Does dwarfism occur in regular sized horses?

[Chaos Ranch]

If I'm not mistaken, someone once told me that dwarfism does occur (very rarely) in regular sized breeds of horses. I've been around horses all my life, and I've never seen or heard of one being born. Is this something that only occurs in the miniature breed?

If regular sized horses do have occasional dwarves, are the affected the same way a miniature horse dwarf is?

 

[Jill]

Dwarfism does occur in full size horses. Not all that long ago, someone here posted a picture of a Friesian dwarf, if I remember right.

I think the reason it is much more common in miniatures is that a measurable amount of the foundation stock, and actually some historically leading sires, were dwarfs. At one time, it was thought that using dwarfs in a breeding program would result in smaller sized offspring (which was not the case, except for when the offspring was also a dwarf).

 

[tagalong]

Friesian dwarf...

Same foal older..

 

[disneyhorse]

Article concerning dwarfism in Friesians

Andrea

 

[barefoot]

I saw a full size horse dwarf two years ago. He was pony size and quite deformed, but seemed to be happy. He was well loved and cared for.