Post on Little Bit's filly got me wanting more

[yankee_minis]

Little Bit, could you post another picture of your girl standing normally-- not so stretched out in the back?

If I was going to characterize her, I would have said "long in the back". So there was something saying, "what's wrong with this picture?" But it wasn't immediately obvious to me. It's only upon closer examination (after you guys pointed it out) with my eyes measuring the different bones in her legs, that I see that she is longer in the canons than the upper bones.

I looked in Barbara Naviaux's book and the pictures of dwarfs (dwarves?) with achondroplasia in there are much more pronounced. Therefore it is much more obvious.

I think another picture of your girl (and others with achondroplasia) would help. Baby pics and then adult pics of same horse would be awesome. I think the "less obvious" ones would be most educational.

This was Margo's post in the other thread and I found it quite useful. So we can start the education from here.

I say this because one person said that, except for the crooked(over-at-the-knee)front legs, it didn't look like a dwarf--and I feel that is one of the reasons why these kinds of horses are in some cases, still being produced,and even registered--because many people don't recognize this as dwarfism(perhaps, on occasion, even including the AMHA[since AMHR doesn't require photos, there ARE going to be dwarves accepted to be registered there, regrettably]....and though the photos on this thread clearly show the phenomenon of the extremely short forearms and stifle-to-hock distance, this is not always the case, so some may very well end up being accepted into AMHA, as well...)--and I feel it is very important for people to learn to recognize these manifestations, as well as the more immediately-evident kind. The main manifestation of this kind of dwarfism IS the very short upper limbs(in proper conformation, the LOWER limbs-cannon bones- should be the shortest, relative to the forearm and stifle-to-hock. This is true in all horse breeds, but is considered especially important in breeds that where running speed is desirable.) The forelimbs are also usually crooked-and behind, the horse, in my observation, is/becomes increasingly close at the hocks, with the lower limbs often "pointing outward"(which might be described as cowhocked); later in life, such a horse will often appear to literally be 'sitting' on their own hocks, and will be built ' uphill', from croup to withers. The head size and shape, neck length, and torso will often appear quite 'normal' and proportionate, for an 'average' mini.

 

[Little Bit]

[SIZE=12pt]yankee_minis...I will post some more pictures of dwarves for you, there are MANY types of dwarves The Achondroplasia and the Brachecephalic probably being the most common, with varrying degrees in both of those![/SIZE]

I posted a recent picture of Toy on the other thread entitled. "Toy's hoof trim", but I will post a new born pic along with the one of her at 3 months for comparrison.

Here is a baby picture of little Casey

Here he is as a 2 year old

Here is my Little bit at 14 days old

Here he is at 2 years old

That's kind of the long & the short of it, huh?

I will post some more pictures later on this evening, and perhaps other people will add their pictures as well.

 

[yankee_minis]

Thanks Little Bit. I saw the other post and the standing straight picture was much more obvious to me. Thank you for doing that.

The achondroplasia is the one I haven't seen a lot of in little babies.