>>>>> Is there anything to support the belief that Icelandics as a breed have spavin any more than any other breed? Mic
Judy has cited a study before that was done in Iceland. However, for me, I have no doubt. I'd heard of spavin before I got my Icelandics, but just barely. (I worked as an assistant 4H leader for a few years while Emily was involved, so I took all the judging and educational courses I could, and we coached a couple of Horse Bowl teams what went to the state finals, and who did well. Ok, I started out really as an over-age kid, but I learned tons, that way, reading The Horse and Equus, vet care books, etc..) Anyway, back to the subject...I was around a lot of horses pre-Icelandics, eight of my own, including two that showed a good bit, plus the horses of friends and neighbors, Emily's friends, the horses at the clinics we took, and I never heard anyone talking about bone spavin. There might have been few cases out there that I missed hearing about, but it certainly wasn't a common, everyday diagnosis in other breeds. Then I joined the lists, and bam - everyone was talking about bone spavin. That was prior to the day when the lists pretty much divided as they are now. Someone would announce that their horse had just been diagnosed, and 6-8 would reply, "Oh, when Sleipnir was diagnosed, we did..." That almost gave me whiplash, going from thinking that bone spavin was rather unusual, and something mostly affecting older performance horses to something that was regularly and casually discussed, even to the point of having notes compared. Many of the Icelandic's I heard diagnosed were under 10 - not older horses! And it's notable that it's NOT discussed nearly so much on this list...where a good percentage of the horses are domestic-born, never shown on ice, and generally not ridden like bats-outa-hell on hard or icy surfaces. It didn't take me long to hear the corollary tales - discussions of which studs and ice nails people installed in their horse's shoes for the winter. There were even articles about ice-nails/studs in either (both?) Tolt News and the Quarterly. With a breed with such small numbers as the Icelandic breed has, and with so many horses in the world, I'm always surprised to hear about ANY studies done specifically for Icelandic's. Studies are expensive and time-consuming to do correctly. Researchers don't generally have tons of money lying around, and tend to do more work aimed at helping the largest number of horses - which often means three-gaited horses. (And do you know another breed so careless as to advertise Ice Tolts....? I don't.) While we sitting back, not holding our breath for more studies, we can look around for evidence of critters walking, sounding and looking like ducks, to paraphrase the old saying. I found enough evidence to surprise me among all the quacking. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.4/1226 - Release Date: 1/15/2008 6:19 PM IceHorses Community for Photos and Videos: http://kickapps.com/icehorses "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
