> >>> The Horse cited the highest known incident of the disorder being in >Standardbreds, at about 10%. > >One other thought, Janice. There are a lot of racking horses in your area - >probably some cross-breds too? Standardbreds are a major part of the gene >pool in the racking "breed". That might explain why you may be seeing more, >as racking horses grow in popularity. > >Karen Thomas, NC
Cryptorchism appears to be a complex disorder -- ranging from one or more testicles being no where near the scrotum (in one of my geldings the vets found the second, very little testicle nestled by his spine; in another they both dropped down with a little digital manipulation by the vet (I continued with the gelding process anyway)). And the genetics doesn't seem to be simple. In the US and Canada the Peuvian horse registries require that any stallion registered for breeding must have a vet certificate stating that the horse "has two normally descended testicles". The cryptorchids I've had go back at least two generations on both sire and dam side through stallions registered under that requirement. Yet the occasional cryptorchid still shows up. -- Lynn Kinsky, Santa Ynez, CA http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/
