Re: [RC] The nutritional guide to lame babies - Heidi Smith
Excuse me, Lauren, but nutrition and early
environmental influence are the main factors in club-footedness. And
likewise, "I have no doubt about this." The genetic component seems to be
an over-sensitivity to imbalances in the diet--indeed, some families are much
more prone to them, given bad management. But horses with "all the
genetics in the world" for club-footedness will NOT produce club feet if the
horses have BALANCED diets and are not overfed. It is becoming prevalent
in our breed primarily because babies tend to grow up one of two ways--either
undernourished with imbalanced diets and no foot care, or in "show" feeding
sorts of situations where they are heavily grained and "pushed." There
isn't much in between. And either one is a recipe for club feet,
especially if the youngsters are comfined, to boot.
Subject: [RC] The nutritional guide to
lame babies
I strongly disagree with Linda's
post about club footedness being related to too much food (nutrition).
Although I know nothing about morgans one of my big pet peeves in the arabian
breed is the frequency that I see horses with club feet, or mostly high
heel/low heel. THIS IS GENETIC. I have no doubt about this but I won't rule
out other less frequent causes of this major fault.
