Health Concerns
In order to be incorporated into the studbook, stallions and mares must pass rigorous testing. The goal of this testing is to prevent horses with heritable defects from continuing to pass on their genes. As a result, horses with the Hanoverian brand often have excellent health. The Hanoverian verband, and other warmblood breeding societies, continue to promote research into the health of their horses.
Poor fertility in Hanoverian stallions and mares is not very common. However, research on Hanoverian stallions has helped lead to the identification of new genes that affect stallion fertility.
Osteochondrosis is a disease that affects the bone and cartilage in the joints of growing horses. The joints most commonly affected are the fetlocks in the fore- and hind leg, and the hock and stifle of the hind leg. Osteochondrosis lesions include tiny fractures, fluid buildup, loose flaps of cartilage, or chips of cartilage loose within the joint. The last lesion is called osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD), and can develop further into degenerative joint disease, such as osteoarthrosis. Osteochondrosis can also contribute to navicular syndrome and Wobbler disease. Because most horses, especially Hanoverians, which are often used for demanding equestrian sports, work for a living, joint discomfort can mean the end of a horse's career. Between 7% and 10% of Hanoverians have OCD in the hock joint, and between 12% and 24% have OCD in a fetlock joint.
Recent research has tagged certain conformational characteristics and other heritable factors of bone growth and maintenance as the most important contributors to the development of osteochondrosis. The Hanoverian Breeder's Society in Germany, and all its daughter societies, mandate that stallions must be free of OCD lesions in order to be issued a breeding license. Elite mares and Verband-sponsored auction candidates have identical requirements. Horses are examined with radiographs.
Read more about this topic: Hanoverian Horse
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or concerns:
“The ideal of men and women sharing equally in parenting and working is a vision still. What would it be like if women and men were less different from each other, if our worlds were not so foreign? A male friend who shares daily parenting told me that he knows at his very core what his wife’s loving for their daughter feels like, and that this knowing creates a stronger bond between them.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 6 (1978)
“The country is fed up with children and their problems. For the first time in history, the differences in outlook between people raising children and those who are not are beginning to assume some political significance. This difference is already a part of the conflicts in local school politics. It may spread to other levels of government. Society has less time for the concerns of those who raise the young or try to teach them.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)