Kissing Spines Gene Found

[HeresHoping]

https://thehorse.com/1116134/equine...fqmwZwmTyYEBk8IENtgOi-kTxknaa3hcZJR_1GRU_vbD8

This is just out. It's very interesting. I have been on the KS journey and I don't envy those who are on it now. Our outcome was not a long life - the KS was only one of a number of issues.

Let's hope these findings contribute to reprogramming our breeding processes amongst those types listed.

 

[w1bbler]

I've often wondered if the reason for so many ks horses at the amateur end of the market was a breeding rather than us riding them wrong.
When I first got into horses 40ish years ago I can remember an old horseman saying to me, 'buy a mare, then if they go wrong you can always breed from her'. Over the years I have seen countless mares in lots of different yards retired to breeding as they weren't up to the job....
I thought things had changed, but I'm aware of a local vet that has taken on a failed ks rehab & had bred several foals from her ?

 

[ycbm]

Excellent. Finally puts to bed for me the accusations that I caused them in my own horse, who was both tall and a highly bred warmblood. Now how do we stop people breeding them, when it doesn't show until they are already worth a lot of money?

I do wonder, though, if we are going to end up with so many prepurchase gene tests in future that selling a horse will be nigh on impossible!

There's a lovely story in the article about why the gene was found

 

[maya2008]

I think many vets have suspected this to be the case for a long time. Years ago, a friend was concerned her mare might have kissing spines - very experienced vet turned up, said the mare was the wrong breed/conformation to have it and quickly pinpointed the actual issue. He was correct, mare came right, but I always wondered after that!

 

[Trouper]

Responsible breeders in the German Shepherd Dog world have been trying to "breed out" the problem of hip dysplasia for decades and progress has been very slow. If you have to test for the allele very early and then take great care in how the horse is developed as it grows, then I can see the same rate of progress occurring in horses.

It would be wonderful if we could see some progress in this awful condition but it also bears out what many of us say that horses are pushed too far, too fast in their young days and are not given long enough to develop skeletally.

 

[Bernster]

Interesting. But I wonder if it’s a bit like the gene (or whatever the correct term is) for melanoma and it’s so prevalent it’s hard to breed it out.