Re: [RC] [RC] Ho Boy! Here comes PeTA! - Lynne Glazer
And who among you would trust the government to establish and actually FUND a licensing requirement for horsemen with enforcement that would have teeth? ? ?
Here's an interesting point of view on the injury, from another list:
From a vet on another list.....
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An old race track aphorism:? "only the good horses are powerful enough to break themselves down"
Certainly a tragedy.? Eight Belles won her 4 races of her career.? She was a second to a very fast horse with a powerful finish !? And that among the 19 best colts in the country !???
Who can know what caused the fracture??? The third metacarpal's distal end at the "ankle" or carpus has an articular surface with a ridge thru the middle.? This ridge if forced downward into the P1 pastern can act like a wedge and create what has become known as a "screwdriver" fracture.? Just as if a screwdriver or wedge had been driven down on top of the pastern P1.???
Remember that the race went at about 35MPH.?? I calculated Big Brown at 37.5 MPH [feel free to check that with your own calculation]? My point is that a 1000 pound mass traveling at that speed and slamming a single foot into the ground repeatedly exerts a considerable force.?? Then a mis-step as a result of fatique,? a mix up in gait using stopping force... the foot coming down on an imperfect part of the racetrack.. into another foot print or ? ?? ...?? The pastern shatters...? then think of the one front foot then hopping along trying to stop ...??? and the force applied to it.?? It is not difficult to see how the second pastern shattered as well.??
As to rescue..? we understand one of the fractures was compound...?? poor prognosis there..?? and no way to even support the body ... with no front foot available...??? it was the correct decision to euthanize and quickly...?? as soon as the trainer agreed...??
I am so sorry to see a very great horse have such a short career.? She will be remembered.???
On May 5, 2008, at 10:19 AM, D'Arcy Demianoff-Thompson wrote:
Excellent points Sandy.? You know, in Florida, even to train, race horses, on the farm level, one has to be licensed!? Now, it can be argued that most 'licensed' owners/trainers are still not qualified.? However, more than likely they know a little more than the average Endurance Rider/Trainer that I have witnessed so far!? So, maybe, RideCamp, we should all stop tossing stones at everyone, myself included, and go the University of Michigan's?online course page to sign up for?any number of classes that?Sandy has outlined in her email:
Construction rather than destruction is the key!??Personally, I believe animal breeders of any kind should have, at the very least, class completion of?anatomy, physiology, and genetic.? Perferably with a 3.0 or better.??I further believe all 'licensed' owners/trainers/jockeys should have an 'animal science' certificate of some kind with the aforementioned classes as absolute minimum!? But then if I ran the world.........
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D'Arcy
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<accreditation of equine anatomy, physiology, breeding/genetics,?and classical training techniques ought to be a required level of mastery before anyone can call themselves a breeder?or trainer. Maybe owners, too. Sheesh.>
