Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> As far as I am concerned - recessive or not I personally would not breed
>  to horse (or breed a horse) that carried any  genetic disorder.
Then I guess you don't plan on breeding horses?  I doubt there is a horse
alive that does not carry some sort of "genetic disorder" of one form or
another.

The sad part about genetic testing is the backlash of folks who would toss
every horse that carries a testable problem gene--the geneticists
themselves don't recommend tossing them all out either, because that
increases the frequency in the gene pool of the lethals (and the genes
that cause clinical disease) for which there IS no test.  Instead,
geneticists advise using gene testing to manage diseases and gradually
reduce their frequency, instead of simply using them as a black-and-white
cull factor.

Heidi


============================================================
The very essence of our sport is doing the trail as quickly as practicable,
while keeping one's horse fit to continue.  Taking the clock out of the
equation makes it another sport altogether.  The challenge is how to keep
the sport what it is while honing our skills (both as riders and as those
in control roles) in detecting where "the edge" is for each horse so that
we don't cross it. 
~  Heidi Smith
ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

============================================================