Heartbreak
Long time readers know that I am a horse crazed teen-ager at heart. I have been blessed to have two wonderful equines in my life, Shadow Dancer and The Whiz Kid, and now that they are gone I get my "horsey" fix watching horse racing and any Olympic equine competitions that the networks show us.
Those of us who are into it know that today was Kentucky Derby Day. It was another crowded field and pre-race favorite Big Brown did what he has done in his prior starts, but the news was the sad breakdown of second place finisher Eight Belles shortly after finishing the race.
ESPN just interviewed Dr. Bramlage, who called Eight Belles injury a "freak" occurrence and he is correct. It is not uncommon for a horse to go lame in both front legs, but to break both at the same time is just unheard of. As someone who rode performance horses for 10+ years and who (at one time) wanted to be a professional horse trainer, I simply can not come up with a plausible reason why this happened. It was just a freak accident.
However...after a couple of classes in equine anatomy and physiology, I came to understand that racing a 2 and 3 year old Thoroughbred - whose joints are not fully developed - is a recipe for breakdowns. The equine leg is an amazing design. All of that pressure and pounding and torque is put on a seemingly china frail leg. The joints of the equine knee and foot are made up of bones (some no bigger than a tangerine wedge) that on their own would not be able to absorb that kind of punishment. When fully developed (usually sometime during their 3rd year) and working together properly, though, those tiny little bones are concrete!
Maybe the time has come for racing fans to stand up and demand a little common sense out of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Maybe it is time to make the Triple Crown races 4 year old races and change racings structure so that training and racing can not begin until the horse is 3 years old. At the price that these horses are selling for (5 and 6 figures are not unusual) it is a matter of protecting your investment as well as being a matter of the horses well being.
Those of us who are into it know that today was Kentucky Derby Day. It was another crowded field and pre-race favorite Big Brown did what he has done in his prior starts, but the news was the sad breakdown of second place finisher Eight Belles shortly after finishing the race.
Eight Belles was attempting to become the fourth filly to win the Derby. However, as the horses galloped out around the first turn, the filly fell to the ground and jockey Gabriel Saez jumped off.
An equine ambulance came onto the track, but the filly could not be saved, said Dr. Larry Bramlage, the Derby’s on-call veterinarian.
“When we passed the wire I stood up. She started galloping funny. I tried to pull her up. That’s when she went down,” a distraught Saez said.
ESPN just interviewed Dr. Bramlage, who called Eight Belles injury a "freak" occurrence and he is correct. It is not uncommon for a horse to go lame in both front legs, but to break both at the same time is just unheard of. As someone who rode performance horses for 10+ years and who (at one time) wanted to be a professional horse trainer, I simply can not come up with a plausible reason why this happened. It was just a freak accident.
However...after a couple of classes in equine anatomy and physiology, I came to understand that racing a 2 and 3 year old Thoroughbred - whose joints are not fully developed - is a recipe for breakdowns. The equine leg is an amazing design. All of that pressure and pounding and torque is put on a seemingly china frail leg. The joints of the equine knee and foot are made up of bones (some no bigger than a tangerine wedge) that on their own would not be able to absorb that kind of punishment. When fully developed (usually sometime during their 3rd year) and working together properly, though, those tiny little bones are concrete!
Maybe the time has come for racing fans to stand up and demand a little common sense out of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Maybe it is time to make the Triple Crown races 4 year old races and change racings structure so that training and racing can not begin until the horse is 3 years old. At the price that these horses are selling for (5 and 6 figures are not unusual) it is a matter of protecting your investment as well as being a matter of the horses well being.
Labels: Horses
posted by The Lady Logician at
5:57 PM
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