What does the birth month and weight of a Thoroughbred pony have to do with its ability to perform on the track? Joe Pagan, president and founder of Kentucky Equine Research, discussed the topic on December 8 at Spy Coast Ranch’s equine education center in Lexington.
Pagan founded KER in 1988 to further research equine nutrition and sports medicine. Since then, he has conducted a number of studies on thoroughbred ponies, including skeletal strength and seasonal effects (in which month ponies are born and how it affects weight). bone mass and growth).
“We started accumulating so much data that we developed a software program that allows us to process that data called Gro-Trac,” says Pagan. “This allows us to put all the information into a single program, present it back to the breeder, and use reference curves.”
Presented by Hallway Feeds, Pagan’s presentation is titled “Pure Breed Growth and Performance: An International Perspective,” centered around a recent study in which he compared Central’s purebred growth Kentucky with European purebred development. He used a slide show with figures to illustrate different topics.
The Kentucky study was conducted between 2014 and 2018 and included 13 different farms, 1,403 foals, and 41 foal rearings.
From this group, Pagan collected growth data including birth weight and monthly weight (body weight as well as wither height). He also collects performance data including looking at the ponies’ auction prices and whether they’re successful on the track.
“We have growth data collected monthly as well as performance data, how well they can sell, how well they perform,” says Pagan. “We also did the same study with a group of horses in the UK.”
The data was collected from Europe for the period 2005-2019 and includes information from six farms, 1,716 foals and 48 foals.
For security purposes, none of the farms used for data collection were named in the study. Pagan describes farms as a “biased demographic” because this data does not necessarily apply to the entire purebred population. He added that the ponies studied were “elite populations”.
Pagan noted that the data collected in Kentucky was more tightly controlled than the data coming from the UK For the Kentucky study, the same equipment and experts were used to collect primary weights Carcasses of ponies during research in the UK were based on information collected by individual farms and then sent to Pagan.
“Those weights are taken by the farm itself and we don’t have a complete set of birth weights… All data in Europe is collected by the farm itself, so it’s not quite as consistent as the data. data that we collect here.” Foreigners said.
The main difference when considering the two groups was the difference in birth weight, defined as 24 h postpartum. According to Pagan, ponies typically gain about 3 pounds a day after birth.
Pagan’s research shows that in Kentucky, foals have a higher birth weight than ponies in the UK The average birth weight of a Kentucky pony is 124.7 pounds while the average UK foal weighs 121.7 pounds.
From the larger group, Pagan wanted to know what this looked like at the sub-population level in Kentucky, delving into the month the foal was born, whether they had bone disease, litter (horses) mares or mares, which are mares with many foals), as well as their performance on the track (starter, winner, stake winner, stake winner). classify). His presentation specifically focused on the difference between the ponies that turned out to be pot winners and the ponies that didn’t.
His research on the skeletal aspect has mainly focused on the development of osteochondrosis (OCD), which is loose cartilage or bone fragments in joints.
“For bone disease, even though we had radiographic survey data from the farms, it took us a long time to go through all that data to come up with a rate,” says Pagan. have specific problems with radiology and surgical rates”.
OCD in horses can develop due to genetics, shape (affected by exercise and confinement), nutrition (too little, too much), body weight, and growth rate. About 60-70% of these problems resolve on their own before damage (organ or tissue damage) occurs.
One finding was that first ponies (first ponies of a mare) were significantly smaller than ponies of multi-parity mares. The average weight of first ponies is 113.8 pounds while the average weight of multiple ponies is 128.5 pounds.
There is also evidence that first ponies are less likely to be bet winners than later ponies, and mare ponies have 35% less total OCD than mare ponies many times over. , Pagan said.
The month a foal was born showed a strong correlation with growth rate. Pagan says this also has to do with performance on the track, as well as their ability to develop OCD.
Research shows that higher body weight earlier in a horse’s life can lead to more cases of OCD and, towards the end of the year, larger foals. Basically, ponies born in February are smaller than ponies born in April or May. The weight of the mare also correlates with the weight of the foal.
“Pups born and mares that gain a lot of weight at the end of the year grow faster,” says Pagan. “Faster-growing ponies are from mares that have gained weight. We know that January and February ponies are smaller at birth and grow more slowly.”
Pagan also mentions that if a foal weighs more than 139 pounds at birth, they are twice as likely to need surgery for OCD and a third more likely to win the bet.
Other stats show success in sales rounds. Horses that were sold and not operated on for OCD, compared with horses that had ankle surgery for OCD, were sold at a lower price than those that had surgery. On the track, horses are more likely to win the bet race if they have ankle surgery versus no ankle surgery.
The presentation ended with Pagan discussing how Kentucky ranchers and ranchers should pursue smaller foal weights.
“I would assert that if you raise ponies that weigh more than 140 pounds at birth, they have a higher risk of disease than ponies born smaller than that,” he said. “How do you manage it? Measure them first. Find out, ‘What are these weights?’ Identifying them is high risk.
“What I think this data shows convincingly is that young ponies are more likely to recover more quickly than larger ponies in terms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They are less likely to develop the disorder. more obsessive-compulsive disorder. You need to pay more attention to these larger ponies.”
He also offers advice on how to deal with problems before a pony hits the ground.
“I think in terms of management tools, I appreciate the importance of grass in Kentucky and its importance to the nursing mare’s feed intake,” says Pagan. “Perhaps (we need to) be more aware of how it contributes compared to the solids you’re using and if we can regulate the extra calories we’re giving these mares.” to reduce this kind of excess energy or not.”
