DNA holds the secret to life. By creating a gene map of the horse, we are not going to unravel every secret. Gene mapping will be, though, to the next century what vaccines and antibiotics were to this century. Developmental bone diseases affect 10 to 25 percent of horses across a wide range of breeds, decreasing their performance and breeding potential. While breeders are adept at selecting for performance, inherited defects often negate those efforts.
People spend a lot of money on horses.
A lot of money is wasted and a lot of suffering is caused because of health problems. In order to shed some light on where genes are located, scientists look for markers. The genetic variation scientists use as a marker can be something as small as a change in a single base in the DNA to a whole deleted section. Each gene is a segment of DNA on a chromosome. Teri Lear, a cytogeneticist from UK who works closely with Bailey, was one of the specialists eager to solve this problem.