, there is much needed discussion now on why so many of our TB racehorses breakdown and what can be done to prevent as many as possible.
I don't know if any of you are familiar with the gentleman who wrote this article, but I happened across it on the web and found it quite interesting. Would be interested in your thoughts.
Preventing Breakdowns
By William E. Jones, DVM
We all cringe at the site of a horse going down on the racetrack, right in front of the thundering hoofs of other horses. The Jockey scrambles for his life and often the horse that went down has sustained such a severe fracture that it can only struggle to regain its feet. Most trainers and many owners simply remark at such an incident, "How unlucky that such a good horse took such a bad step."
Last month (December) evidence was presented to a large group of equine practitioners meeting in Denver, Colorado, that such breakdowns are preventable, because it is possible to predict which horses are most likely to breakdown during a race. This was the annual meeting of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). Dr. J. G. Peloso said that virtually all horses that suffer a catastrophic breakdown are horses that have shown signs of lameness prior to the race. He suggested that racehorses are pushed too hard at times when a slight musculoskeletal injury shows the horse to be susceptible to further injury if raced.
"There is evidence that pre-existing pathology may be associated with injury," he said. "Marked changes noted during the pre-race physical examination of race horses may be a useful predictor of horses that will sustain a career-ending or catastrophic injury while racing. This is potentially an alterable risk factor that could be used to prevent injury. Results of this study will be useful to owners, trainers, veterinarians, and racing officials in planning methods to reduce the frequency of racing injuries."
Dr. Peloso had done a study of breakdowns at Kentucky racetracks over the past two years. During that time, each horse racing had received a pre-race veterinary exam and those that showed any signs of lameness were graded as to severity of lameness. It was called a "racing soundness score." A score of 0 was given when the horse showed no marked signs of lameness and noticeable lameness received a score of from 1 to 4 depending on severity.
During this two-year-period, 137 horses sustained racing injuries, and 50 of these were classified as career-ending injuries, with the rest being catastrophic injuries. While not all of these injured horses had been graded as lame before the race, a significant number of them had received a score of 4. Dr. Peloso concluded, "Results of this study suggest that marked changes noted during pre-race physical examinations may be a useful predictor of horses that will sustain a career-ending catastrophic injury while racing."
Another study which is dedicated to ascertaining the causes of racetrack breakdowns and development of preventative strategies is the "Postmortem Program in California, conducted by the University of California Veterinary College and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). The California veterinary Diagnostic laboratory System was commissioned in February 1990 to conduct the Post Mortem Program under the direction of the Equine Wellness and Injury Prevention subcommittee of CHRB.
This program provides for the study of horses that died on California racetracks. Some of their finding were reported at the Annual Convention of the AAEP last month. Dr. Albert J. Kane had studied the effects of toe grabs and rim shoes on the racetrack fatalities in California. He and a large group of veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, were trying to determine if risk factors could be identified to predict which horses might be in danger of injury. His conclusion was that, "The risk of catastrophic injury, particularly suspensory apparatus failure, increases as the height of toe grabs increases. This is really only logical. It is like football players on artificial turf where cleats provide such excellent traction that sprains occur because forces become too much for the ligaments which must bear the strain of the increased traction.
The study showed that the odds of fetlock catastrophic injury were 16 times greater for horses shod with medium height toe grabs compared to horses not wearing toe grabs. Rim shoes, an alternative to toe grabs, were associated with decreased risk of catastrophic injury including fatal suspensory apparatus failure. The odds of any catastrophic injury for horses with rim shoes were two-thirds lower compared to horses not wearing rim shoes. The researchers concluded that it is likely that toe grabs have some cumulative damaging effect on the horse's legs over time as well as an effect at the time of injury. Since this study on toe grabs was concluded the CHRB has recommended that rim shoes be used as the only traction device for racehorses, since they pose less threat of breakdown.
Strenuous training and racing cause microfractures in stressed bone. As these heal, the bone becomes stronger than it was before. This is the reason for training and conditioning. The trainer must not forget, however, that it takes time for the microfractures to heal, and that the conditioning must not be pushed too rapidly. The Post Mortem Program has determined that the majority of catastrophic fractures to the humerus, tibia, scapula and pelvic bones occur at sites of pre-existing incomplete stress fractures. High-intensity training increases the risk of a fatal injury by four to seven times. More than 25% of California racehorse deaths are associated with stress fracture-related complete fractures. Stress fractures are now commonly detected in horses actively racing by bone scans done at many major racetracks.
Other studies are continuing to define the risk factors for lameness in racehorses. Bucked shins have been studied for many years, and recently a Pennsylvania study showed that training practices were the major cause. Sprints too often and too long were implicated as the underlying cause of most bucked shins. The researchers proved their point by conducting their own training programs on quality Thoroughbreds, resulting in many well-trained, winning horses that had never sustained a bucked shin.
Several studies of bowed tendons have been done in the past few years. It has been shown that severe bows usually occur after slight tendon injuries have been sustained. The typical situation is that the horse is given some treatment, and/or a little time off, and then is put back into training and racing. Inadequate healing time before a horse goes back to the track results in a much more severe bow which often ends the horse's career.
These and other studies are showing that there are risk factors which can be identified to prevent horses from sustaining a breakdown on the track. As evidence mounts to support this reality, owners who place horses with trainers are going to expect trainers, veterinarians and anyone else who accepts pay for horse care to be aware of risk factors and provide the necessary care to prevent catastrophic breakdown. In this age of lawsuits everyone who provides a service for a fee must consider whether their service is within the range of normal procedure compared to others. A head-in-the sand attitude will not be an acceptable defense in court.
Of course keeping horses sound at the racetrack will always be a difficult process, and it will always be somewhat of a gamble as to whether a horse can go on without breaking down. There is risk in the racing game, and always will be. The key to staying out of court, however, will probably be in allowing the owner to share in the decision as to how much risk to take in putting a lame horse back into training and racing; how long to rest a horse with a bowed tendon, etc.
But, these days a trainer needs to stay informed. Soon it won't really be acceptable to do things just because its always been the way it was done. Times change and it seems that the whole world is interested in reducing the risks to racehorses. The wisest thing a trainer can do these days is to rely more heavily on the opinion of a good veterinarian- one who is up on the current knowledge about why and how injuries are caused.
http://www.horseinfo.com/info/people/wjones.html
http://www.neosoft.com/~iaep/pages/sportsmed/breakdowns.html