Solo Select
Gainesville, Texas
903-436-6615
Solo Select Horses, founded by Melanie Smith, has built its brand on a simple promise: deliver the very best to horse investors. Since 2018, the Texas-based company has grown into a powerhouse in Western performance horse breeding and sales. With deep industry experience and a staff built around high-level care and communication, Solo Select gives team ropers a start-to-finish system for building rope-horse genetics that hold and grow value.
Comprehensive mare management and care
Solo Select’s reproduction program is led by reproductive specialists, including 30-year industry veterans Matt Witman and Don Ham as stallion managers, board-certified theriogenologist Dr. Kianna M. Spencer and a team of veterinarians that specialize in equine reproduction. The team manages the full reproductive cycle, offering mare-cycle management, embryo flushing, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), embryo vitrification, foaling services and recipient-mare leasing. Owners receive group-message updates during every step of the process.
Solo Select also offers year-round mare care. Mares kept at the facility are eligible for the Select Genes program, which can cash-flow mares with no out-of-pocket investment. The staff monitors broodmares around the clock, manages stall or pasture environments and handles everything from contracts to incentive nominations. Long-term clients receive private consulting sessions with Melanie and Ty Smith to support breeding and marketing decisions. All mares, embryos and foals produced at Solo Select are eligible to sell through The Solo Select Online Sale.
Advanced breeding with ICSI and a massive recipient herd
ICSI is ideal for mares with fertility challenges, mares on show schedules or clients wanting frozen embryos. Solo Select handles aspiration, embryo creation, implantation and foaling. Weekly haul-in aspirations let show mares stay in competition. Approximately 50% to 80% of embryos created via ICSI result in pregnancies, depending on embryo and recipient quality.
Solo Select maintains one of the world’s largest recipient-mare herds with more than 2,500 head and accepts embryos from facilities nationwide. These mares receive year-round care to maximize embryo viability.
Stallion services and diagnostics
Solo Select’s stallion station provides full-service management under Witman and Ham’s direction, including collection, evaluation, cooled and frozen semen processing, storage, distribution and reproductive-disorder treatment. The operation is USDA-approved for semen export and houses an on-site diagnostics lab capable of USDA-approved Coggins testing, rapid PCR for strangles and salmonella and advanced reproductive screenings.
Sale fitting, online auctions and incentives
Once foals hit the ground, Solo Select’s sale-fitting program prepares them for the ring. Ty Smith leads the performance-horse fitting program, while Dustin Price directs race-horse fitting. Solo Select’s marketing and fitting programs have produced major sale results, including Blackkout at $875,000 and Crosby Ray Von at $1.7 million. Those efforts feed into The Solo Select Online Sale, which has generated more than $100 million in transactions.
Solo Select further strengthens its value with the Solo Select Incentive. In 2025, the rope-horse futurity paid $581,580, with $100,000 going to both the heading and heeling champions. For 2026, the incentive expands across rope horse, cutting, reined cow horse and recipient-mare divisions.
Consulting and industry expertise
Solo Select offers one-hour consulting sessions with Melanie or Ty Smith for investors who want clarity and direction. Sessions cover breeding strategy, bloodlines, marketing stallions or ranches, preparing horses for sale, launching equine businesses and evaluating mares and stallions.
