How do you look for Dwarfs in Pedigree?

[kaykay]

Robin

What a great post! I have long admired the work John has done in dwarf research and especially knowing the political pressures that can bring. The entire Eberth family is to be commended for having the guts to aknowledge the problem and try to do something about it.

Im so hopeful that when we get the information on where to donate, enough funds will be raised to finally answer some of these questions.

Stacey, I really admire you and your breeding program but I do disagree that knowing who is a carrier and what it takes to produce a dwarf from that carrier is a bad thing. At the end of the day it doesnt matter who the sire and dam are. What matters is knowing that a particular horse is a carrier and knowing who you can breed him or her too TO NOT produce another dwarf. Although it would be nice to be able to trace the bloodlines back. But i strongly feel that shouldnt stop the research from being done and moving forward because of inaccurate pedigrees.

Kay

 

[horsehug]

Robin,

I so very much appreciate your post! It was a few years ago when someone posted that they were doing a paper on dwarfism and you suggested they write to John, that I also wrote to him....... as I had been interested in this also.

Your approach echoes so very much what both your brother John and Tony Greaves have told me for several years now when I have emailed with them about this.

We are so fortunate that your mom and your family took the interest and put the time and effort and money they did to set the ground work for studying this.

Thank you so much, all of you.

Susan O.

 

[Buckskin gal]

Robin, Thank you so very much for enlightening us. It is so very good to be educated as to what has gone on and possibly will go on in the study of dwarfism. Your informtion on John is something many of us needed to know and to understand his position on dwarfism. :aktion033: :aktion033: :aktion033: More education is what we all need and benefit from. Mary

Everyone interested and watching this thread needs to know a little background about John Eberth and his interest in improving the miniature horse breed and his interest in dwarfism in our miniature horse breed. In 1994 my brother John and my mom, Marianne sat down and discussed a particular breeding problem with a certain stallion we owned. As a result, our farm donated this stallion to University of Kentucky and Dr. Swerzcek (who was the head of Equine Pathology), for research on a particular breeding project he was working on at that time. The Stallion was Komokos Wee Willie that Little King Farm had purchased from Komokos Ranch along with Komokos Little King Supreme back in 1981. This donation was a major decision that had a definite financial impact on our farm at the time. Wee Willie was Reserve National Grand Champion Senior Stallion in 1985. He had produced for us, 2 National Champions and was considered a cornerstone stallion in the LKF breeding program at that time. Although Little King Farm was not breeding the number of mares then as we are now, we were still goal oriented in producing the best horses possible.

Sale are hoping to donate a % of the gross sales at the Heritage Sale to this Program at the University of Kentucky and she would like to challenge all other miniature horse sales to do the same.

 

[lyn_j]

[SIZE=18pt]Robin, If your mom and John and anyone else can set up a foundation that we can donate to it would begin to solve many problems for the miniatures and also give those farms a tax exempt donation status. If there is any such thing in the works please let me know.[/SIZE]

Lyn

 

[Stacy Score]

KayKay,

I think you might have misinterpreted my post - I strongly wish to identify the carriers of the dwarf gene, however I believe that it needs to start with horses that are DNA PQ'd so as to not "tarnish" the bloodlines of their parents since in many, many instances we cannot really prove that the sire and dam listed on the papers are actually that horse's sire and dam - to "broadbrush" a horse/s that are not DNA PQ'd would have the effect that Robin is afraid of and smear the entire industry and cause a collapse that many could not recover from.

Also, I believe that we as breeders are doing a very good job in culling the dwarf carrying horses from our bloodlines - we see far fewer dwarves born now than were born 20 years ago - to me that means that we are moving in the right direction, and that in time the percentage of dwarves born will go lower and lower until it is considered a rare occurrence.

Yes, there were known dwarfs being used in the breeding of our miniatures, yes, we know of many of the well-documented ones. My personal opinion is that when breeding our miniatures that there are certain bloodlines that tend to "attract" genes to one another, and if these horses are carrying the dwarf gene then there is a higher percentage of dwarfs produced than when these same animals are bred to horses with different bloodlines - but that is just my opinion.

Stacy

 

[kaykay]

i agree stacey

 

[Miniv]

I think you might have misinterpreted my post - I strongly wish to identify the carriers of the dwarf gene, however I believe that it needs to start with horses that are DNA PQ'd so as to not "tarnish" the bloodlines of their parents since in many, many instances we cannot really prove that the sire and dam listed on the papers are actually that horse's sire and dam - to "broadbrush" a horse/s that are not DNA PQ'd would have the effect that Robin is afraid of and smear the entire industry and cause a collapse that many could not recover from.

Stacy

I completely agree with that.

I would also strongly support a foundation where donations would be collected for research on the dwarf gene. I think it is long overdue.

MA

 

[Margaret]

This is so good. The day will come when people will be able to make conclusive informed decisions about breeding, and what they add to their herd! :aktion033: