Barbaro Update: Not all that good

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:28 pm

Here's a link to a good interview with Team Barbaro:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/16414183.htm

It's very distressing to think that one side of the hoof is almost completely grown down, and the other side is only a fraction of an inch. I wonder if he can go on for another two years while it grows....Grow, Hoof, Grow!

RockNMerle · Postby **RockNMerle** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:59 pm

It would be a terrible shame if, for all that colt has been through, he ends up being euthanized due to the hoof issue. Or even worse, he ends up sterile due to all he has been through. All the medications, the trauma and the stress of recovery.

Sam · Postby **Sam** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:47 pm

RockNMerle wrote:It would be a terrible shame if, for all that colt has been through, he ends up being euthanized due to the hoof issue. Or even worse, he ends up sterile due to all he has been through. All the medications, the trauma and the stress of recovery.

Bring sterile could end up being the best thing that comes of it. Not because I think he'd be a bad sire, but because it's not worth the risk to the legs.

Tucumcari · Postby **Tucumcari** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:05 pm

That, and Dynaformer has yet to be a sire of sires

geowarrior · Postby **geowarrior** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:07 pm

Tucumcari you took the words right out of my mouth.

wilf · Postby **wilf** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:10 pm

Sam could be right as I saw film of him a few weeks ago and the shattered leg was very deformed and the thought of him covering mares was inconceivable. I have always thought that the owners only priority was to save him but his life has been so sterile in itself. Even now I wonder how a horse like Spanish Riddle could be a stallion 30 years ago with a prosthetic leg and yet Barbaro is still a virtual bubble-boy? Of course there is much about both cases that I do not know and I have only the highest regard for the attending vets!

Sam · Postby **Sam** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:26 pm

Tucumcari wrote:That, and Dynaformer has yet to be a sire of sires

I wasn't going to go there. Too many bleeding hearts convince Barbaro is THE ONE who's going to buck the trend and "oh isn't it going to be awful if he can't be a sire, why oh why won't the JC make a special concession and allow AI for him so we can have happy little Barbaros frolicking in the fields of clover..."

excuse me... I think I just made myself sick...

Tucumcari · Postby **Tucumcari** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:53 pm

I had to reach for the barf bag myself...

Bleeding hearts are lovely (gagging), but you know me if I think it, I will say it. Or in this situation, type it. I gotta be me...

I feel bad for the horse. And trying to subject him to an attempt at breeding on the broken leg (yes I know it's TONS better :roll:

) seems like cruel and unusual... if you ask me.. which actually you didn't... Actually, this whole thing is cruel and unusual...still.

sprucie · Postby **sprucie** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:50 am

If both he and his 1/2 brother Holy Ground have been "retired" because of injury/unsoundness, why would anyone breed to either one?!?!?

griff · Postby **griff** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:30 am

Another argument for AI, for those that are not bothered with the "unsoundness" issue.

griff

sprucie · Postby **sprucie** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:16 am

I'm all for AI, and it really is time that the JC allows it. It would be so much safer for everyone involved, and it won't necessarily affect regional stallions, except the ones who perhaps shouldn't be standing at all. :wink:

Nancy T · Postby **Nancy T** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:37 am

http://www.vet.upenn.edu/newsandevents/ ... te1-10.htm

Sounds like he has had a bad setback in the last 24 hours. :cry:

llbean · Postby **llbean** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:55 am

sprucie wrote:I'm all for AI, and it really is time that the JC allows it. It would be so much safer for everyone involved, and it won't necessarily affect regional stallions, except the ones who perhaps shouldn't be standing at all.

Hi spucie,

The biggest problem with AI by far is that it would open the door to at least some of the richest breeders using Embryo Screening.

After all, we already see Fertility Clinics allowing their clients to use Embryo Screening and as greater knowledge of the Horse Genome is uncovered, it is inevitable that researchers will find that certain Genes and/or Gene Combinations are found more in the Good Horses and less in the Bad Horses and then it'll just be a matter of using AI to produce a mess of Embryos which would then have their Genomes looked at for Genes and Gene Combinations considered desirable.

Then the "Good" Embryo will be implanted and the "Bad" ones discarded/killed.

Besides the the EXTREMELY serious problems with entrusting One Human Generation with too much control over the Genetic Future of the Thoroughbred Race, there's the other serious issue of nothing being better designed to take the challenge and therefore the interest out of Horse Breeding...

And yet, the chances of this occuring in the Thoroughbred will be all too real if AI is legalized.

And don't get me wrong, I'm 100% in favor of Breeders being guided by the lastest Genetic Findings in making their Culling and Mating Decisions; its just that I'm horrified by the prospect of Embryo Screening, which is another kind of thing entirely.

-llbean

btcountess · Postby **btcountess** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:56 am

Not saying I'm for making him a sire, but I have a question. Wouldn't the practice of putting the mare in a trench or whatever they do for a stallion that is smaller work?

Skipitgirl · Postby **Skipitgirl** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:27 am

Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and say when......honestly, what kind of life is he really going to have?