From: lbm@avs.com (Linda B. Merims)
Subject: Re: Carlyle Morgans
Organization: Advanced Visual Systems Inc.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:58:51 GMT
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Several people have asked me what the controvery is.  If you just read
December's Morgan Horse, you'll find no mention of this.  All of the reports
have been in the yellow sales supplement that AMHA started sending
out with the magazine several months ago.  At the back of the sales
supplement, the AMHA is putting in its quarterly report to members.
That's where this has been showing up.

This is the AMHA's version of the story, as I recall from the article:

- In the summer of '91 they received an anonymous letter saying that
  Senora Showbiz Vona was a mare, who at age 25 was a maiden.  From
  25 on, she had produced five live foals in as many years.  The anonymous
  letter said the AMHA should check their computerized registry to see
  if there was any precedent for this, should consult experts as to the
  likelihood of this, and that if they ever paid an announced visit to
  check on Senora Showbiz Vona, she'd likely have just died "like so many
  others."

- Senora Showbiz Vona had been blood-typed at 25 when she started her
  foaling career.

- The AMHA did a computer search of their registry and found SSV to be
  unique.  I believe she was also the only 25 year old maiden mare to
  have ever produced a foal.  They also consulted experts who said it
  was possible but improbable for a 25 year old maiden mare to produce
  a live foal, and improbable verging on impossible for such a mare
  to produce 5 live foals in succession.

- The AMHA did nothing at this point.

- The AMHA received two more anonymous phone calls making the same point.
  Then, an AMHA member signed their name to a complaint?  request for
  an investigation?  At this point AMHA moved ahead.

- I don't remember if AMHA gave Carlyle notice that they would be
  investigating.

- On December 14 '91, AMHA officials paid a surprise visit to Carlyle (in
  New Hampshire) to re-blood type SSV and examine her against the description
  on her registration papers.  The owner said the mare was in Rhode Island.
  She initially said they could go down to Rhode Island and look at her,
  but then withdrew this offer after talking to her lawyer.  Further
  discussions produced an assurance of cooperation providing a blood or
  hair sample from the mare.

- I don't remember exactly what happened next, but over the next several
  months AMHA made repeated requests for the cooperation they were seeking.
  I don't remember if they visited the farm again.

- In July '92 the AMHA received a notice of death from Carlyle for SSV.  The
  death notice said the mare had died on December 10 '91.  Carlyle said
  that they were unaware when AMHA visited them that the mare had already
  died.

- AMHA evidently had affidavits from a few people saying that they had
  had conversations with Carlyle in December and January in which they'd
  been told the mare was in foal, with no mention of her being deceased.

AMHA has required blood typing for several years now.  It started with
stallions, then included mares producing foals, and now includes every
horse being submitted for registration.  The significance of the mare
being 25 is--and I am not saying that this is what happened, few will
ever know that--her sire and dam are probably dead and not available for
blood testing.  Any full or half siblings could also be dead.  If the
horse originally blood typed as SSV was not SSV, there would be no easy
way to confirm this.  (Anybody know the state of blood-typing technology?)
She'd match up fine with her offspring, but would be vulnerable to an
actual physical inspection by a vet (teeth, etc.)  The sad thing is
that all these factors also work against Carlyle--if SSV really was SSV,
relatives may be hard to find to prove it.

Linda B. Merims