Breed to succeed: Amissville home to cutting-edge equine facility

Tucked among the rolling hills of Amissville, you would not expect to find an equine reproduction hub.

But for nearly three decades, Dr. Kevin Dippert and his team have been pioneering in the field, serving horses and their owners who come from across the country.

Equine Reproduction Concepts (ERC) is a full-service equine facility that Dippert said focuses “simply on the reproduction of the horse,” offering routine services like foaling and insemination to advanced techniques such as embryo recovery and transfer.

When Dippert, who is originally from New York, bought the Amissville property in 1996, it was nothing but a hayfield. The team built the facility from the ground up, and over the years, has expanded it from one clinic building and a small barn to a 45-stall, 25-acre operation.

The popularity of equine reproductive services has in part coincided with an evolution in the equine industry. Over the last several decades, large equine operations and horse farms have disappeared and have been replaced with small-scale farms with fewer resources and fewer hands to help with the breeding process, Dippert said in a recent interview.

“Thirty to 40 years ago, you had these large thoroughbred operations, large Arabian operations, and those have, by and large, gone by the wayside,” he said. “If you’re looking at improving the industry by the quality of the offspring, then it naturally involves breeding and reproduction. And we are just an outlet to allow clients to do that.”

Horse breeding is time consuming, and quite risky for both mare and foal. Dippert said one-man shows and family farms often don’t have the resources or manpower to dedicate to breeding or caring for a mare through a 10-12 month pregnancy.

“If you are a full-time, working person, you own a couple horses, and maybe say, ‘I want to breed my mare,’ it’s … much easier for them to just simply drop the horse off, let us do all the management and then pick them up either when they’re bred or they’re pregnant,” Dippert said. “That seems to be quite efficient for people to be breeders, but not have to be heavily involved in the process.”

The facility is also the only one in Virginia, and among a few in the nation, that have an in-house “recipient herd” — a herd of 70 mares whose life purpose is to serve as surrogate mothers.

ERC’s services are also used in Rappahannock.

Debbie Capasso, a Castleton resident and manager of a herd of Tarpans – a rare horse breed – has brought her stallion, Grayson, to ERC for several years. Only about 100 Tarpans are left in the United States, and they are spread out on farms across the country. Capasso says the distance makes live coupling of horses difficult, but ERC’s services make it easier and more efficient to breed, rather than traveling long distances with the horses.

“If we’re going to preserve the breed, the only way we can do it is through artificial insemination, unless they’re local, and there aren’t too many people around here with Tarpan mares other than us,” Capasso said. “And Dr. Dippert, he’s one of the only vets in the United States that does this and knows how to do it, and is really good at what he does.”

Dippert said what sets ERC apart from others in the field is how they bring several services together under one roof. He said many veterinarians are trained in a basic level of reproduction and fertility, and other facilities offer the more complex procedures and treatments, but neither usually function on an all-encompassing approach.

“We offer virtually everything here. We’re a full-service facility. That sets us apart from many … we offer a more comprehensive, competent service,” Dippert said. “And I think I could say objectively, we’re very good at what we do.”

Ireland Hayes is a reporter for Foothills Forum, a nonprofit organization that supports local news in Rappahannock County.

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