| Herda Testing Poll |
| A few weeks back I wrote a peice as a "Can Of Worms" concerning the introduction of compulsary HERDA testing for mare mare owners by the Australian QHA. For those of you who missed it you can read it here. I also received some feedback which can be found here. Below is a letter I recieved a few days ago. The Aust QHA states “Testing for Herda has been introduced as a means to help maintain 'smart breeding' “. Do they really believe that their members are so stupid they do not understand that if you breed a carrier to a carrier you have a one in four chance of breeding an affected foal? For two years now we have seen constant advertising advising members of HERDA stallions, e ven to the point of advising people to telephone the AQHA office and they will inform you of a stallions' HERDA status. Consequently, if you owned a mare with known herda bloodlines you would obviously test your mare if you intended to breed to one of these 'blacklisted' stallions. Are we really less intelligent than our US colleagues? Obviously the Aust QHA think so, and we need to be forced to test our mares that perhaps could be carriers. This should be a matter of CHOICE , not done because of continued threats of suspension if we don't do as we are told. If I test my mares for my own benefit I will do it through whom I CHOOSE. Even threatening suspension of stallions has not been 100% effective as still some remain untested, which is the owners choice. Hats off to those stallion owners. A recent article in the US Quarter Horse News under the heading “A Choice All Theirs” states “ With the recessive defects, such as GBED and HERDA, all you have to do is breed your carrier to a non carrier, or even an affected horse to a non carrier, in which case the mutant gene goes back to being invisible in the offspring ”. The Aust QHA directors were voted in on the basis of making decisions in the interests of their members. Does the Aust QHA have all their members interest at heart or just their own?It's been a few months since I last had a poll so I think now is as good a time as ever. I'll raise the question "Do you think the Australian QHA is right in introducing compulsary HERDA testing to mares with Poco Bueno bloodlines"? To vote simply click yes or no and then hit the submit button. |
