Research Ramblings: Growing Horses and the Labels of Adulthood

My current work in progress involves chariot racing, and given its substantial equine components, I’ve recruited the aid of horse owners Julie and The Boyz’ Mom to keep it real. (For more about them, read this post.) They love sharing about their horses, and hopefully you’ll get some entertainment out of our exchanges.

Julie’s mare Elle is big as far as her breed goes. Morgans average between 14 and 15 hands (56 inches to 60 inches at the shoulder). Early last year, Julie was telling me and the Boyz’ Mom that Elle had gotten all awkward again because she had hit yet another growth spurt.

To which I responded, Elle’s STILL growing?

You see, I’d read that the cutoff between a filly and a mare is four years. At the time, Elle was already past her fourth birthday so she had to be a full-grown adult already, right?

Wrong.

While people do use the age of four to delineate between mature and immature horses, it’s no absolute. Rates of growth differ from horse to horse and there are definite variations between breeds. According to the Boyz’ Mom, Friesian horses don’t start training until they’re three and training continues on till they’re around six. That’s because they don’t fully mature until they’re six to eight years old. By that age, some thoroughbreds have already reached the end of their racing careers!

Once my horse ladies explained this to me, I felt a little silly. After all, I should’ve known better, considering what I’ve learned about ancient Olympic horse racing. The officials spent the month before the Olympics determining whether young animals would compete in the horse races or colt races. If physical maturity was simply a matter of age, they wouldn’t have had such a rigorous process.

So using age 4 to delineate between colts and horses is about as accurate as using age 18 to delineate between adults and children. I reached my full height (just over 5 feet) at age 15, but one of my guy pals kept growing well into his college years (I forget his exact height but he’s well over 6 feet tall).

By the way, Elle will be five this year, and her current height is over 16 hands and still going…

Twin Foals!! And the Limits of High-Tech

Aren’t they cute???!!! Introducing Deedee and the latest additions to Julie’s barn community!

I know, I know, this has nothing to do with writing or research, but I saw the picture and had to pass it on. Aside from the fact that they’re  ADORABLE, twin horses aren’t something you see every day.  It’s actually unbelievable that these little girls are healthy and a good size.

The really funny thing is nobody suspected Deedee was carrying twins. So when she foaled last week, it was a complete surprise despite her having had an ultrasound. According to Julie, the babies were stacked on top of each other, so only one was visible.

That last bit about the ultrasound really made me laugh. Many of my friends are having babies now, but when they wave an ultrasound and say they’re having a boy or girl, hubby and I just smile and buy something gender-neutral for the shower. Nothing against the ultrasound, we know it’s a very handy tool, but we’ve met two couples now that were expecting one and got the other. So to hear that Deedee’s scan missed an entire baby horse is just confirmation that as amazing as high technology is, it’s not infallible.

By the way, the foals have yet to be named, but the names under consideration are Unbelievable and Remarkable. 🙂

Research Ramblings: Horse Breeding and High-Tech

My current work in progress involves chariot racing, and given its substantial equine components, I’ve recruited the aid of horse owners Julie and The Boyz’ Mom to keep it real. (For more about them, read this post.) They love sharing about their horses, and I love learning from them, and hopefully you’ll get some entertainment out of our exchanges.

So I was discussing equine social dynamics with Julie when, as often happens, we went off on a tangent about horsey personalities. And in the conversation, she mentioned something about Elle’s surrogate mom. I instantly thought she meant an older mare that had taken a shine to Elle. That or Elle was orphaned a foal and another mare had “adopted” her. So when I asked Julie to clarify which she meant, I was in for a surprise.

By “surrogate mom,” she meant the mare that had carried and birthed Elle but actually wasn’t blood related to her at all.

Perhaps it’s just me romanticizing, but when I think of horses and their people, my mind harkens to a simpler world where computers and phones are unheard of. But the equine world’s very much kept up with technology and that includes the science of horse breeding.

Once upon a time, making a foal required both the stud and the dam to be in the same place and in the right mood. It was also a bit tricky in that horses can be rough with one another so there was also the risk of one or both getting injured. Now the two animals don’t even have to be in the same state for them to get pregnant.

I was aware of the use of artificial insemination in animal husbandry, but to learn about equine in vitro fertilization really surprised me. The procedure for humans is generally expensive, and I assumed it would be cost prohibitive for horses. It’s not. So, as Julie explained, if the dam you want is busy training or showing or whatever, assigning the task of carrying the little one to a mare that isn’t quite so busy is commonplace. Convenient, isn’t it?

That’s not the only way technology figures into modern day horsebreeding. In another conversation, Julie mentioned how Elle towers over all the smaller, stockier Morgans in her class, and I asked if people ever wondered if she really is a Morgan.

Her reply:

It is funny that you ask about people wondering if she is really a Morgan.  Here’s the thing with the breed – some breeders DID try to breed Morgan studs to saddlebred mares, which has led to the larger, lankier horses that we have today.  Guess what?  The Morgan association voted that to prevent the horse from becoming even more diluted, ALL registered Morgans are DNA tested BEFORE they are given their registration papers.

Apparently this is “a big, big deal” at the futurity shows with weanlings, and she told me how she once had to get a DNA sample from a weanling at the Michigan Futurity show.  Though she joked about being on “DNA Patrol,” it’s serious business because:

 People who are caught cheating now get banned from the sport – and I believe that it is for life. So no, people don’t question that a 3 yr old Morgan is already 16+ hands tall.  They just say she’s a freak.

Morgan enthusiasts aren’t the only ones with strict standards. According to the Boyz’ Mom:

All FHANA/FPS Friesians are micro-chipped, DNA tested and randomly hair and blood tested at Keurings. They are uber strict and seriously dedicated to each and every owner following the strictest breeding rules and regulations.

Keurings, by the way, is what they call the  inspections of Friesian horses.

Test-tube babies and DNA testing. Make no mistake, equine folks are definitely keeping up with tech’s latest trends!