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PMU foals-good prospects for competition horses?



	A bit more along the lines of Ridecamp-especially since there are some $$$
awards for some races now and some of you do compete in other sports with
$$ awards-NAERIC, the North American Equine Ranching Information Council
(http://www.naeric.org), in an attempt to get more people interested in
buying those foals, has started an "incentive program", funded in part by
Wyeth. If you compete in a variety of approved competitions with a PMU bred
horse registered by it's breeders (it's only a $10-15 fee) in the incentive
program, the program will match, dollar for dollar, any winnings that horse
gets.I believe foals need to be nominated at birth. Right now most of the
"approved" competitions tend to be Quarterhorse and Draft breed oriented
because that's what most of the PMU mares are. BUT-they are now also using
a number of Thoroughbred stallions (some of them GOOD-one's a son of
Seattle Slew!) and there are some Appaloosa, paint and even arab breeders.
If there is enough interest in a given type of competition or sport I am
sure the program would include it in the approved list.  Contact NAERIC for
details. 

	HOWEVER, do not, as one of my friends here in New Jersey did, fall into
the trap of purchasing "rescued" PMU foals. The so-called humane group that
organized the purchase of weanlings from an auction in Ontario this fall
under the guise of "rescuing PMU foals" first of all had no clue as to
where the foals came from (I was told by a reliable source that many were
NOT from PMU farms and obviously none were "incentive registered"). They
then proceeded to transport them for 36 hours STRAIGHT (some foals were
apparently dropped off earlier, but the ones destined for NJ/PA were never
off loaded or apparently fed or watered). They literally dumped them at the
farm which had graciously agreed to serve as the pick up site for
Pennsylvania/NJ. Mind you these were 3-5 month old, recently weaned foals!
Such a trip would be hard even on an adult, healthy horse! Of the foals
that I know of, none had health certificates, the new owners were given
only their Coggins certificate and hip number from the auction. People at
the farm told me that two died soon after arrival before they were picked
up and the other three that I either saw or heard of from reliable sources,
not surprisingly, became extremely ill within two weeks of arrival,
requiring long term (and expensive) nursing care. It was actually a credit
to the good health they must have been in at the auction that they survived
at all! So beware. Go direct to the source (the PMU farms or a NAERIC
sponsored auction-there were one or two out west this past year). And I,
for one, after seeing the treatment these poor foals received during their
"rescue" would not give a dime or a moments credence to their "rescuers".

And on a totally different tact: CONGRATULATIONS, VALERIE AND ALL THOSE WHO
COMPLETED THE WEC!

Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, dACVN
Ralston@aesop.rutgers.edu
and Fling, who is enjoying the month off and doesn't know she is going to
start conditioning for the OD 50 in January!!



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