learn to ride?

Austin: I was a “catch rider.” I’d beg rides, bum rides. Sometimes I’d find horses in corrals and jump on them when they got close to the fence. In Montana, when I was 9 or 10, we lived on the outskirts of Great Falls, and in winter some locals would turn their horses loose onto the prairie. Occasionally I was able to coerce those horses to let me get on them.

S-R: What about a bridle?

Austin: I’d just use a little string on their jaw, Indian style.

S-R: What career did you envision for yourself?

Austin: Farming, which is what I did most of my adult life.

S-R: Did you attend college?

Austin: Yes. I earned an associate degree from Edmonds Community College, then enrolled at Western Washington (University) in Bellingham. When someone bashed my fender in a parking lot, I got a $250 insurance check and bought my first horse – an Appaloosa. As the days lengthened I rode more, got behind in my classes, and dropped out.

S-R: How did you afford to live?

Austin: Things were pretty cheap back then. My boyfriend and I moved to Arlington, where there were vacant old farmhouses. We rented one for $75 a month, put plastic over the missing windows, fired up the wood stove, and he got a job shoeing horses.

S-R: What happened between the ’70s and 1999, when you started your business?

Austin: That boyfriend and I raised horses and cattle. After we split up, I went to work as a groom at the racetrack in Denver, where I met my future husband. He was there with some of his family’s racehorses, and he also worked in the oil fields. Eventually we decided to buy a farm up by Colville and have kids. I trained horses, which we ran at Playfair, and he shoed horses at Playfair, Yakima Meadows, and Longacres in Renton.

S-R: How did you get into selling frozen semen?

Austin: In 1999, when things were winding down at Playfair, I had all these really nice mares we had been breeding our race horses from, and I didn’t want to give them up. So I decided to breed warm bloods (used for event competitions). Local breeders with stallions wanted $2,500 to $3,500 stud fees, and their horses had basically got kicked out of Europe – Europeans don’t sell the good stuff, unless it’s for millions. I started doing research, and found I could buy a dose of frozen semen from sires who had actually done something – been to the Olympics – for $500.

S-R: So you imported some?

Austin: Yes. I got six people together, and we ordered a shipment. By the second year, there were only three of us, so I figured maybe I could sell a couple of extra doses to pay for my share. That was the beginning of my business.

S-R: How did you find customers?

Austin: I was one of the first semen brokers to use the internet. I built my own website with the help of a girlfriend who studied computers back when they took up whole rooms.

S-R: How did your business evolve?

Austin: Until 2009, I didn’t have to be self-supporting. When my husband and I split, I needed to kick this up a notch.

S-R: Is it full time now?

Austin: Yes. In 2015, my sales approached almost $1 million.

S-R: Where do you buy your semen?

Austin: Mostly from Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and France.

S-R: How do you know what you’re getting?

Austin: In Europe, breeding of warm bloods is very regulated. In Germany, breeding regions are based on the old German states, and stallions and mares have to be approved for breeding by a panel of experts from those registries.

S-R: How much do you pay per dose?

Austin: Typically anywhere from 250 euros to 1,000 euros. When I resell it, I try to make roughly $250 a dose.

S-R: Who else makes money?

Austin: The stallion owners make good money. But I think veterinarians are the big winners, financially. Some people spend tens of thousands a year on breeding horses, and may not have a foal to show for it. But the vet still gets paid.

S-R: How often is semen collected from a stallion?

Austin: Several time a week – even daily. But typically not when the horse is competing.

S-R: Has the weakened euro helped your business?

Austin: I make the same markup, but it’s helped my clients. When I started out, the euro was at $1.54. Recently it’s been trading around $1.06.

S-R: Did the recession have an impact?

Austin: Sure. Horses are a luxury item. When I left my husband in 2009, I had six horses, and I got rid of them all because I didn’t know how I was going to survive on my own. And horses cost so much to feed, shoe, vet, board.

S-R: Are the Olympics good for your business?

Austin: Yes, because people want to breed to horses they’ve seen in the Olympics, and I have quite a few of those on my roster.

S-R: How much does a dose from an Olympian cost?

Austin: Semen from one stallion, whose offspring were really successful, I sell for $2,650 a straw. He’s supposed to be three straws per dose, but a lot of people use only one straw. The techniques for horse breeding are getting better.

S-R: How does frozen semen compare with fresh?

Austin: Fresh semen overall has a better conception rate. But they don’t ship fresh semen from Europe, so you’re relying on American horses that, in general, haven’t done as much. If people in this country have a very successful horse, they’ll often send it to Europe, because there’s more breeding business.

S-R: How often do you go to Europe?

Austin: Almost every year.

S-R: Are you treated like horse-breeding royalty?

Austin: Yes. (laugh)

S-R: What’s your business philosophy?

Austin: First, be honest. A lot of people in this business aren’t. Second, people don’t remember your mistake – they remember what you did about it.

S-R: Have you ever worried the business might fail?

Austin: Every year.

S-R: When are you busiest?

Austin: March, April and May – breeding season.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Austin: I get to be a vicarious breeder. I’m always talking to clients about blood lines, their mare, their foals, their competition results.

S-R: What do you like least?

Austin: When people don’t get their mares in foal.

S-R: Do they blame you?

Austin: Sometimes. That’s one of the downsides of frozen semen. If you breed to the stallion out yonder, they’ll usually let you do repeat breedings until you get your mare in foal. With frozen semen, it’s “Here’s your dose. Good luck.”

S-R: What’s the success rate with frozen semen?

Austin: They claim 65 percent with one cycle, 75 percent on two, and 85 on three. But some people don’t have the finances to breed three times.

S-R: What are you most proud of about your business?

Austin: That the semen I’ve imported will have a positive effect on America’s sport horse population.

S-R: What’s been your best idea?

Austin: I started a conception database in 2015 that anybody can use. If there’s a stallion with frozen semen being used in this country, breeders can go in and enter their own data. So if you research a stallion and see that people have used him 30 times, and 25 mares got pregnant, you figure that’s a good one.

S-R: Looking back, what’s been the biggest surprise?

Austin: That my passion for horses, and the skills I’ve developed over a lifetime with them, actually paid off.

This interview has been condensed. Writer Michael Guilfoil can be contacted at mguilfoil@comcast.net.