Every one of my riders will instantly recognize this picture as one of Porter in the wild. The catch is that it is not Porter at all, though so similar in appearance as to be essentially indistinguishable. That is the result both of a few hundred years of isolation and the effects of having so few horses in the gene pool. The Corollas have among the fewest alleles on their DNA chain that have ever been found in an equine population. Once lost these genes can never be restored.
We are lucky to have the more genetically diverse, but equally authentically Spanish, herd of Shacklefords at the southern end of the Outer Banks to breed back into the Corollas in the off site breeding program. This will allow us both to preserve the strain and maintain its purity. The mares on Corolla are already demonstrating a shockingly low annual birth rate. Even my Corolla mares are showing difficulty carrying a foal from a Corolla stallion to term. Swimmer was bred to Tradewind last spring but she will not be having a foal this spring. I will breed her to a Shackleford stallion and I expect a beautiful foal from the paring.
This spring I will have a a foal born of two Corollas and two foals that have one Corolla and one Shackleford parent. In the future I hope that we continue to produce offspring from the Shackleford/Corolla pairs.
Legislation currently pending in Congress will allow some Shackleford mares to be released in the wild Corolla herd. This is a vital step towards insuring that the horses of Corolla remain wild and free for centuries to come.
My guess is that when you cross the Shacklefords with the Corollas you will restore some of the lost Corolla genes. These two strains appear the be very closely related and the Shacklefords probably still have some alleles that the Corollas once had but lost.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you will not know how many genes or which ones have been restored. It would have been much better it the Corolla gene pool had not become so constricted. But since it has, crossing with the Shacklefords is a good option.
I hope the legislation passes to help keep the the horses going.
ReplyDeleteThre BLM has taken Sulphur's off the HMA and placed them upon other HMA's in Utah. I have no problem with the BLM doing this to diversify the Gene pool of the other HMA's.
I don't, However want the BLM to put other horses onto the Sulphur Springs HMA. There is no need to do this at this time, nor in the near future and thankfully the BLM realizes this.
Let us know when the legislation passes. It'll be a great day for Spanish Mustangs.