Rainbow Myriel, called Mhre (Carrot)

The pony, that got me in motion

2009
I got Mhre when she was 10 ye-
ars old from her breeder. Mohre had lived
most of her life in a stable and was comple-
tely untrained. Her hoofs had not been trim-
med or looked after for a long period. Because
Mohre had not been trained it was not possible
to pick her feet up in a normal way. But she
was such a nice and beautiful mare that she
gave me courage to take the risk and take her
home, educate and train her, get her feet
normal and then breed her.
2014/outlook
This year we had not the courage to
cover Mhre again. We had to accept that we
can never know for sure a stallion is not a carrier,
as long as he wasnt tested.
Mhre already is a premium mare of ZfdP and as
we like her and her foals we will continue to breed
her to tested stallions, ofcourse! One day this
HWSD-mare will turn out to be elite mare of fn in
Germany!
We like to show with her how it is possible to ma-
nage a breed to eliminate genetic diseases, It is
very important to not throw away good ponies
like Mhre, to not put heads in the sand but to
switch on minds and act for the welfare of
our Connemara Ponies.
2012/13
UCD moved forward with the research and
asked for more samples of Connemara Ponies to be
sent, no matter if affected or not. That was my chan-
ce to do some more for the Connies! I began to phone
all owners of stallions in Germany, informed them about
HWSS (some of them already knew), and was enabled
through the cooperation of the breeders to send samples
of 230 ponies to Davis over the next two years.
Mhre was covered again, this time by TGHs Indiana
Jones, a stallion who we suspect to be a non carrier of
HWSD. She got another colt foal.
Both of her foals are carriers of HWSD and have
normal, healthy hoofs..
Turningpoint
Ray searched the internet and
made the contact to the Connemara Pony
Research Group for me. I was accepted as
a member and a heavy weight fell off of me,
because these people knew about the problems
to hold such a pony sound.
I learned that Mhre has a genetic disease that
just got subject to scientic research at UC
Davis. To push this I organised to collect
and send blood samples of Mhre and
her relations to Davis.
2011
Ray tried lots of special shoeing,
but had not that success we dreamed of.
Twice in this spring we had to handle lame-
ness caused by abscesses at her front feet.
In this state she gave birth to a very vital colt
that she hardly could follow to not lose him.
She showed us what a good mother she is!
August turned out to be her hardest month in
life. She suffered rotations of cofn bones in
both her hind feet. Close to being released
from her pain with the grand support by
Ray she got better again, that brave
one chapeau!
2010
Mhre learned to behave and her feet given
care by a trimmer every three weeks. He cut her very
short and treated her against white line disease. He said
the walls had to grow down healthy. After the trim she al-
ways was lame. But her hooves did not get better through
that treatment. I learned to rasp her myself, keeping the
walls short to avoid splitting off, but not too short to cause
her pain.
In April and May Mhre spent some weeks at the Thier-
gartenhof (TGH), was broken in and covered by TGHs
Dun Iltschi. In training we used hoof boots to protect her
feet.
Back home again we decided to shoe her and give her
Farriers Formula. In shoes Mhre moved much better but
with her poor hoof quality she lost shoes often. We still
hoped for better hooves through all our treatments.
Ray Knightley took over the hoof care.