Please tell me about management of the HYPP H/N horse

[Fox_Wood_Farm]

I understand the genetics and the physiology. But I have zero real-world experience with HYPP or QHs at all. I’m helping a friend shop for a lesson horse. Looking at one that seems perfect except for the H/N status. 11yo gelding who “has never had any issues or episodes”. That the seller knows about, if we even believe that.

I know about keeping dietary K below 1%. And that a corn syrup Drench can stop or reduce the severity of an episode if caught early.

Horse will be used in therapeutic program and also with some regular beginners. Very light duty.

I just have no idea what the odds are that this specific horse will continue to be asymptomatic with diet managed. Can anybody help me out?

[HenryisBlaisin]

I’ve known a couple and the one thing I do remember the most is that the episodes could happen any time, without warning. There’s no guarantee that a horse will remain episode-free, even if it has never had one before. Personally, I would not touch one with a 20-foot pole for a lesson or therapy program…if a kid gets hurt due to an episode and you knew beforehand that the horse is positive…that’s a massive lawsuit waiting to happen.

[Fox_Wood_Farm]

[QUOTE=HenryisBlaisin’;7956557]
I’ve known a couple and the one thing I do remember the most is that the episodes could happen any time, without warning. There’s no guarantee that a horse will remain episode-free, even if it has never had one before. Personally, I would not touch one with a 20-foot pole for a lesson or therapy program…if a kid gets hurt due to an episode and you knew beforehand that the horse is positive…that’s a massive lawsuit waiting to happen.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Henry - that was my first thought exactly!

[Plainandtall]

I think that therapy horses have to be vet checked and cleared annually as a part of the insurance (or pro therapy regs?) I don’t think an insurance company would allow that horse in a therapy program. I’m drawing on a situation involving a very healthy seeming and perfect temperment haflinger who was working for several years at a therapy farm and then came up with a heart murmur during the annual vet check and had to be retired and out of the program right away even though she’s never shown any problems.

[gaitedincali]

You have no way of knowing when and if this horse will have an episode. They can be asymptomatic and manageable for 20 years, have a massive attack and keel over dead at 21.

I bought a N/N mare once whose sire was N/H. Stallion owner bragged that he hadn’t had an episode in 15 years and she didn’t even watch his diet all that well. You can guess what happened the next month. A friend’s N/H 3yo had never had an attack. He died the day before they were leaving for the World Show where he’d qualified in western pleasure. Another friend went out to feed and found her 6yo N/H mare dead in her stall. I house and barn sat for a lady with a 12yo N/H mare that “never had any problems”. Of course she has a massive attack the first day I was there!

There are N/H horses who don’t ever have an issue, but I sure as heck wouldn’t risk it.

[VTMorgan06]

Run away. There are too many nice horses out there to get involved with this one, especially if it’s intended to be a lesson horse! I get so irritated when people say “he’s n/h but he’s asymptotic” yeah right, that’s just a horse who is hasn’t had an episode YET. I’m honestly disgusted that in 2015 with all that we know about genetics and this disease that is is still this common. It’s shameful that AQHA hasn’t done more to eradicate it.

[cutter99]

There is absolutely NO WAY I would have a lesson horse that is N/H. That is a lawsuit just waiting to happen!

There are most definitely things you can do to help manage a horse that is N/H, but I wouldn’t even want to give someone that advice if their intention is to use the horse for lessons.

[furlong47]

No way for a lesson horse and even more so for a therapy horse.

[roseymare]

While I wouldn’t take the risk of a n/h horse as a therapy horse, I feel that if a n/h horse dies people may blame the disease for the death without a necropsy. It may not always be the case. In some it probably is but others probably not.

[Macimage]

We would not purchase a N/H horse. There is always the danger of them having an episode while being ridden and that is a risk we would never take.

[gaitedincali]

[QUOTE=roseymare;7957044]
While I wouldn’t take the risk of a n/h horse as a therapy horse, I feel that if a n/h horse dies people may blame the disease for the death without a necropsy. It may not always be the case. In some it probably is but others probably not.[/QUOTE]

If I had started listing the N/H horses I knew who died were a necropsy wasn’t done and HYPP blamed, the list would have been about 8x longer. Now, whether the copy of the necropsy report that went to the insurance company said the same thing as the verbal report to the owner, that’s another story.

HYPP attacks can and do cause sudden death.

[fordtraktor]

The potential liability is just astronomical if a lesson kid gets hurt and you knew the horse had a latent defect that could cause an attack like this. Don’t do it, from a lawyer point of view. this is one of the few times I feel comfortable giving legal advice on the Internet – this is a super bad idea for a lesson program.