Just one more foal...

A reader alerted me to a web site detailing, in graphic detail, a mare who was bred just one more time after she suffered "dropped pasterns" (aka DSLD) with her third foal. These folks claim two vets told them it was just fine to breed her again. Given the lack of consistent knowledge about DSLD, that is certainly possible, but at some point, one expects common sense would kick in. If a mare develops severe complications during pregnancy, doesn't common sense dictate that you find something else to do with her other than use her as a baby machine? But no! These folks just HAD to breed her to their black and white tobiano just one more time. She had the misfortune to be a tall Thoroughbred and they were trying to add some elegance to their beef cow tobiano halter horse's foals.

And so...both back tendons ruptured. Blew right out with lots of blood and gore and dumped her pasterns on the dirt.

They've taken their web site down (probably wise) but thanks to archive.org you can still read the story in all of its horror, complete with graphic photographs. Basically they kept their mare, who hurt too badly to eat and was losing weight throughout, hanging in a sling for months in order to get the baby.

They brag they are "dedicated to offering our clients first rate service backed by the latest technological innovations." Perhaps that explains this scenario, which looks like something out of a bad sci fi movie. Do you really think that quilts and wraps can do anything when both tendons have ruptured? I don't think full leg casts could have kept this mare even remotely comfortable.

Oh, here's all the gruesome details of the (eventual) red bag birth, a month premature, after which they apparently FINALLY euthed that poor mare. But hey! That got a colored foal, so that makes it totally understandable. A totally unspectacular black and white tobiano filly that you could buy at any auction around here for $500-$700. Which they of course named Miracle. Excuse me while I go throw up. Don't get me wrong - keeping that mare alive wouldn't have been right if she were in foal with the Second Coming of Barbaro, either. WTF is wrong with someone who does this just to get a baby out of a mare? Gross! Disgusting! Unconscionable!

The thing that probably offends me the most is that they have the nerve to whine about how haaaaard this was on them. They have a special needs daughter. They "were committed to a full breeding schedule with our two stallions and the weight of all this left us anxious and exhausted." Oh, my heart just fucking bleeds. You people tortured that mare to get one last foal out of her. She shouldn't have been bred in the first place, but when their tendons rupture and leave their pasterns sitting on the ground, they sure as hell should be euthanized then! But no. You had to get that one last foal.

I did find an old listing of their property for sale, so hopefully that combined with the disappearance of the web site means these selfish asshats are out of the breeding business. We can only hope.