RockRiverTiff
Well-Known Member
Well here goes! I said over a week ago I would be making this post, and I've given myself plenty of time to reflect as well as to let my emotions settle. First I'd like to show off our 2012 foals.
Rock Rivers Reckless Road Runner (Roady)
Rock Rivers Reckless With Rum (Rummy)
Tinker (aka Tinker The Stinker)
Rock Rivers Little Homewrecker (Lil)
Rock Rivers Reckess Resolution (Petey)
As some of you may have noticed or already known, one of these foals is different. My sweet little Tink is a dwarf. I knew that dwarfism was a common problem with minis, but until I announced my own dwarf last week, I had no idea how common the problem was, or how many people think it's inappropriate to acknowledge that problem. Ever since I was a little girl, breeding the caliber of minis that I saw in the World has been my most enduring dream. When my grandfather passed away 20 years ago, it became a very lonely dream, but I've always found solidarity and support in the rest of the mini community. I think the biggest shock of all in this experience has been discovering how what seemed like a harmless personal choice was interpreted by so many as a "self-righteous" judgment of their own choices. I hope this thread can be used for an open, civilized discussion on both sides of the dwarfism debate.
I want to preface this by saying that when it comes to my belief of how dwarfism occurs, I accept John Eberth's theory. As far as I can tell, this is the only theory that is backed by extensive, mini-specific research. I received many emails from people that have their own theories, and while I respect their right to form their own opinions, I also think some people are willfully spreading misinformation. Having noted that, I am going to use some of John's statistics to argue three of the most common misconceptions I heard, but I want to be clear that my opinions are in no way endorsed by him and that when it comes to how I am choosing to handle the issue, my opinion is sometimes opposed to his.
Some people told me that all minis carry the gene. If this were true, then Double Destiny (who John stated back in 2007 had never produced a dwarf, having had around 200 foals at the time) would have beat some pretty incredible odds. With a 25% chance of producing a dwarf from two carriers, we'd be having an awful lot of dwarfs, though I already suspect people are having far more than are being acknowledged. Others told me that dwarfs are spontaneous. I can understand why people think that, since you could breed the same two carriers together for years and never have a dwarf, or have one and in all likelihood never have one again, but obviously the well-known carriers that are/were bred more extensively and produced numerous known dwarfs show clearly that in most if not all cases dwarfism is inherited. Some people also pointed the finger at just one parent, but I confirmed with John that he still firmly believes that all five known types of dwarfism in minis are recessive, and therefore both parents must carry and pass on the gene (or one must be homozygous for it/a dwarf) in order to produce a dwarf.
The last point leads me to a different issue I'd like to address. I've many times on this forum seen people try to blame dwarfism on poorly conformed horses, but I think few people would argue that the sire and dam of my dwarf are not quality. I searched years for a stallion with the conformation, pedigree and show record of the sire. The dam is also very correct with a known pedigree, and I had seen all five of her previous foals including a Supreme Champion. The current estimates on how much of the mini gene pool is affected by dwarfism are 50-75%. If you also believe the current, popular theory on how dwarfism occurs, then you can understand why those numbers are so staggering. Some people told me that "There is no way to avoid producing a dwarf," and if the estimates of dwarfism's prevalence in our current gene pool are correct, then I understand why they feel that way.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why the heck I feel the need to air all of my dirty laundry, but so many people have questioned me on this decision that I feel the need to explain it, if only to get it off my chest once and for all. I knew immediately after delivering my dwarf that I wasn't going ot use the sire and dam for breeding anymore. A lot of people have told me I am wasting these horses, and I want to be clear that even though I thought I knew how I felt about dwarfism before Tink was born (which is still very much the way I feel now), it was still a difficult decision for me. All four of the normal foals pictured above have the same sire as Tink, and I'm not disappointed in a single one of them. I've literally had minis in my life as long as I can remember, and I've always planned to have them in my life until the day I die. Being relatively young, that means that I think about the future not only of my own horses but of minis as a whole often. If a majority of the mini population are already carriers, and even carriers bred to non-carriers have a 50% chance of passing on a dwarfism gene, then it stands to reason that the only way we can reduce the prevalence of dwarfism in our gene pool is to remove some carriers - even once a test is available. I know that two carriers also have a 25% chance of producing a non-carrier, but when you look at the flip side of the coin that means they have an overall 75% chance of passing on the genes in some form (either a carrier or a dwarf). Those aren't odds I'm comfortable playing with, and that's why I'm not breeding the sire and dam of the dwarf anymore. In fact, those odds have made me so uncomfortable that I've decided I probably should leave breeding to the more adventurous, stout-hearted or business-minded people.
This brings me to my final point, and it's not entirely dwarfism related. My decision not to breed anymore does not mean I'm getting out of minis. For the longest time, when I thought of my minis breeding was just a given. The decision not to breed anymore resulted in a few really dark days for me, and then one day I looked at the horses I already have and realized I won't love them any less if I never have another foal, and that in all truth I'll probably get a lot more out of them if I do away with all the stress and cost and time that breeding and foaling requires. All the time we talk about how bad the market is on here, and if we're honest with ourselves it can't all be blamed on the economy. So many people implied or outright said that my horses would be wasted if I wasn't breeding them. If we continue to promote breeding as the primary benefit of our minis, how on earth can we sustain a market for them? I don't judge anyone for breeding, or even for breeding carriers when they make an effort to do it responsibly, but I do think it's a no-brainer that we need to decrease the emphasis on minis as being fun to breed and increase the emphasis on minis being fun to own, show, drive, etc. Maybe if we built our market around the usability instead of the breedability of our horses, there wouldn't be so much concern about how the carrier status of a horse affects its value.
Rock Rivers Reckless Road Runner (Roady)
Rock Rivers Reckless With Rum (Rummy)
Tinker (aka Tinker The Stinker)
Rock Rivers Little Homewrecker (Lil)
Rock Rivers Reckess Resolution (Petey)
As some of you may have noticed or already known, one of these foals is different. My sweet little Tink is a dwarf. I knew that dwarfism was a common problem with minis, but until I announced my own dwarf last week, I had no idea how common the problem was, or how many people think it's inappropriate to acknowledge that problem. Ever since I was a little girl, breeding the caliber of minis that I saw in the World has been my most enduring dream. When my grandfather passed away 20 years ago, it became a very lonely dream, but I've always found solidarity and support in the rest of the mini community. I think the biggest shock of all in this experience has been discovering how what seemed like a harmless personal choice was interpreted by so many as a "self-righteous" judgment of their own choices. I hope this thread can be used for an open, civilized discussion on both sides of the dwarfism debate.
I want to preface this by saying that when it comes to my belief of how dwarfism occurs, I accept John Eberth's theory. As far as I can tell, this is the only theory that is backed by extensive, mini-specific research. I received many emails from people that have their own theories, and while I respect their right to form their own opinions, I also think some people are willfully spreading misinformation. Having noted that, I am going to use some of John's statistics to argue three of the most common misconceptions I heard, but I want to be clear that my opinions are in no way endorsed by him and that when it comes to how I am choosing to handle the issue, my opinion is sometimes opposed to his.
Some people told me that all minis carry the gene. If this were true, then Double Destiny (who John stated back in 2007 had never produced a dwarf, having had around 200 foals at the time) would have beat some pretty incredible odds. With a 25% chance of producing a dwarf from two carriers, we'd be having an awful lot of dwarfs, though I already suspect people are having far more than are being acknowledged. Others told me that dwarfs are spontaneous. I can understand why people think that, since you could breed the same two carriers together for years and never have a dwarf, or have one and in all likelihood never have one again, but obviously the well-known carriers that are/were bred more extensively and produced numerous known dwarfs show clearly that in most if not all cases dwarfism is inherited. Some people also pointed the finger at just one parent, but I confirmed with John that he still firmly believes that all five known types of dwarfism in minis are recessive, and therefore both parents must carry and pass on the gene (or one must be homozygous for it/a dwarf) in order to produce a dwarf.
The last point leads me to a different issue I'd like to address. I've many times on this forum seen people try to blame dwarfism on poorly conformed horses, but I think few people would argue that the sire and dam of my dwarf are not quality. I searched years for a stallion with the conformation, pedigree and show record of the sire. The dam is also very correct with a known pedigree, and I had seen all five of her previous foals including a Supreme Champion. The current estimates on how much of the mini gene pool is affected by dwarfism are 50-75%. If you also believe the current, popular theory on how dwarfism occurs, then you can understand why those numbers are so staggering. Some people told me that "There is no way to avoid producing a dwarf," and if the estimates of dwarfism's prevalence in our current gene pool are correct, then I understand why they feel that way.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why the heck I feel the need to air all of my dirty laundry, but so many people have questioned me on this decision that I feel the need to explain it, if only to get it off my chest once and for all. I knew immediately after delivering my dwarf that I wasn't going ot use the sire and dam for breeding anymore. A lot of people have told me I am wasting these horses, and I want to be clear that even though I thought I knew how I felt about dwarfism before Tink was born (which is still very much the way I feel now), it was still a difficult decision for me. All four of the normal foals pictured above have the same sire as Tink, and I'm not disappointed in a single one of them. I've literally had minis in my life as long as I can remember, and I've always planned to have them in my life until the day I die. Being relatively young, that means that I think about the future not only of my own horses but of minis as a whole often. If a majority of the mini population are already carriers, and even carriers bred to non-carriers have a 50% chance of passing on a dwarfism gene, then it stands to reason that the only way we can reduce the prevalence of dwarfism in our gene pool is to remove some carriers - even once a test is available. I know that two carriers also have a 25% chance of producing a non-carrier, but when you look at the flip side of the coin that means they have an overall 75% chance of passing on the genes in some form (either a carrier or a dwarf). Those aren't odds I'm comfortable playing with, and that's why I'm not breeding the sire and dam of the dwarf anymore. In fact, those odds have made me so uncomfortable that I've decided I probably should leave breeding to the more adventurous, stout-hearted or business-minded people.
This brings me to my final point, and it's not entirely dwarfism related. My decision not to breed anymore does not mean I'm getting out of minis. For the longest time, when I thought of my minis breeding was just a given. The decision not to breed anymore resulted in a few really dark days for me, and then one day I looked at the horses I already have and realized I won't love them any less if I never have another foal, and that in all truth I'll probably get a lot more out of them if I do away with all the stress and cost and time that breeding and foaling requires. All the time we talk about how bad the market is on here, and if we're honest with ourselves it can't all be blamed on the economy. So many people implied or outright said that my horses would be wasted if I wasn't breeding them. If we continue to promote breeding as the primary benefit of our minis, how on earth can we sustain a market for them? I don't judge anyone for breeding, or even for breeding carriers when they make an effort to do it responsibly, but I do think it's a no-brainer that we need to decrease the emphasis on minis as being fun to breed and increase the emphasis on minis being fun to own, show, drive, etc. Maybe if we built our market around the usability instead of the breedability of our horses, there wouldn't be so much concern about how the carrier status of a horse affects its value.
