Oh for sure! I didn’t contact her sooner because she specifically asked me to give her ‘a few days’ to get the video.
I know the foal sold but this Spring I “purchased” a newborn filly. The breeder’s contract required a deposit with full payment required at weaning. However, the deposit was refundable in case of death or injury. This worked in my favor as less than a week after purchase, the filly was found dead. I really did appreciate the way this breeder handled the sale of their foals and will definitely try again next year.
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All good knowledge for the next time! Thank you for sharing. That kind of contract would be fantastic if I find another foal I’m interested in.
I bought one at 2 weeks old. I paid 25% down, balance before shipping. I was overseas at the time, and sent the weanling to a trainer in AZ to grow up, show a little on the line, etc. He got started at 3yo and started having some soundness/neuro issues. X-rays confirmed significant wobblers and he was PTS that year. That was many years ago, and we now know a lot more about wobblers and KS-predisposition.
Since then, I’ve bred a few of my own foals, and have since determined that’s even harder. After spending tens of thousands with no resulting foals, the stress and frustration of dealing with breeding/repro vets, and then seeing the young ones try to kill themselves or each other in turnout, I’ve since decided to just save my pennies and buy 3+yos…
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I’ve always been lucky with getting my mares into foal but keeping them alive in mint or even useable condition is the struggle! I’m glad for the experience but buying 3+ year olds is much more appealing these days.
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I would second this - As I was struggling to figure out the cause of declining performance in my 10 yr old, malformations were raised and I did as much reading as I could. In my gelding’s case, it was not congenital malformation, but it is shocking as to read her studies.
This is potentially a naive (I know little about young horses) and definitely off topic but would you be able to see the C6-C7 malformation that young? I thought one of the issues with sporthorses and racehorses was the age at which there’s completion of growth in the neck/back
ClaireBear, I don’t have a clear answer to your question, and this is something to which I’ve given a lot of thought, because of the following experience.
A foal I bought over in Germany and left there to be raised suffered a catastrophic, permanently disabling pasture “accident”–per the farmer, slip-and-fall on slick pasture. She was a yearling by then–IIRC literally about 12 months. The German vet clinic sent radiographs taken not long after the fall–as soon as she could be transported safely to the clinic–which I sent to one of the top practices in the U.S. that routinely reviews radiographs for TB yearlings in the sales. The Dr. there found the more severe form of C6-C7 malformation, with transposition of the “wings” of C6 onto C7. My point is, this could be determined on a yearling, albeit with the more powerful equipment in a clinic (non mobile). I don’t know whether e.g. weanlings could be screened. Also, I don’t think the fall of my filly was an “accident” but rather a consequence of the malformation (possibly intermittent interruption of nerve impulse signals along the spinal cord?).
After that experience, I am loathe to buy more weanlings without a good look at least at C6. Apparently, if C6 is normal, C7 will be also. I don’t know whether it is possible/feasible to get a definitive answer re status of C6-C7 in a weanling. A couple of “regular” vet clinics I spoke with in the US hadn’t even heard of ECVM–this was a couple of years ago, but still…I was surprised. So, you’d have to have a knowledgeable vet willing to follow the protocol, and probably transport the weanling to a clinic. Good luck doing that for a PPE. The original Japanese paper that describes the imaging protocol for viewing C6-C7 used a mobile X-ray machine but it sounded like some super-powerful Japanese model, so perhaps not widely available. Plus, you’d have to sedate the foal…again, good luck getting the seller to go along.
I haven’t kept up with current research on ECVM since that discouraging experience but wonder whether European breed registries are doing any sort of screening, at least of e.g. young stallions before approval (2.5 years old so should be possible). Have high-$$$ TB sales now begun including C6-C7/cervical vertebrae screening in the radiographs taken for pre-sale review? Also, I believe studies were underway to determine whether C6-C7 malformations correlate with performance issues and whether there is a heritable basis. This was a sensitive and controversial topic among stallion owners and big breeders over in Europe. I don’t know whether any further answers have been forthcoming.
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Thanks for that explanation and I’m so sorry to hear about your young horse.
According to a large study there is no correlation between the “malformation” and clinical issues. That is what the data very clearly says despite all the online social media hysteria. Do some horses have debilitating, horrible neck issues? Yes, sadly. Horses can have a plethora of things go wrong with them. However, many many healthy, clinically normal sport horses have abnormal neck, back etc rads. That is just reality.
Bottom line is, if you cant handle risk, don’t get a horse but most certainly, do not get a foal!!. Happy to have made the decision to breed mostly for myself now and riders can take their unrealistic expectations and have a go at this themselves. And lose money doing it. Good luck! 🤦
Ps, for those of you unaware, there is zero point in xraying a 1.5 month old foal if you are looking for the typical things x-rays are used to find.
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A while after the filly’s injury, I heard incidentally (from someone unconnected to the matter) that the sire was known for producing offspring with “neck problems.” The foal came from a longtime, knowledgeable German breeder who I doubt was aware of the issue.
I’d be happy to see a better study showing that this morphology is directly linked to clinical issues…so far I haven’t seen one? I don’t see a problem with a lack of follow up from a ppe. Horses were actively being used as riding horses that were obviously unaffected by the morphology. Further studies would be great though. Further social media hysterics not so much.
