“Your turn,” Dr. Kubiak says, folding down his glove,


inside-out, into the trash can. “Who’s first?” Silence. Nobody moves. Then Chuck, whose


Clydesdales probably make this Percheron mare look tiny, steps forward. He has his own ultrasound machine already, and the rest of us are impressed. He’s already found one 15 day pregnancy in his own mare. We watch Chuck glove up. It feels like the first day of school, no one wanting to be the first to raise her hand, everyone sitting and watching while the teacher’s nephew jumps out of his seat and runs to the blackboard to chalk his name. Chuck lubes and positions the probe in his hand.


The rest of us watch the screen as he carefully presses into the mare. We’re looking for a land-mark—anything recognizable in a shifting sea of gray. “There’s the cervix,” Dr. Kubiak says, pointing to a swoop


of gray on the screen. We squint. Chuck presses onward, and we see the mare’s uterus on the screen. It looks just like the pictures, with a distinct, grainy texture, and pin-wheeling edema starting in the horns. This mare is coming into heat. Something I’ve seen a hundred times on my veterinary’s machine, but somehow more special now. More personal. Chuck finds first one ovary, then the next. The left


of round black spheres crowded together—an awkward handful of grapes. “That’s the right ovary, at 3 o’clock. MMF.” We nod knowingly. We’ve been taught to navigate inside the mare’s rectum using the clock’s face as a directional guide. With the probe at its starting point of 6 o’clock (dead-center, facing down) moving to 3 o’clock means a 90 degree turn to the right. MMF translates to Multiple Medium Follicles. So far, this looks just as easy as the charts.


U.S. ULTRASOUND MACHINE MANUFACTURERS


Fisher Biomedical, Inc. in Venice, Florida www.fisherbiomedical.com/equine-ultrasound.htm


Universal Ultrasound in Bedford Hills, New York www.universalultrasound.com


Vet Imaging in Irvine, California www.breedmares.com


EXTERNAL ULTRASOUND EQUIPMENT


Animark, Inc. in Aurora, Colorado www.animark.us


50 November/December 2010


ovary has a dominant follicle, clearly larger than its neighbors. Chuck freezes the picture and Dr. Kubiak shows us how to measure—38 mm. A pre-ovulatory follicle. I feel the ripple of excitement now. Somehow, Chuck is finished and I am standing behind


the mare with a glove in my hands. I have 25 mares waiting for me at home—25 reasons to learn to do this right the first time. I blow into the glove, wiggle it on, and then lube carefully. This is it. My first thought, inside the mare, is ‘where am I?’


Everything feels warm and soft and unfamiliar, like groping for the light switch in a room made of wet warm paper towels. I forget, for a moment, everything I know about mare anatomy and look hopefully at the ultrasound screen. Waves of gray. I blow a strand of hair out of my eyes and concentrate on the gentle, flat pressure of the probe against the mare’s rectum. Suddenly the distinct texture of her uterus comes into view. A landmark! I carefully slide the probe forward, to the demarcation of the uterus, beyond which is meaningless gray. Then I slide to the right, slowly and carefully, along the branch of the Y that is her right horn. The horn goes on longer than I imagined it could before tapering down to nothing. Now, the right ovary should be right… here. I look at the screen. Gentle waves of gray. No round black grapes. I shift the probe, slightly. More gray. Another gentle rocking of the probe, and up to 2 a.m. on the clock. Now I’m sweating. Dr. Kubiak comes to stand behind me. I’m in the mare


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