Brandon Cobs and Connemara’s

28/11/2025

💕💕💕💕💕

28/11/2025

First hack for the beautiful ‘Orchid’
16h full reg ID Mare rising 4 yrs

27/11/2025

I always think a guttural pouch wash is so much more reliable

🩸 *Strangles blood tests before moving yards*🩸

A common scenario we come across is clients or yard owners requesting a Strangles blood sample prior to their horse moving yard. The question is, is this a worthwhile test?! 🤔

The basic summary of this is that the Strangles blood test comes back with many false positive results. The blood test detects antibodies, which can be elevated in response to active or historic exposure.❗️A negative blood test also does not mean that the horse is not a carrier❗️This test is very likely to miss a ‘carrier’ horse, which is typically the biggest threat for bringing Strangles into a yard.

📚 To put it slightly into context, in a study published by Durham et al. in 2020, only 3% of horses who tested positive on a blood test were actually carriers - that’s a huge 97% that came back with false positives for being a carrier! In this same study, of the 9 horses who were actually true carriers diagnosed via a guttural pouch wash, only ONE was positive on a blood test.

Whilst the blood test does have its use in certain situations, as a pre-movement test we recommend a guttural pouch wash as gold standard ✨. This involves using an endoscope to enter the guttural pouches and rinsing them with saline. This is then tested by PCR for presence of Strangles bacteria DNA 🧬. This is the ONLY definitive way to confirm the horse is not a Strangles carrier.

At GEV we are able to run these guttural pouch samples using our in-house PCR machine for reliable same-day results ⭐️.

25/11/2025

On behalf of a client
‘Lilly’
Now less 🥕
Superb 2nd pony 14.2 allrounder in the making , rising 5
Green but safe and learning fast

21/11/2025

Current availability 💙💕

21/11/2025

‘Orchid’s’ first clip today
She took it all in her stride 💕