If you are purchasing ANY horse or pony from Ireland - CAVEAT EMPTOR

Various Genetics laboratories that routinely test for HWSD often notify the Connemara Pony Research Group of any new developments that they see as the result of their work. 

Back in 2019 the linked report was sent to DAFM in Ireland. Link is here: 2019 DAFM report.  In the conclusion the following statement was made:

The potential economic impact of HWSD on the greater Irish horse industry in general does not appear tohave been considered. The provenance of ponies/horses being exported on white passports willincreasingly be questioned as more HWSD carrier or affected animals are sold overseas. The equinecommunity at large and the authorities (DAFM, IHB) need to consider the effects of the HWSD mutationmoving into the wider genetic base of the Irish Sport Horse industry. The potential economic impact of HWSD on the greater Irish horse industry in general does not appear tohave been considered. The provenance of ponies/horses being exported on white passports willincreasingly be questioned as more HWSD carrier or affected animals are sold overseas. The equinecommunity at large and the authorities (DAFM, IHB) need to consider the effects of the HWSD mutationmoving into the wider genetic base of the Irish Sport Horse industry.
"The potential economic impact of HWSD on the greater Irish Horse Industry in general does not appear to have been considered.   The provenance of ponies/horses being exported on 'white passports' will increasingly be questioned as more HWSD carrier or affected animals are sold overseas.   The equine community at large and the authorities (DAFM, IHB) need to consider the effects of the HWSD mutation moving into the wider genetic base of the Irish Sport Horse Industry'.

What was forecast in 2019 has come to pass.  An 'Irish Cob' passported by the PIO Leisure Horse Ireland has been tested and found to be affected HWSD/HWSD.   This cob was exported from Ireland to the continent; the usual pattern of hoof disintegration occurred and on advice from a equine professional, a hair sample was sent to the laboratory for testing.

It is obvious therefore that the mutation is now circulating in the wider equine population in Ireland.   

As an example, one of the most prolific 'not-tested' but known to be N/HWSD stallions, (Ross Fear Bui) has  been extensively used and continues to be used for sport horse/pony breeding. As other 'not-tested' and known to be N/HWSD stallions are also being used outside of the Connemara breed.  This raises the concern as to how extensive the mutation in the wider population is likely to be.

It would appear that none of the concerns raised in the 2019 report were considered to be important as none of them have been addressed.

TAKE HOME NOTE:   DO NOT BUY ANY HORSE OR PONY FROM IRELAND WITHOUT FIRST KNOWING THE HWSD STATUS OF THAT HORSE/PONY

Want to Know More About Hoof Wall Separation Disease? Listen to the podcast made by Lucinda Kelly of Connemara Pony World.

What's all this fuss with Hoof Wall? 

What is it? 

What should I be doing?

Tune into our new podcast episode                               Link to Podcast

"Getting to the Bottom of HWSD in Connemara Ponies"


In this episode, we cover Hoof Wall Separation Disease, also better known as HWSD. This is a condition that has been identified in Connemara ponies. HWSD is an autosomal recessive disorder that causes the hoof wall to easily break and crack.

  

Joining us on this podcast are the following guests:

1. Sheila Ramsay is from New Zealand and has performed research in Animal Science, Parasitology and Genetics. Her current project is 'Hoof Wall Separation Disease (HWSD) in Connemara Ponies.'

2. Dr. Melissa Cox is based in Germany and specialises in animal genetics, having earned her doctorate in Genetics through the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A&M University, and has concentrated on comparative genomics with an interest in domestic animals throughout her career.

3. Marian Pritchard is from the UK and is a Connemara enthusiast who bought a Connemara pony from Ireland that she later found out was HWSD/HWSD.

Link to Podcast

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Instagram: ConnemaraPonyWorld                                                 

Dr Melissa Cox

Sheila Ramsay

Marian Pritchard riding her Connemara pony who has HWSD. 

Note the hoof boots.

Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid

If you are one of the Connemara pony breeders who still refuses to accept that HWSD is a reality, and that all breeders have a moral and ethical responsibility to gene test their breeding stock, then you may wish to change your stance.

Here is a real life scenario, it is going to be happening soon.  A dealer in France, who imported Irish bred Connemara ponies is now being sued by a purchaser, because the pony which they had bought from this dealer, has since been diagnosed (and tested) with HWSD.  This court case is due to be heard in January 2016.

'Not my problem'?  Think again.  

• If you rely on overseas buyers for your ponies, what is going to happen to your market?  
• If you are an Irish dealer who buys up job lots from farmers and breeders for export 'to anywhere', what is going to happen to your market??
• If you sell (even unintentionally) an untested pony which then tests HWSD/HWSD what are you going to do about it?  
• What are your moral/ethical obligations, if not the legal obligations under consumer law?

Each country has its own domestic laws which cover consumer rights, fair trading and definitions of 'fit for purpose'.  These such laws do not cross the borders between one country and another.

HOWEVER decisions made in the law courts of any one country are known as 'precedents' and play a part in the setting of  'case law'.  Rulings from France (in this particular instance) can be used in the courts of another jurisdiction as a precedent to support a law suit.
To put it simply, if the purchaser wins the court case in France against the dealer, then that decision is a precedent which can be used in the courts of law in another country.

Then there is the issue that the French dealer, who if they lose the court case, is going to try for recompense from the Irish person who sold that dealer the HWSD pony/ies in the first place (and yes there are cases where a person has purchased several ponies which all turned out to be HWSD affected).  The potential for a 'knock on' effect becomes an interesting conundrum on which to reflect,

Is this 'knock on' effect possible?  Yes it is.  Most people, and probably most domestic lawyers, are unaware of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). If a person has the will and the money to pay for legal advice it is quite possible for inter-country law suits to occur.

A slight change of direction but still entirely relevant to this post.

VALE For Fairyhill Flame

Two weeks ago Fairyhill Flame (Monaghanstown Fionn-Kingstown Fairy)  was euthanased on quality of life and welfare issues directly caused by HWSD.  Flame was purchased by a person in Scotland from a dealer in Ireland.  This pony, is the third pony from the same source that the CPRG is aware of, which has tested HWSD/HWSD . Two out of the three have had to be euthanased.

It is not the place of this blog to 'name and shame' but it is the place for the CPRG to repeat the advice that if you are buying ponies, especially from Ireland, to have them HWSD tested before you complete the deal.

IF you choose to not have the test as part of a pre-purchase agreement and then the pony does turn out to be HWSD affected, then more fool you.

One of the 'French' ponies is sired by a stallion bred by one of the 'leading lights' of the CPBS.   Maybe this is but one reason, why the council has been so backward about coming forward on this issue and have blocked and prevaricated since the beginning.

That this recent reportage now raises the number of carrier ponies owned and/or bred by members of the the Clifden clique to above the expected  penetrance level of the mutation in the wider population certainly raises issues.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:

• Do not wait until 'someone' (ie breed society) says you have to test your ponies for HWSD. 
• Get in first 
• Use the test as a market advantage. 
• If you get a carrier pony don't take this as a personal insult.
• Not acknowledging the presence of HWSD is a personal shame.

Videos on HWSD are now on YouTube

The video recordings of Dr Carrie Finno and Ray Knightley from the August 2014 meeting at Clifden are now 'live' on YouTube
The Connemara Pony Research Group now has its own YouTube channel and this is where these talks can be found.

Other information is that there has now been more than 5,000 hits made on the Tested Ponies Results page since it commenced in September 2014.

The total number of hits on this blog now stands at 63,266!

Pageviews by Countries

Entry	Pageviews
United States	15544
United Kingdom	7962
Germany	5990
Sweden	4475
France	3462
Ireland	3099
Canada	2054
Finland	2033
New Zealand	1917
Australia	1662

SERPINB11 Frameshift Variant Associated with Novel Hoof Specific Phenotype in Connemara Ponies

The peer reviewed research paper on HWSD has now been published.

SERPINB11 Frameshift Variant Associated with Novel Hoof Specific Phenotype in Connemara Ponies

This is the peer review that the president of the ICCPS and the CPBS Council required before these august bodies would act in any positive manner with regards to the issue of  HWSD.

The CPBS wanted proof that HWSD is in fact a real disease before they formulated a breeding plan.

Now logic would dictate that any 'breeding plans' should have already been ready for discussion, immediately that the CPBS and ICCPS demands for peer review were fulfilled.  

So, what IS the much vaunted 'breeding plan' for the future of the Connemara pony?  Where can it be read?  When is the discussion going to happen?

Discussion from all stakeholders is needed before any decisions are made about 'breeding plans' which have the potential to either reduce the carrier incidence of HWSD or alternatively  contribute to the demise of the Connemara pony totally.

Sadly, history demonstrates that the latter is more likely to occur than the former.  The over selection of specific bloodlines and the subsequent loss of genetic diversity, as the result of the inspection process, is a major contributor to the rising incidence of HWSD in the international Connemara pony genepool.

The continuation of such practices as selection through inspection, is only likely to increase the likelihood of other genetic diseases arising in the breed.  If genetic diversity is not encouraged in the here and now, then the future for the breed is grim and increasingly at risk.

Exclusion of carrier ponies and affected females from the breeding herd will spell doomsday.

Had the CPBS and the ICCPS not had their collective heads deeply buried in the sand for the past five years, then  they would have already had productive discussions with stakeholders and have also some kind of plan mapped out, if not ready to implement.

As robustly evidenced at the recent meeting at Clifden on the 28 March 2015 the 'powers that be' are still in denial mode.

C'est la vie.

Rosewood Witchcraft receives posthumous award from the American Connemara Pony Society

At the recent Annual General Meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society  Rosewood Witchcraft was awarded the "The purebred Connemara of the Year Award".

The citation reads as follows:

"The purebred Connemara of the Year Award went to Rosewood Witchcraft (ArdCeltic Art X Balmullo’s Rhiannon) for her contributions to solving the puzzle of HWSD, a genetic hoof wall disease.  “Crafty” was the poster child of HWSD and was, additionally, the first case of HWSD seen by the geneticists at UCDavis, the institution that eventually solved the puzzle and now provides a test for carriers of the disease.  Crafty contributed to not only the science, but also to the publicity and the fundraising.  Sadly, though, because of the disease, she had to be put down before her third birthday. " Link to American Connemara Pony Society website

On the HWSS Facebook page, Crafty's owner and breeder Darian Hall, wrote the following:

"At this years annual ACPS Awards Banquet Rosewood Witchcraft (Crafty) was named ACPS Pony of the Year. It was bitter sweet as Crafty did not survive the condition. She became a poster child only because we went so public with her. However there were so many of you who put your effort, your time and money into this and so many of you who suffered to watch your ponies fall apart without the answer and you tried as hard as I did to find the answer. AND WE DID.

So Crafty's award belongs to all of you for your effort and dedication that has brought us this wonderful test. Crafty was born at the right time, in the right place and to someone who was not going to shut-up (me). But without all of you I would still be fishing in the dark.

Thank you so much CPRG."

On Sunday 29 September 2013, this blog paid tribute to Crafty on a page titled Vale for Crafty

The poster which Darian wrote for the Clifden meeting about Crafty can be seen here

By honouring Crafty in this way the ACPS once again demonstrates the pro-active stance which the Society adopted very early on in the research process.  It is not widely known that the ACPS early in the fundraising process made a substantive monetary donation towards funding the research at UC Davis.

In response to requests, a French translation is now available for both formats of the information pamphlet.

MALADIE-DE-LA-SEPARATION-DE-LA-PAROI-DU-SABOT-A4-portrait-format

MALADIE-DE-LA-SEPARATION-DE-LA-PAROI-DU-SABOT-HOOF-WALL-SEPARATION-DISEASE-HWSD-Information-pamphlet-3-fold


Listed again are the links for the pamphlets:
Information-Pamphlet-3-fold-brochure-version
Information-pamphlet-on-Hoof-Wall-Separation-Disease-Portrait-page-format

HWSD Test Results page

Blog hits reach 40,000 and other really important things.

Hits on the blog have now passed 40,000.

Below is the all time hits tally from the countries which made the Top Ten:

United States	11296
United Kingdom	5032
Germany	4136
Sweden	3386
Canada	1861
New Zealand	1650
Australia	1415
Ireland	1354
France	1125
Finland	838

There is no facility on the blog site to retrieve all of the figures from all of the countries from where the traffic has originated, which is a pity.  From looking at the monthly totals the majority of the hits from Ireland and the UK have been over the past three months.

The CPRG has put together an updated version of the pamphlet which was written to be handed out at the Clifden meeting.  The links to the pamphlet are listed below.  You can download and print out the pamphlet yourself or pass the links and/or the download onto other people to share on any relevant websites.  

There are two formats containing the same information:

The HWSD-Information-Pamphlet-3-fold-brochure-version is designed so that when printed back to back it is a brochure which folds into 3 panels.

The Information-pamphlet-on-Hoof-Wall-Separation-Disease-Portrait-page-format prints onto A4 as a straight two page document.

Clifden Meeting Report and other matters

The meeting to present the results of the research into Hoof Wall Separation Disease was held in Clifden on 19 August 2014 at the Alcock and Brown Hotel Function Centre.

The meeting was well attended by breeders from around the world as well as some of the ICCPS delegates.  As a direct result of this meeting significant 'movers and shakers' from the Connemara Pony breeding world now positively accept that HWSD does exist and that it is an  unique, verifiable and testable disease.  The number of breeders present was outweighed by farriers, which in some ways is a good thing. Farriers have to deal with HWSD on a more regular basis and will likely have seen more cases  during their work than what most breeders will have seen.   Hopefully the farriers  will be helped in their future work by the talk from Ray Knightley. Also in attendance was Dr Alan Fahey, an animal geneticist from UC Dublin who is presently conducting research into the problem of in-breeding inertia in the Connemara Pony.  

Sadly though although there were breeders present from all corners of the Connemara breeding world, there were few breeders from Ireland present at this meeting.  This is an omission which could lead to the detriment of the Irish produced ponies in the future.  Even more disappointing was the absence of  ICCPS society delegates from the largest Conenmara pony producing countries.  Here was the chance to return to their countries with first hand  and the most up to date information possible, yet this opportunity, for the most part was ignored.

This lack of  delegates was a disappointing development  as attendees at the ICCPS Technical meeting, held that morning, were told by the CPBS veterinarian and other officials, that it was important for people present at the ICCPS meeting to attend the HWSD meeting later that day, notwithstanding  there was a clash in event timing.  It is sure that the ICCPS delegates who did make the effort to attend were greatly rewarded in that they now have the most up to date information to relay to their society memberships.

One does have to wonder about the priorities of delegates who chose to NOT attend a meeting which presented material of the greatest significance to the ongoing healthy future of the Connemara Pony breed.  How can these people be true representatives of their society membership when socialising is considered to be of greater importance than education?   That is for each individual member from each individual Connemara breed society to question and then act appropriately when electing their governing bodies in the future.

To the meeting itself.  Dr Finno explained just how the research was undertaken; the sheer size of the gigabytes of data which had to be analysed is beyond comprehension! Dr Finno showed slides demonstrating the how big the difference is and where the mutation lies on the genome between normal and affected HWSD ponies.  Words are a poor substitute for visual explanations!!!  That HWSD is a genetic disease is categorically proven beyond all doubt yet,  as one person was heard to say, "needless to say there was the usual lone voice in absolute denial". 

Ray Knightley, the farrier, was the second speaker.  Ray talked the meeting through a variety of treatments options which he had tried on HWSD affected ponies.  He listed the advantages and disadvantages of each option illustrated by a power point show with  'before and after' images of the feet of affected ponies with which he has worked.

After a short break for afternoon tea, the meeting concluded with a presentation by Sheila Ramsay on the statistical implications of the potential HWSD carrier population within the breed.  Many people at the meeting left at afternoon tea because of prior commitments and so missed this important information.

HOWEVER  THE MAJOR TAKE HOME MESSAGE from this meeting, is that unlike with Chicken Licken, the sky is not falling!!!

CARRIER PONIES MUST NOT BE REMOVED FROM THE GENE POOL.  If the ponies are of breeding quality they have to be kept within the breeding programme.   Knee jerk reactions of culling animals because of carrier status is both stupid and counterproductive to the breed.

It is NOT a personal reflection upon breeders if they find out that their pony/ies are HWSD carriers.

HWSD testing is happening now!  Results are already being made public.  Educated buyers are going to want to know the HWSD status of potential breeding stock before they decide to purchase.

Other Matters:

On display at the meeting were a series of posters telling the stories of  HWSD affected ponies.  These posters were written by the owners (and in some cases the breeder/owner) of the ponies; the Connemara Pony Research Group has exerted no control over the material presented.  

The posters can be viewed here.

Also on display (and for sale) were the hoof sections from a HWSD affected foal, which were made by Dr Christoph von Horst.

It is intended to publish a DVD of the complete meeting in the future.  Until this DVD is available, people will be reliant upon first hand reports from meeting attendees.

One Week to Go!

It is one week from today that the HWSD meeting with Dr Carrie Finno and Ray Knightley is being held.

Alcock and Brown Hotel, Clifden. 19th August 2014 at 1.30pm.

Dr Finno and Ray Knightley have only been able to attend this important event because of the generosity of many people who donated to the travel fund.  The Connemara Pony Research group wishes to thank these people from the depths of our hearts.   Donations are still being accepted.

In fact the rapid progress which has been made in HWSD research that has led to this meeting is also the result of 'crowd source funding' by people with the future of the Connemara pony at heart.

We have 16 Anatomical Plastination Specimens from  Dr Christoph von Horst.  These hoof specimens are from a lovely foal from Denmark which, due to the HWSD, was not able to survive.  We have to thank his owner for preserving his hoofs and making them available for the plastination process.
These sections will be available for purchase at the meeting on the 19th August at 75 € each.
These are the only Plastinations of HWSD affected hooves available world wide and we hope they will be a rare thing of the past. Very suitable for teaching purposes or anatomical museums.
If you wish to purchase a section (or two) please email with your order.  If sections are to be picked up at the Clifden meeting there will be no shipping charges.  Any other orders will occur shipping costs.





Two of the Plastinations.



A stud tour to visit the Cloonisle Stud outside of Galway City has been scheduled for a time which coincides with the HWSD meeting.

Visitors to Clifden will have to make the decision for themselves as to which event is of more importance for them.

Hoof Wall Separation Syndrome has an official new name!

HWSS officially has a new name and is now to be called Hoof Wall Separation Disease (HWSD).

Syndrome: A group of symptoms which consistently occur together, or a condition characterised by a set of associated symptoms.

Disease: A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury (oxforddictionaries.com 2014).

This subtle name change is to align with the usual nomenclature used in defining disease states.

Important news is that the data needed for UC Davis to file the patent application has been submitted.  As soon as it is filed, the test will go to UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/ 

The test will be offered there and any interested owners/breeders will be able to send in hair samples for testing.

Dr Carrie Finno has asked for the following message be released to the Connemara community at large:

"After spending 2 years in Minnesota where I learned next-generation sequencing techniques, I have accepted and started a faculty position as Assistant Professor in Veterinary Genetics back at UCD.  As I have returned to UCD, I am to continue to act as a liaison on this project and keep the community informed.  

Thank you for all your fund-raising efforts and I look forward to meeting you. [at the meeting on 19 August in Clifden]

Carrie Finno, DVM, PhD

Diplomate, ACVIM

Assistant Professor, Veterinary Genetics

University of California-Davis

280 Vet Med II

One Shields Ave

Davis, CA 95616".

State of the Fundraising:  Thursday 3 July 2014

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