The statistics would be hard to evaluate since many breeders (like me),
geld ALL males (I have no desire or facilities to stand a stud to
outside mares); and the rest, if they are responsible, wait to see how
those T males do in 3 year old bozal classes at the shows (where gait
and conformation is the criteria) before deciding if they go into the
bit as G or S.
I can't offer any statistics about the mare who produced the one cryptorchid
here, because it was Sina, and I don't plan to give her up long enough to
ever breed her again.
I've talked to our local repro vets and the vet community seems to have
the view that an inguinal cryptorchid or late descender isn't REALLY a
crytorchid.
That's not what I've read, but again, I think this isn't a common enough
problem with sufficient numbers of horses studied to gather any meaningful
statistics. I've heard a lot of Icelandic breeders and importers speak of
colts that don't descend until they are 18-24 months. That's VERY late,
especially since I think many of them were finally gelded, so who knows
if/when they would have descended. I gelded Landi at 12 months. His were
not only undescended, but were very, very small, but he was an inguinal
cryptorchid. Something was obviously wrong, and I've heard of other cases
much like his. The vet shouldn't have to go on a snipe hunt to find the
testicles of one year-old colt.
and was explicitly told by the vets at the clinic that the rule was
unnecessarily restrictive, since descent can be affected by so many
hormonal mediators and not just be a simple conformation issue.
I'm not sure I follow why that distinction might be important? Wouldn't
certain hormonal mediators possibly be genetic as well...? Is there a
reason that one wouldn't be just as troublesome as the other?
Never heard of a horse with a hernia.
I have heard of several. Plus with Icelandics, the history has been to eat
them or just bury them and not ask questions, so who knows how often it
actually occurs - either cryptorchidism or hernias. I know I've heard of
people finding colts dead for no apparent reason. Maybe none of those had
hernias, but we just don't know. People would rather spin sagas about this
breed than speak up about their actual experiences.
But the sisters and mothers of these colts are VERY fertile -- I can and
did successfully breed them in early Fall, on one cycle every time
(shipped or frozen semen or live cover), no slips, and didn't breed for
the first time until they were 10 or 12.
Hmm, I wasn't even thinking about whether any suspicious mares might or
might not be fertile - I just assumed they would be normally fertile. To
me, just the fact that the gelding surgery is more expensive and has a risk
of more complications is enough of a worry.
Karen Thomas, NC
