Physitis is the most common problem I've seen over the past 10 years. Breeders and owners have really got to lay off fattening the babies up. We often forget that animals can adjust and can overcome limitations if we let them show us where their limitations are.
I've always suspected that it is the overwhelming nutritional load some of these foals have from in utero to Yearling Sale that does them in. In the wild/natural horse populations you do not often see "fat" horses, but rather those on the 'lean' side, with ribs evident though not pronounced except in drought or other stressed conditions.
This rush to surgery to correct every foal born with some, in many cases rather slight, deviation in their underpinnings does make me wonder something......IF we see limb deviations/allignment issues on a regular basis despite every attention to a mare and stallion's conformation and the pregnant mare's care and nutrition - doesn't this also occur in the wild horse populations? If so I wonder if there hasn't been a study (or several?) that follow these naturally born "crooked" foals to see: whether or not they either a) self correct with exercise and further development or b) are the ones susceptable to predation because of their 'inherent weakness'????
If the former is the case then it would seem to me that the "get them outdoors running and running" with adequate, not excessive nutrition is the way to go. Simultaneously we need to educate buyers that a less than perfect foal may likely mature into a picture perfect horse by 2/3YO and that 'conformation' has little to do with performance, but rather it is how a horse uses itsself that is important. That is why inspecting a horse at the walk, trot and even running freely is important to know how that horse may actually hold up to racing physically....still has very little to do with the 'class' or 'heart' they bring to the track.
IF the latter then I would ask the next question, which is: then do we see a far less percentage of foals born crooked or with ALD in the wild populations as a result of the genetic propensity being removed before those individuals can reach breeding age?
Does anyone know if a true study like this has been done? I'm not just looking for annecdotal observations here but actual counts and tracking studies over time of several generations or at least one lifetime cycle.