Difficult Horse? Equine Congenital Vertebral Malformation (ECVM)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- This video shows footage of a "Sox" a young warmblood mare that suffered from ECVM. The footage is a MUST SEE because many people would not see a seriously unsound horse because she doesn't look "lame" but the tell tail signs are there.
Here is the full blog detailing Sox's story by her owner Katrin Kuenstler...
Soxy came to me in October 2014 as a very sweet, very talented, yet very immature rising 4 year old Oldenburger mare. I don’t believe in rushing the training of young horses and really took my time with her education.
However, in the 3 years I have had her in work, she only advanced very slowly and I kept wondering why she didn’t seem to develop more musculature over her back and neck. I put it down to her being young and - being a WB - taking longer to mature than others.
The more work I did with her, however, the more her once very nice athletic movements appeared to get worse. And in the same ratio her behaviour worsened. She was always cranky, threatened to bite or kick, was very reluctant to go forward, dragging her hind legs over the ground wherever she went and she was always very sore.
I could not get rid of the feeling deep down that something was not right with my mare, but I couldn’t pin it down.
Sox was diagnosed with a congenital malformation in her cervical spine in October 2017and after having been injected with Kenacort into the C6/C7 joint, things looked quite promising to start with.
Sox seemed pain free, more content in her own skin and overall much happier than she had been for a long time. Unfortunately, this didn’t last for very long and after only a few months, Soxy seemed in discomfort again, reverting back to her old behavioral patterns.
I had hoped that I would be able to build up her musculature correctly to support the damaged joint, however, that was not a possibility. I made the very difficult decision to let Sox go and put her to sleep. I knew that Sharon May-Davies was going to be in WA for one of her dissection courses and so I made Sox available to use for the dissection.
The extent and significance of Sharon’s findings in the dissection are incomprehensible.
While some of the issues that Sox suffered from would have been subsequent conditions or possibly caused by trauma, most of it would have been hereditary. That means that this beautiful, well-bred(!) mare would have been in chronic pain from the moment of her birth and never had a chance. Sharon has dissected hundreds of horses and she has never come across anything of this scope yet. She told me that Sox would have most likely have suffered a very painful death from organ failure within the near future and that she was glad that I was still alive as this horse could have collapsed underneath me at any moment - or bucked me off which she amazingly never attempted, although she would have had every reason to!
Sox was a talented and stunning young mare and she did not deserve to be in such misery. Something has to change in the way we breed horses. Sharon’s latest research shows alarming numbers in Europe that suffer from congenital malformations.
The reason why I share Sox’s story is to raise awareness for these issues and for the fact that more horses out there suffer from it than we think! And not only is it hurtful for the horse, it can also become very dangerous for the rider!
We have to give our horses the benefit of the doubt and do what we can to listen to them when they try to tell us that they are unhappy, in discomfort or pain. A horse can only express its distress by displaying bevaviour which we deem as “naughty”. They have no other way to communicate it to us - they don’t speak human!
Even if it takes some time, the answers are out there; don’t stop asking questions. We owe it to these extraordinary creatures!
Thank you for sharing. Sox’s story will help others. 💕
Thank you for sharing Sox with us bless her 🙏. A beautiful mare .
Such a heartbreaking and difficult condition to diagnose without the right expert help, thank you for spreading the knowledge on what to look for and where to start.
I am so sorry that you and Sox had to deal with this. Thank you for helping others with your experience.
Very good interview, this information needs to be shared more widely.
I would have liked to see some more original footage that show her problems.
Poor baby she tried her best.
I can't help but wonder, was she conceived by A.I.? This is supposed to be a contributing factor, per Sharon Davis, but I'm not clear if it's a direct cause or if A.I. just makes it easier to use affected stallions for widespread breeding? Thanks for posting.
Yes she was.
Would this be same as Equine Complex Vertebral Malformation?
Yes, it has been referred to under both names :)
How did they diagnose her? Did they look at other options first or did they just assume to start with the neck?
They diagnosed her ECVM by X-ray. Then the rest by autopsy.