Approximately 100 Quarter Horse stallion owners have received, or will receive, a telephone message from Ann Rashmir, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, associate professor of surgery and head of the Hyperelastosis Cutis (HC) Research Program at Mississippi State University, that contains unwelcome news. The message is that the stallion is a carrier of the recessive gene that causes HC, also known as hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA).

Being a recipient of that information, says Steven Hanson, a Billings, Mont., attorney as well as a cutting horse exhibitor and breeder, just might serve to place a special responsibility on the stallion owner to reveal to mare owners that the stallion is a carrier.

Rashmir says she has no immediate plans to make the names of the known carrier stallions public.

"I think it is only fair that the owners should be informed first," she said. "They shouldn’t have to read about it in a publication. My hope is that they will then make this information available to persons planning to breed mares to their stallion or stallions