Lost in Memphis….
Sounds like the hook in a bad country romance chorus. It honestly should be, but it’s not.
It’s a breeders worst nightmare. Picture this, you’re a mare owner with a mare at the vet facility paying $30/40/80 per day in mare care, the vet calls to let you know your mare is ready to breed and they’ve ordered semen (and if you’re lucky the stallion owner/collection facility sends you and the vet the tracking information for your package). I’m the kind of mare owner who will watch that tracking number ALL. DAMN. DAY. So if you’re like me, you’re in luck, I will always send you the tracking information.
Now I’ve seen the posts on Facebook looking for a last minute dose because their shipment is lost at sea, I mean in Memphis, or seeking advice on what to do when a shipment painfully gets lost somewhere in Memphis but have not yet been victimized by FedEx in this way. Not until this year.
I had my first lost package this year, and unfortunately it was my stallion’s semen lost in the black hole that is “Memphis World Hub,” FedEx’s most coveted “automated sorting facility".
My advice:
Notify the shipper ASAP and FILE. THAT. CLAIM!
Do what’s best for you and your mare. If that means begging for a secondary shipment ASAP, figuring out a counter-to-counter location close to you to avoid losing a second package, or asking to push the breeding to the next cycle (or next year) and finding someone local with an extra dose for a last minute hail-Mary.
When a stallion owner tells you they want your mare bred as much as you do, they mean it. It’s not just a nicety to get you to spend money or time breeding your mare, we truly want that success story for you. If that means we have to wait to see your mare bred to our stallion the following year due to logistical nightmares with FedEx, we understand and still really want to see your mare bred, even if that means she’s bred to another stallion. Go get you that baby!
