White Oak Farm Full service breeding and boarding facility By Nancy Brannon White Oak Farm is a full service breeding and boarding facility, owned and managed by Robert and Lisa Marbry. Located at 10023 Rosemark Road in Atoka, TN on 40 acres of picturesque rolling pastures with stately oak trees, the Farm offers both shipped semen and farm breeding. Mares are given top quality care with one goal in mind - to get her in foal and assure a healthy foal. Manager Sammy Sanders is gifted in his ability to handle both stallions and broodmares well. His quiet demeanor calms the horses in the breeding shed, which can sometimes be stressful. He is highly competent in his job, having completed equine reproduction courses at both LSU and Ohio State. Lisa brings her expertise to the breeding lab. She is a licensed Medical Technologist and has completed courses at Colorado State University in equine reproduction, insemination, and transported semen. Sammy described his work, “I love what I do! I love the breeding operation, the babies. Lisa and I love to watch the babies run when we turn them out for the first time. I’m like a proud parent!” Sammy likes this work so much that he got out of the training aspect to fully concentrate on the breeding and boarding operation at White Oak. The stallion standing at White Oak is Silver Express, a 14-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse. He is 2000 World Grand Champion; 2002 World Champion and World Grand Champion. He was Horse of the Year in 2002 and Amateur Owner world Grand Champion. “He is a super sweet horse, like a big old baby. Children 4 and 5 years old can go in his stall and pet him. He throws that trait in his babies, too,” Sammy said. “Silver usually throws grey colts, some of which are dark grey almost blue roan; some black and some bays. His mother was a bay,” Sammy said. Silver is flat shod now. “We ride him and exercise him regularly. Some of his foals are show horses, and doing very well in the show ring now. Others are flat shod pleasure horses. Most of his colts have his good disposition.” People bring stallions from all over to White Oak to have their semen collected, processed, and possibly shipped. People with stallions elsewhere also send their semen here to breed mares. “We get all types of horses here: Warmbloods, dressage horses, Quarter Horses, Friesians n all are brought here to be bred. We also get a variety of mares brought here. I have collected just about every type of stallion there is,” Sammy said. All breeding is done by artificial insemination, “to protect the stallions and the mares,” Sammy said. “From one collection, we can breed up to 20 mares. “We have a mare here that we keep in heat,” Sammy explained; a “teaser mare” for the stallions, so to speak. “She is good natured and she doesn’t kick the stallions. Some stallions know what they’re here for and don’t need the mare.” Others need the mare. “We coordinate everything here in the breeding barn,” Sammy explained. He gave a tour of the breeding shed, where they collect the stallions, and the well-equipped lab. Some semen is run through the centrifuge. The semen is analyzed to determine motility, then put in the sperm densimeter, which measures the concentration of sperm. Then the semen is then put in an extender. Usually it is put into a syringe to breed the mare right away. Or it may be cooled and saved until the next day. They can also ship semen anywhere in the U.S. or to Canada. “We also do foaling here,” Sammy said. “People leave their mares here to foal.” White Oak has several large foaling stalls, “with cameras in the stalls that link to my and Lisa’s houses. We vaccinate the mares for everything. Some mares are on Regi-mate so they don’t absorb the foal. Things are done first class here,” Sammy emphasized. Sammy and/or Lisa make sure they are with the mare when she foals to ensure her and the foal’s health. “Twelve hours after the foal is born, we take a blood sample and do an IgG antibody test to make sure the foal is getting enough colostrum.” There are about 30 horses at White Oak currently: one stallion, several mares, Silver’s babies, and two boarders. They have four weanlings on the farm; three are Silver’s. The fourth is a Spotted Saddle Horse by Master of Jazz. All the stalls have freeze proof automatic waterers. Horses are fed and hayed twice a day. They have a 14-acre field where they grow their own hay n Tifton 44 Bermuda. There are several 4 to 5 acre turnout areas and several smaller ones; nine paddocks total. For more information about breeding or boarding at White Oak Farms, visit: http://www.whiteoakstallions.com/