Maybe this is something I’m just now aware of since it came up in a recent vetting, but I’ve noticed more and more sport horses (specifically warmbloods) with dropped fetlocks or bad angles in the fetlocks (45 degrees). Is this a new flaw in breeding? Does anyone have any research to support this? I’m mostly curious if anyone else has taken notice. I also don’t know too much about how dropped fetlocks occur besides injury, I just know that it can be degenerative and often cause lameness issues.
Yes, there have been several threads here about dsld. Not so much a new flaw, but the genetics are now being recognized and it’s understood now to be progressive, not just bad conformation but the soft tissues break down over the whole body.
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Well, are they soft, dropped or DSLD?
How old? Degree of work? Conformation?
Can’t know if it’s DSLD (now called EPSA, as it’s a systemic connective tissue disorder) without ultrasounds and nuchal ligament biopsy.
Many older horses, particularly WBs, do display slightly dropped pasterns as they get older - especially if they are straighter through the femur-stifle-to hock. This places a little more strain on the connective tissue in the lower limb and over time tendons and ligaments lose their elasticity. This type of conformation is favorable for UL athleticism, and the dropped pasterns are a side effect of years of wear & tear.
There are several stallions with “soft” pasterns, especially dressage stallions - where the extravagant movement seems to have made a horse with far more reach and elasticity than in years past. Whether or not this is related to EPSA/DSLD, I can’t say. Some stallions with soft pasterns do have offspring with DSLD/EPSA.
Be careful not to diagnose DSLD/EPSA from a photo alone. Not all dropped pasterns are indicative of the disease.
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yeah you can’t say definitively if something is dsld just from looking at, but I have a breeder friend, was given a new youngish warmblood mare, I saw her, said looks like dsld, and she immediately went back. It’s nothing new, but it’s also something I have no interest in messing around with, and hope other breeders don’t either.
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Considerable research into DSLD-EPSA has been ongoing since it was discovered early and consistently in Peruvian Pasos. Since that time, the “few” other breeds has become quite a lot of horses in many breeds. No matter, it’s hard to get better results when starting out flawed. It is a hearbreaking, degenerative and extremely painful disease that only gets worse. 
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This is one thing that’s a deal breaker for me.
Any excessive softness is the pasterns as a younger horse is something I just wont gamble on. EPSA is such an utterly horrible condition (I have personal experience) , that I would never take a chance.
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