ALD IN THOROUGHBREDS
First published January 4, 2022. Updated January 1, 2025: Thoroughbred foals are often born with legs that are not straight. Amongst the veterinary community it is well known that amongst the big studs, almost 100% of foals are being given surgery to correct their limbs.
In some cases, it is necessary for the foal to have surgery, however many interventions are cosmetic and are merely done to fetch a larger price at the yearling sales.
ALD is congenital, meaning it is present at birth and it can have a range of causes. Most importantly, however, it can be hereditary. Names of sires that are known to throw foals with ALD are a closely guarded secret.
Dr, Larry Bramlage, a leading equine orthopaedic surgeon, says about the rapid increase in the use of corrective surgery on foals:
“Yes, we have more stallions that produce conformational faults. Unfortunately some of those stallions also produce exceptional athletes as well. That is why the industry tolerates them…
You might argue the breed has been altered. You can no longer look at a mare and know exactly what she looked like as a foal or what her dip out of the gene pool might look like. But we know the stallions who produce stallions that are prone to conformational problems, and truthfully we don’t care. We’ll breed to anything that produces a fast horse.”
Disclosure of ALD surgeries
In the unregulated market of bloodstock sales, there is no obligation for the vendor to disclose surgery for ALD.
Research by Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association found that a significant percentage of buyers (over 25%) were unaware of ALD surgeries
And 68.5% of respondents indicated they would be less likely to purchase a horse that had had one of these procedures.
https://www.chamberlainlaw.com/media/news/31_TOBA%20Report.pdf
Periosteal elevation and transphyseal bridge (screws and wires) are the common procedures and are described here.
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