Breeding from a mare with navicular

Missadelaide

Missadelaide

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Hi all,

I don't often post in this section but have a question that I am hoping you can answer for me.

My Mum has a lovely 16.1hh pink papered kwpn advanced dressage mare that we purchased just over 2 years ago, shortly after getting her it was discovered she had navicular. We put her out on loan and she had a beautiful little filly foal last year.

We have had Darcy back since December last year and advertised her for loan again but had very little response. The previous loanees vet analysed her vet report and decided that it was not hereditory and they had nothing but praise for her and said she made a fantastic Mum and took first cycle.

My question is really - would you breed from a horse with navicular? Nothing has been shown to prove it is hereditory. I am wondering if this is why we have had lack of response to the ads or is it simply that the market is on a downer - any comments, suggestions welcome!
 
We have a customer in europe that has a mare with teh same problem. after some extensive research between us and owners, their vets, our vets and some other contacts we could not not find anything to confirm it to be a hereditory condition in this case. In fact we found that in a number of cases the horse had become sound again and continued competeing.

So in answer to your question, yes we would breed form a horse with a navicular as long as it had good breeding or a competition recourd.

The market is a bit flat at the moment, in some respects thats bad and it others its good as it will push up the value of young stock. I mean why bother breeding if your having to sell for anything less than £5k or £10k!:)
 
Hi, I have a dressage mare , states premium candidate, that has ddft lesion in her foot. I'm in the same situation as you,trying to decide if I should breed from her. she has a successful competition record before the injury and is not lame at the moment. I know some people will say it's not a good idea but I would love a foal from her.
I too would love to know if people have bred from mares with this and what was the outcome.
I also believe that with every mare a reason could be found not to breed her as none are perfect!
 
Thanks for your replies.

It is so hard to know what to do, I would have loved to have bred from her myself, but I am really not in a position financially to do so this year.

I think the market is not helping though as some lovely youngstock are going for such minimal amounts of money, it is such a shame.

I would also be interested to know if anybody has bred from a horse with navicular. Time will tell with the yearling she bred, but so far the little filly is georgeous!
 
Missadelaide said:
Thanks for your replies.

It is so hard to know what to do, I would have loved to have bred from her myself, but I am really not in a position financially to do so this year.

I think the market is not helping though as some lovely youngstock are going for such minimal amounts of money, it is such a shame.

I would also be interested to know if anybody has bred from a horse with navicular. Time will tell with the yearling she bred, but so far the little filly is georgeous!
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Yes, the mare was in-foal, had a lovely filly because of this bred from her again & her 1990 daughter has never shown signs of it. My vets put hers down to being allowed to pound about on her forehand, so concussion related. She also was never bad enough to show any lamness while she was with us either. Her 1990 daughter had a daughter herself & to my knowledge she has never suffered from navicular either.
 
Well I'm going back a good few years(25+ years), but my now deceased mare was diagnosed with navicular which was treated at that time and my mare went on to have a foal - who is now in his 20's and has never had a days lameness in his life. Would certainly never have a problem about breeding from a mare diagnosed with it.
 
personally i would not breed, soundness is paramount for me as i breed on from them myself, i would'nt risk the tendancy having had horses with nav i know the problem well.

on the continent even very young horses have their nav bones x rayed and some studs say they are nav free status

we have had horses as young as three nav positive

yes the causes that bring it to clinical stages are various, but its the
inherited tendancy i want to avoid in the first place in case it contributes to the end result

i think you have to look at the big picture
 
I agree that you have to look at the big picture.

If its for yourself then its fair enough. She sounds gorgeous mare and its your own risk. If its to sell then as a buyer I would not buy a foal from a mare than had retired due to navicular. She slips, falls and breaks a leg, ok bad things happen. But if the mare could not stand up to hard work then I would not be so keen on her to produce a potential upper level horse. After all upper level work is very, very hard on a horse and if the mare cannot handle that type of work then her foal may inherit her phenotype and break down as well.
 
I'm not entirely sure, but it will be in the vet report somewhere. She has it in just one foot, so due to the fact we didn't get her till she was 11, it could well be due to incorrect shoeing - very hard to pinpoint though I think.
 
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