Thanks Christi and Dianne, she really is quite leggy and I'm amazed too. She is all her dam, I really don't see Sunnie in her yet but I will be watching her especially at a week (and will definitely get some updated pictures). That's when they look their best to me.
Simon's first reaction to her was that "Henna had a thoroughbred!" I laughed, but he's right and the Twin Peaks HMA is made up of the cavalry mount descendents with a mix of spanish mustangs. I found a very interesting article on the herd a few days ago and it says that they carry the same markers as the Kigers. The article is below (I took out all the pictures):
Dr. Gus Cothran's Genetic Analysis of the Twin Peaks Herd:
(Summarized by Nancy - my apologies if I didn't get it right. If you want the "real deal" ask your BLM agent for a copy)
The two main areas he looked at were:
1. Herd health from a genetics standpoint, and
2. Clues to the herd's history.
1. GENETIC HEALTH & DIVERSITY:
Looking at herd health, one of the first things to look at is genetic diversity - the more variable the genepool, one expects to find greater genetic health (as opposed to inbreeding, which narrows the genepool and can cause doubling up on weak or defective genes)
He made the quite surprising discovery that the genepool is not very diverse. Normally this means inbreeding, but since Twin Peaks is a huge area with a very large population of wild horses, inbreeding is most unlikely. The more likely possibility is that all the horses are descended from a small (but diverse, in terms of breed represented) "founding population," and have not been infused with "new blood" or outside mixing, for a long time.
This is consistent with known history - that the already-present wild horses - who may have been fewer in number than we usually think, due to "mustanging" or whatever, were mixed with high quality domestic stallions for the Cavalry Remount program, etc.
Another way a gene pool becomes less diverse is when people develop a new breed - the desirable animals are mated and reproduce, and the undesirable ones tossed out. New blood is not allowed in, and the genepool becomes, well, for lack of a less-highly-charged word, "purified." The animals "breed true," meaning they and their offspring have a certain set of recognizable and predictable characteristics that set them apart from other breeds, whether that be color, behavior, movement, conformation, performance, or whatever went into the breeding decisions.
Obviously, people often mess up and along with the genes they want, they get disasters that they don't want, and they get the classic inbreeding issues associated with pure breeds.
In the case of the Twin Peaks herd, this isn't happening. They got the concentration of genetic material that one associates with a true breed, but, probably since Mother Nature culls heavily, they don't seem to have the problems that go along with humans developing a breed.
I should note, about the low diversity: In another of Cothran's studies (Carter Reservoir), he talks about this. When loss of diversity happens quickly (such as through inbreeding or suddenly low population due to disaster or whatever), the herd is in trouble. All the "bad genes" are suddenly doubled up on, and you start to see a lot of weak and defective foals. But when it happens slowly, gently, over a long period of time, as it did with the Carter Reservoir herd and most likely also in the Twin Peaks herd, it simply results in a more uniform, "true breed" kind of thing.
Since Twin Peaks horses are known for their size, beauty, nice temperaments, and fairly recognizable conformational similarities, it seems to me that this is what we have with Twin Peaks. Many people report that they can pick out the Twin Peaks horses when they go to an adoption or horse show - there is something unique, recognizable, about the Twin Peaks horses. So the Twin Peaks Herd, according to my interpretation, may qualify as a True Breed - Dr. Cothran didn't come out and say it in his report, but the fitting description is there.
Dr. Cothran does not recommend making any introductions of new blood at this time, but notes that he would like to study more samples (as 25 individuals is a small sample size, especially from so large a herd area) and the situation should be monitored carefully over time to catch genetic problems if they arise.
2. ORIGINS:
The breeds most likely to have played a part in the origin of the herd are Iberian, Thoroughbred, Draft, Morgan, and the North American gaited Saddle breeds. (Most of this is typical of the Southeastern Oregon horses that I've read genetic studies on, too, only most of them don't have much, if any, draft)
As for ancestry and history, this is very technical, but the synopsis seemed to indicate that the Twin Peaks herd is similar genetically to other wild herds in the region - a combination of original Old Spanish horses, with more modern domestic stock, and the herd bears closest similarity today to the gaited American saddle horses, the Standardbred carriage horses and Thoroughbreds and Morgans - none of this is surprising.
What was surprising, although he made absolutely no reference to it in this report, was the inclusion of one of the known "Old Spanish" marker known as "D-dek" on the chart of markers identified. When this happened in the Kiger analysis, this was much ballyhooed, proof of "Old Spanish" lineage. But it was not even mentioned in this one, because Old Spanish was not the focus of the report.
There are only four known markers that are absolutely indicative of Iberian (Old Spanish) ancestry. One is the "D-dek" This is the one the Kiger herd has. It is also in the Twin Peaks herd!
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TWIN PEAKS MULES
Apparently there has been some question about the origin of Twin Peak's mules, because Dr. Cothran makes a point of mentioning that one of the samples used was from a mule, and that everything about the mule's blood markers is consistent with having originated within Twin Peaks' wild horse and burro herds. In other words, the mules are not domestic runaways or recent introductions. |
