Morgans Re-Invade New England...And Ask Questions about Laminitis and Metabolic Problems

The Morgans are leaving today.

For the past week, the horse population of Massachusetts has been swollen by the influx of about 1,100 Morgans who set up camp in lovely Northampton, Massachusetts for the 68th Annual New England Morgan Horse Show. Only the Grand National show in Oklahoma, the season-end championship, draws more Morgan horses.

While the Morgan breed was founded only a few miles from the show site, in the form of Mr. Justin Morgan's single exemplary horse named Figure, the breed is now spread out all over the country. There were cars and horse vans from every state, it seemed.

Morgans and Morgan crosses still dominate the local pleasure horses around here, but they do seem to be losing ground, and there's a reason why.

Tuesday night, I'll be hosting an educational event in Saratoga Springs, New York, not far from Northampton. Too bad some of the Morgan breeders can't stay for another few days and attend.

The speaker will be Dr. Donald Walsh, head of the Animal Health Foundation in St Louis, Missouri. He will talk about research into laminitis and in particular Cushings disease and insulin resistance problems (sometimes lumped under Equine Metabolic Syndrome) and the sort of low-grade but insidious laminitis that results from endocrine problems in middle-aged to older horses.

I will set my watch and wait for the first person in the audience to stand up and say, "Dr. Walsh, I've got this Morgan..."

For some reason, Morgans seem disproportionately affected by the endocrine model of laminitis. The Morgan world, around here anyway, seems divided into diehard show people and stayhome recreational owners, and yet both camps are affected, since the show people have older horses in their breeding program.

Many Morgans are affected by the metabolic symptoms by the time they are ten. Many others are not affected at all. It is so sad to see horses with cresty necks and fat deposits in odd places when they are in the prime of their years.

In my memory, we rode Morgans in their 20s. They are tough but kind horses who become like family members, and owners go the extra mile to care for them. A lot of them use the medication called pergolide and go to great lengths to analyze hay and pasture and grain, hoping to find the right prevention formula.

I don't know why the Morgan breed seems so disproportionately affected by this syndrome, and it seems to affect a good number of them no matter where in the country they live or what type of pasture they are on.

Maybe Dr Walsh will have some answers. I know there have been some studies on hereditary factors for this problem in pony breeds. I'd like to see some done in Morgans, just because I like these horses and I think they are great family horses. But if people start avoiding them because the last one or two or three they had suffered from metabolic problems and laminitis, the families will miss out on a great versatile horse that is also usually an easykeeper and has a pleasing personality.

The Animal Health Foundation has a terrific web site on laminitis. Much of their research is conducted by Dr Chris Pollitt at the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland. My guess is that there aren't too many (if any) Morgans in Australia and the good doctors there have no idea how many nice horses here in New England will benefit from their research, once they figure out what precipitates this syndrome.

Maybe next year when the Morgans and their people come back to Northampton, we'll have some good news for them and the lovely horses that they left at home.