Bugger, it's gone......

[Spook]

Is this a subject that has been hidden for some time due to the financial implications? The cost of operating on a horse for the average punter is unviable and I do wonder how long it will be before some conditions are excluded from the insurance policies for some breeds...... not just OCD. Or indeed that it could become almost imposible to find vets cover for horses and ponies at all.

I know that I would not want the cost of surgery nor would I knowingly buy, or breed from a line or family prone/pre disposed to O.C.D.

 

[Eothain]

The Continent the Mecca of horse breeding? What were you saying about wild generalisation??? Continental horses ARE whipping our asses in SJ & dressage, but at what cost?

Did you ever hear the story about the ends justifying the means??

There are a hell of a lot of owners here who do not agree with the idea of starting a horse at 3 and in competiton by 4. 99% that I know prefer to leave them till they are almost 4 before backing them and bringing them on slowly.
Of course there is always the minority who want to squeeze every penny profit out of their animals that they can but isn't that the case in every country.
Stallions with OCD are not the norm in the KWPN stud book but unfortunately there are some and whilst some breeders will use them because of their bloodlines, others avoid them like the plague.
I also believe that feeding and management play a part in the development of OCD. There has been substantial research into feeding, before a mare is in foal, during the gestation period and after until the foal reaches 3 years of age to help prevent OCD from developing.
As I said previously I am not saying joints are not cleaned up by some unscrupulous people (and they are not all on the continent!) but the majority of breeders value their reputation for producing quality horses free from OCD.

^^ Sense! I agree fully

 

[HBM1]

Did you ever hear the story about the ends justifying the means??

I will never hold by that thinking as long as there are living beings involved.

 

[Alec Swan]

There are a hell of a lot of owners here who do not agree with the idea of starting a horse at 3 and in competiton by 4. 99% that I know prefer to leave them till they are almost 4 before backing them and bringing them on slowly.

..........

It wasn't the backing itself to which I was referring. It was the preparation work, involving feeding, which I find a worry. I've seen well fed and "done" 2 yo's which looked like they could be backed, and obviously 3 yo's too.

It's seeing youngsters too far advanced and mature for their ages, that worry me. I suspect that there's only one way that they've got there, feed, and it's running a dreadful risk.

I may be wrong, but many of the Continental studs which I've seen, seem to be very short of land, and most of the youngsters spend a great deal of their time, "in". Presumably when their in, their fed.

If buyers are looking at 3 yo's, and they go to two yards, one where the youngsters have been prepped for the sales, and the next where they're living out and may look a little backward, it'd be a fairly safe bet which youngsters will catch the buyers eye.

Regarding the costs of OCD ops, the Continentals are getting that good at it, that it's viewed as a "tidying-up" op, and as it's so common place, the costs aren't exactly exorbitant. The time may well soon arrive, when it's cheaper to ship a youngster over the Channel for the op, than have it done here! Worrying, isn't it?

Alec.

 

[stolensilver]

Actually getting a youngster to look like a mature horse as a 2yo doesn't just happen by feeding them up. There's also steroids. I do wonder if steroids are the reason why so many young stallions have low fertility in their first year or two at stud.

Personally I find grading a stallion at 2 is distasteful. The only way to get a colt looking as muscled and strong as they do at the gradings is to work them hard. Far harder than 2yo joints should have to cope with. And the bigger worry, for me, at least, is that they won't be working these young horses on long straight lines. No, they'll be working on the lunge, on artificial surfaces for months before they are presented. How any of them stay sound amazes me.

The latest advance in stallion gradings is for the 2yo stallion to be presented on the lunge. It started in Oldenburg last year. It makes me cringe. I would not be at all surprised if the colts being subjected to even more hours on the lunge to ensure that they look amazing on the day of the grading are even less likely to stay sound in the long term. I don't understand the thinking behind it. Do the Europeans not believe that lungeing a 2yo will damage their soft tissues, often permanently?