AQHA now offers a panel test for five genetic tests.

Completing the genetic panel test helps breeders make informed decisions. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Genetic diseases cause emotional and financial pain for horse owners and breeders. To help breeders make informed decisions, AQHA now offers a panel test for five genetic diseases – glycogen branching enzyme deficiency, heredity equine regional dermal asthenia, hyperkalemic periodic paralysis, malignant hyperthermia and polysaccharide storage myopathy.

When the test is ordered, AQHA will send a DNA kit, and the owner will mail it to the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California-Davis for testing. Once the tests are complete, AQHA will notify the owners and put the results on the horse’s record and certificate of registration.

The tests cost $85 for members and $125 for nonmembers. For the panel test in conjunction with the DNA test required for most breeding stock, the cost is $105 for members.

Stay tuned to AQHA.com for upcoming information about ordering the panel test.

The effects of these diseases are wide-ranging, from mild and manageable to severe and terminal. Passing these diseases on to successive generations often causes unnecessary suffering and also leads to financial losses for breeders.

Teach your Quarter Horse from the ground up with AQHA’s FREE Horse Training Fundamentals with expert advice from AQHA Professional Horseman Ken McNabb.

GBED: Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency

Disorder: An autosomal recessive disease caused by mutation in the GBE1 gene. Read the rest of this entry »

Breeding farm managers suggest steps to take now that can save time and money later.

Booking early gives early warning and helps prepare the breeding farm for any special needs your mare might have. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Whether you are breeding 100 mares or just one, breeding farm managers recommend planning early for next year’s season.

By thoroughly researching your favorite stallions and making your selection in the fall, you increase your chances of booking the stallion you really want. Read the rest of this entry »

Is your mare getting the care she needs to produce a healthy, happy foal?

Are your broodmares ready for foaling season? Journal photo.

From AQHA Corporate Partner Pfizer

Many American Quarter Horse mares are now pregnant and waiting for the spring foaling season.

The goal of any breeder is to keep the mare healthy throughout the pregnancy and then deliver a normal, vivacious foal. Read the rest of this entry »

The difference in the AQHA Appendix and Quarter Horse registries.

AQHA Customer Service Rep Kayla Randall

In my previous post, Thoroughbred Recording, I gave you all a little information about listing a Jockey Club-registered Thoroughbred on AQHA records for breeding purposes. But what happens once the foal is born? Since AQHA is a breed registry, how does a horse that is not completely Quarter Horse get registered and differentiated from full-blooded Quarter Horses?

AQHA has created a special registry and numbering system for these Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred crosses. These horses are considered Quarter Horses, but are named for the registry system created for them — Appendix. They are denoted by a registration certificate that is white with a gold border (or completely gold if you have an older-style certificate) instead of blue. Their registration numbers also begin with an X.  AQHA has registered more than 600,000 Appendix horses to date.

Read the rest of this entry »

This little mare made a big impact on the horse industry.

By Richard Chamberlain in The American Quarter Horse Journal

When Chicado V died of an apparent heart attack in February 1972, she was the only mare who had produced five AAAT offspring. Journal photo.

Dark clouds are supposed to have silver linings. Consider, for example, Chicado V. Blessed with tremendous talent, Chicado V (chick ah doo vee) ran on her own dark cloud: legs fast enough to propel her to records, but calf-kneed and crooked enough that she could not keep it up. When the filly pulled up lame on a California racetrack, never to race again, the silver lining was her extraordinary ability as a broodmare. Chicado V had what it took. Read the rest of this entry »

Guard your mare in late summer against heat, bugs and sparse pasture in Part 1 of this series.

By Denise Steffanus in The American Quarter Horse Journal

Take the appropriate steps to ensure your pregnant mare has a pleasant summer. Journal photo.

Being pregnant in the summer is no day at the beach for mares. Add a suckling foal at her side and you can understand why she pins her ears as sweat drips down her body and flies nip at her teats.

For a mare whose body is already stressed by nurturing a foal – on the ground, in utero or both – coping with heat, bugs and slim pickings in the pasture can put all of them in danger. Read the rest of this entry »

Helping protect the next generation of American Quarter Horses

From AQHA Corporate Partner Pfizer Animal Health

Protect your precious foal from the many infectious diseases it will be exposed to. Journal photo.

With the foaling season in full swing, many new American Quarter Horses are being born at farms, ranches and breeding facilities around the country. Early foals may be several months old now, about the time that owners and breeders should consider initial vaccinations. While most foals are protected from common equine diseases by maternal antibodies in the mare’s colostrum for the first few months of life, they need to start a course of vaccinations as soon as those maternal antibody levels begin to drop. Read the rest of this entry »

After foaling, it may take several weeks for a mare to return to riding.

By Dr. Ben Espy for American Association of Equine Practitioners, an AQHA alliance partner

After foaling, a mare who was fit before pregnancy can usually return to riding sooner than one who was out of shape.

My initial response is the same as a human obstetrician’s answer would be to a patient who asks how soon she can start working out after having a baby: “It depends.”

What was her condition before the pregnancy? Were there any foaling complications? Like the professional human athlete who returns to world-class competition 60 days after having a baby, a fit, healthy mare can bounce back from a pregnancy fairly quickly. And, similar to those human mothers who are bedridden for months after a birth, mares who entered motherhood unfit or unsound may be incapacitated afterward for an extended period of time. Read the rest of this entry »

These AAEP guidelines will help you make decisions on your foal’s immunizations.

This foal vaccination guide can also be found by going to AAEP.org.

By Dr. Thomas R. Lenz for The American Quarter Horse Journal

In 2010 the American Association of Equine Practitioners revised its vaccination recommendations and expanded the list of core vaccinations that should be administered to every horse in the United States regardless of location or occupation. The core vaccines now include Eastern and Western Encephalitis, tetanus, West Nile virus and rabies.

There is also a list of “risk-based” vaccines that can be given to horses that may be exposed to these diseases, either because of their occupation or the part of the country in which they live. Those include Potomac horse fever, equine influenza (flu), equine herpes virus 1 &4, and strangles. Respiratory diseases like these are especially dangerous for traveling horses and should be vaccinated against.  Your equine veterinarian is your best source of information on risk-based vaccines for your horse.

Can you spot the signs of Potomac horse fever? Do you know how this devastating disease is contracted? Be prepared with AQHA’s FREE Potomac Horse Fever Report. Download and print it out today!

Schedule A (see table) is for foals whose mothers received a vaccine booster four to six weeks prior to foaling. Her high level of colostrum serves to protect the foal for several months, but could also block any vaccine given too early after birth. Schedule B, which can be found by going to AAEP.org, is for foals whose mothers were not boostered prior to foaling and, as a result, their colostrum may contain lower levels of antibodies; these foals will need to be vaccinated at an earlier age.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tips on caring for your motherless foal.

By Kimberly French and Becky Newell in America’s Horse

Peppy learned to play tug-of-war, but otherwise was not allowed puppy-like manners.

Kari Frolander of Enterprise, Oregon, owned her first horse before she could walk. At 14, she trained and cared for horses to save up enough money to buy a horse. She won the county all-around horseman title every year of her eight-year 4-H career.

So it’s not a stretch to say that Kari lives and breathes horses. That connection with horses carried through to her relationship with BKT Pitchin Penny, a mare she bought as a 3-year-old in 1992. “Penny” had been a reliable broodmare for years, but one year, it was different. In 2007, Kari told America’s Horse about her experiences. Read the rest of this entry »

Is your mare not producing enough milk for her foal? Dr. Jill Cook discusses ways to help increase a mare’s milk production.

Question:

I have a mare that doesn’t produce milk. When we bought her, she was pregnant at the time, and we later found out that the last baby she had died due to not having any milk. We are feeding her Calf Manna with her feed, and I’d like to know if there were any other types of supplements we could give her to get her to produce milk.  Anything at all would be helpful.

Thank you,
Erica

Read the rest of this entry »

Starting a breeding program from the ground up is no simple task, but JB Quarter Horses thinks it has some answers.

One Hot Jose is owned by JB Quarter Horses of Refugio, Texas.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

A successful breeding program takes more than great stallions and mares. Before talented offspring can put a program on the map, breeders must spend time and money promoting and marketing their horses, all the while praying that foals get into the right hands.

Joe and Dee Lynn Braman of JB Quarter Horses in Refugio, Texas, know what it takes to win championships. Their stallions are top performers in the show pen and rodeo arena. Their mares are proven producers of barrel horses, racehorses, snaffle bit horses and rope horses. They raised the $100,000 2008 Barrel Futurities of America Super Stakes Champion Miss JB 055 and 2007 Snaffle Bit Futurity Limited Open Finalist Mr JB 0412. Read the rest of this entry »