Stallion with suspected DSLD

[4horses]

Another thoroughbred:
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/south+beach+baby
https://thehorse.com/128373/degenerative-suspensory-ligament-desmitis/

[4horses]

Another thoroughbred with the disease. Here’s the bloodlines.

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/south+beach+baby

[skydy]

@4horses

This is the thoroughbred Grey Dawn II. This would be advanced disease.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grey…ymnX0twd0HAQ1M

Mr Prospector. A couple images over time. Did he have it for certain??? I can’t say, but it does look probable. Interesting that he stands in the same position for all 3 pictures.

Grey Dawn looks fine to me. Are you sure you don’t mean Two Punch, or is the photo mislabeled?

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

Oh my goodness - that picture of Grey Dawn! Seriously advanced disease. Hats absolutely awful to see.

It was included in an article about Two Punch, but it was in fact a photo of Grey Dawn.

[skydy]

Thanks. I didn’t read the article about Two Punch. I have now. :yes:

[beowulf]

@4horses

This is the thoroughbred Grey Dawn II. This would be advanced disease.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grey…ymnX0twd0HAQ1M

Mr Prospector. A couple images over time. Did he have it for certain??? I can’t say, but it does look probable. Interesting that he stands in the same position for all 3 pictures.

This is a good example of why you can’t diagnose EPSA/DSLD through photos… or sometimes, even through visual examination.

In the first photo, Mr P is in his teens. In the middle and last photo he is aged. Check out his fundament - that is, the relationship between his hip, femur, stifle, hock, cannon – essentially, look at the whole hind end configuration, in all three photos. When you do that, you will see that Mr P was – and is – a functionally very straight horse behind. So was Grey Dawn.

This is a good example of what happens to straight-legged horses over time. The accumulated stresses of their poor conformation causes structural failure - usually in the form of suspensory desmitis.They gradually become straighter and straighter as they age. This is the same for all horses regardless if they have DSLD/ESPA or not.

I am still not certain Mr P had DSLD/ESPA. When it is that advanced that it causes the pasterns to drop, it usually correlates with a loss of condition as well, since it is not just the pasterns that are suffering, but the whole body.

I have never heard that Mr P has offspring with DSLD - and he shows up as often as 3-5x in modern pedigrees now, and of those horses a good number of them are at the age where DSLD would be obvious.