Kentucky Derby

[southernsibe]

Halo,
I was wondering if you could answer this question. When the foals start to mature, does bone density develop at the same rate in both filly and colt or does it differ?

This is just a question to satisfy my own curiosity

Rachel

 

[chicknmania]

I remember that Tale of Akati horse from last year; I like him, good to see he is still running. Today they are televising the Rolex; I understand there were two horses killed there too this year and also another filly seriously injured in the Kentucky Oaks. We were at the Rolex one year when we had the horrible experience of seeing a horse collapse and die right in front of us; everytime this happens, it is horrible for everyone. Horses are a lot like chickens in that they are surprisingly durable but also surprisingly fragile at the aame time.

 

[verthandi]

Quote:
If you are talking about many years ago...it was Ruffian and I believe it was a grudge match, colt against filly.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
"Similar to our athletes"?

I don't think it's all that similar.

Human athletes know what the risks are and choose whether to compete or not, and how hard.

Animals, however much intelligence and emotion we may think them to have, are not capable of INFORMED CONSENT.

We breed them to run faster and harder than their legs can carry them, and we encourage them to go all out and if they break down we call it an "accident" to make ourselves feel better.

Pat

 

[halo]

It is indeed an accident. Ive had far more horses injured and killed in the barn and in my fields than out on the racetrack.

Bone density is a function of use or loose. Which is why there have been many studies that have shown that horses that have started their training earlier have stronger bones than horses who are started later in life. There are so many reason that a horse can break a bone, just like people. How many people do you know who have broken an ankle just walking down the side walk? There will never be a definitive reason why that filly broke her leg at that particular point; a bad step, a weary step, an OCD lesion in the bone, it could be anything. It is a tragic, tragic experience.

 

[patandchickens]

The work that racehorses do, especially since they're young but even aside from that, fatigues and micro-damages (=weakens) tendons and ligaments. (Even aside from the major injuries often done to tendons and ligaments, that is). Saggy overstretching tendons and ligaments (and tired muscles) mean the limb is not working as it is meant to, and in many cases that is most likely what brings on the fractures. According to current veterinary findings.

The actual *rate* of fractures (number per 1000 horses) is much higher in racehorses than in pastured or pleasure-use horses. (Same with career- or life-ending soft tissue injuries such as tendon ruptures).

If they occurred with similar frequency in both groups, i'd say sure, call 'em accidents, and horses certainly do have freak accidents sometimes.

However, if you (for instance) are drag-racing your car on an icy road and skid into a tree, to me that is NOT an "accident" in the normal sense of the word

And with that we come pretty much to the end of the polite-enough-for-this-list things that I can say about racing... much as I know a number of people in the industry DO sincerely love their horses.

Zipping my lip now,

Pat

 

[halo]

Drag racing a car on a icy road has nothing whatsoever to do with a well trained thoroughbred being raced on a safe race track. A thoroughbred who has raced 8 or 9 times before in total safety, a horse who has been thru vet checks over and over. And I dont care what current veterinary findings say, I can tell you that in the past 5 years, we have sent over 600 horses to the race tracks with fewer catastrophic injuries than we've had in our fields and barns in the same time frame. And that is a fact.

 

[patandchickens]

Halo, how many hours of their lives do your horses spend on the racetrack, versus how many hours in barns and paddocks?

Does that not seem somewhat relevant.

The point about drag racing on ice was not that TBs are out of control -- it was that when you knowingly involve high risks (in the case of racehorses, those being high exertion, high speed, and creeping soft tissue injury) then it is not an "accident". Would you prefer I said, "if you repeatedly jump off the top of the swingset, and one of those times you break an ankle, that is not really an accident".

And that is all I have to say.

Pat

 

[SpottedCrow]

They did a quickie on the news about the types of tracks...and how they might want to switch to a fake turf kinda track.

It's still very sad...

 

[Cara]

It sickened me to hear what happened to her, but what disgusts me even more is what happens to those who do not make it as far as the major races and are discarded.