What's the Deal with Horses?

Not an expert, but horses just don't do well on their sides for a prolonged period of time at all. Can't support your weight, you are likely toast eventually, as I understand it.

At first I thought the whole Barbaro thing was overdone last year, its a horse, I don't need 15 minute updates, look at Darfur instead. Seems they learned some things about how to help other horses, so maybe the bucks spent on Barbaro were a good thing. But I still do not need daily or any updates on ESPN about a horse.

Shot in the dark, but perhaps it's a cost/benefit analysis: the cost of the veterinary bills to keep a horse alive that's never going to benefit (=make any more money for) its owner.
But I'm cynical like that.
(p.s. no strikeout tag?)

It's many things. Part of it is that the lower leg in a horse is metacarpals, the "ankle" is phalanges. There's basically no flesh below the knee or hock: it's skin and ligaments. When it shatters, it can't be repaired, especially if it's open and liable to be infected. Also, there are few blood vessels, so circulation can be destroyed and gangrene etc set in very easily. Infections are dangerous for horses - antibiotics in any sufficient dose usually destroy the horse's digestive system.

Part of it that horses can't spend prolonged amounts of time lying - they can't breathe or digest; a horse's digestive system is very inefficient.

Part of it is that most horses will not stand in a sling. And even if they're placid enough to do so, there's that problem with their internal organs again.

Lots of horses react badly to anesthesia and thrash wildly when coming out of it - Ruffian broke a second leg at this stage.

If they get well enough to limp around, they can overload their other legs and get laminitis, a serious inflammation which can be incurable - Barbaro did that.

Also, a three year old (if she was really that old, their ages are reckoned from Jan 1, not their actual birthday) isn't mature - five is mature - so the injuries are likely to be worse (the carpals aren't fused into one canon bone yet) and the convalescence harder.

There is some bottom-line consideration in spending thousands of dollars, or more, on a filly versus a colt: even had she survived and been able to bear the weight of a stallion, she'd have produced maybe a dozen foals - optimistic scenario. Barbaro could have produced fifty or sixty a year, at stud fees pretty astronomical.

five is mature

Which, according to one horse breeder I know, was very likely behind this horse breaking both ankles: she just wasn't grown enough to be racing.

And as far as the design goes, well - Thoroughbreds aren't as nature made them - they're very fragile compared to wild horses. Wild horses will rarely run a mile or more at full speed; they lose their predators much more quickly than that. And no horse can run as fast without a rider as he can with: the jockey's extreme forward seat is designed to shift the center of gravity from the shoulders to somewhere along the neck - far up it. This is why horse flip when the rein breaks in a race, or the jockey loses his seat; suddenly the horse is waaaay overbalanced and can't sustain it. It's also why jockeys have such powerful arms - they're counterbalancing. (Also why they push the weight limit; live weight isn't better than dead except that saddlecloth weights stay back of the shoulders and the jockey's weight can shift forward.)

Horses are generally put down after a fracture or severe leg injury because they can't remain down on their sides for very long at all. Circulation to the legs and hooves is compromised and eventually cut off. Their bodies are also so heavy that their organs are also compromised if they are laying down for a length of time. Slings may work for some calm individuals, for a short time, but horses eventually need to put weight on all 4 of their feet in even distribution. That is difficult to manage, and most horses, like Barbaro, will end up with laminitis, a painful, disease of the foot.

Plus, Sven is right, it is so cost prohibitive that the average owner is unprepared and unwilling to take on such a risky endeavor, and the merciful thing is to put them down. For such large animals, horses are indeed fragile.

I'm no expert either but I'm guessing that mechanically race horses have been bred to be as light, lean, and fast as possible. Too much so. Now, look at the cross section of a horse's leg. All that weight on those tiny limbs pretty much means they are all that close to imminent disaster.

I forgot to finish that - since Thoroughbreds are running faster, further, with more weight, at an unnatural balance, at a young age, and on fragile skinny made-for-speed legs, it's no wonder they break down more than wild horses do.

I don't doubt that the people involved with Tbreds love 'em, but the industry is designed to maximize profits, not care for the horses. Racing two-year-olds is a recipe for disaster.

five is mature

Which, according to one horse breeder I know, was very likely behind this horse breaking both ankles: she just wasn't grown enough to be racing.

Interesting -- aren't most racehorses considerably younger than five? Is this because there's a trade off of speed for physical maturity, or just because it's more profitable to race younger horses? Do months matter, given that all horses officially get a year older every January 1?

Sad story, for sure. This went under my radar for a few days since I'm neither a horse fancier nor a fan of racing, but it's awful to see something like this happen to an animal. I hope she wasn't in pain too long.

Love the conversation, one last comment, TB's bred today are indeed very different from those bred even 20-30 years ago. They used to be bred for durability, because most breeders raced their foals. Now the breeders usally sell the foals, with the emphasis on brilliant, early speed. Often the stallions and mares have raced little and were retired early, so their durability is unknown, and undesirable conformation and physical traits may (and probably are) passed on.

Also, I am not so convinced about the argument that horses are raced too early, as 2 year olds. TB's mature faster than other breeds, and are generally fairly mature at 3 years of age. I think it may be more due to training methods and distances run. Horses raced in Europe are trained differently and run on grass, and seem to be more durable.

Just in case there was something not covered by the above comments, I recommend this article off of Slate that does a pretty good job explaining.

http://www.slate.com/id/2190571/

I read somewhere that the only two animals that get stress fractures are horses and people. In other words, the only animals that have a little man pushing them to run faster. Of course people imagine the little man, but he pushes us all the same.

What kind of idiotic design is that?

You could ask the same about human jaws (too small), hips (too narrow, awkwardly shaped for bipedal locmotion), etc.

The key here is that they're evolved, not designed, and it's not a perfect process. (Which is where the whole selection thing comes in)

I realize that you undoubtedly know this already, but as a biologist, that kind of wording is a pet peeve of mine.

re:#10 "Horses raced in Europe are trained differently and run on grass, and seem to be more durable."

dunno about that, for a (non representative) anecdote, I was taken to the races near Rome some 25 years ago, and some 4 horses were taken off in a truck by the end of the day's races. a couple of flat racers and a couple of steeplechasers.

as I say I have no idea if that is representative, but it certainly left an impression. the person who took me explained that the older horses are sometimes transitioned to steeplechase, and the thoroughbreds are generally not really up to it...

#13, not 'designed,' but they are specifically crossbred for certain features. evolved yes, but certainly not 'natural' selection, (well, not entirely anyway...)

Stress or fatigue fractures of the third metacarpal (cannon) bone in young Thoroughbred racehorses are not uncommon-the condition is called "bucked shins". Some of the research indicates that the problem occurs because young horses are trained at one speed, with characteristic loading that remodels the bone in a particular way, and then raced at another speed, which loads the bone differently and causes the fatigue fractures. Standardbred horses are trained in the speed at which they race, and rarely have fatigue fractures. There are a couple of research articles on the response of equine bone, tendons, and joints to exercise-I hope to get a post up on these later this week, but for now there's an informal photo survey of cannon bones on my blog.

Physicists like Chad might enjoy reading a biomechanical study of horse leg muscles and tendons, with elasticity and vibration measurements (and a good diagram of the lower forelimb of a horse, showing how the one remaining interosseous muscle has been pretty much turned into the suspensory ligament). The reference is: A.M. Wilson et al., (2001) Horses damp the spring in their step. Nature 414, 895-899.

Warning: some methods described are not for the squeamish. :-P

> I realize that you undoubtedly know this already, but as a biologist, that kind of wording is a pet peeve of mine.

Hate to have to say it, but that was the joke, man. "Design" being the crux word.

I got interested in this subject when PETA got interviewed on the local radio and said that racing resulted in massive horse deaths. The figure turns out to be 1.5 to 2.0 horse fatalities per 1000 starts.

Then the subject got to the slaughter of thoroughbreds for meat. Various horse people called up and denied that this happened. So I did an internet search and found that the US exports about $35 million in horse flesh, chilled or frozen, per year, according to the USDA, which ought to know. Most of it goes to Europe where they eat it without cooking it properly and sometimes get trichinosis.

Standardbreds also don't run faster than their bodies are made for. Well, they don't run, but you get what I mean, I hope.

Endurance racing prohibits horses younger than five from competing. Tbreds may seem "mature" at three, but their legs are not. The bones haven't fused yet, and bucking and splints are common injuries.

And yes, months count at this age: breeders try very hard to get foals dropped as early in the year as possible. Dick Francis wrote a book once where the murder happened because this backfired and the foal was actually born in December, making it a yearling when only a few days old. That Jan 1 "birthday" is for administrative ease, so no one has to run around checking actual birthdays of all the entrants.

"I read somewhere that the only two animals that get stress fractures are horses and people. In other words, the only animals that have a little man pushing them to run faster."

I've heard that it is also common in racing greyhounds. No little man on their back during the race, though you could certainly argue that they are trained to push themselves beyond their physical limits.

Breeding horses for running speed drives them toward fragility. There's simply no way to run fast with a heavy frame.

Check early pictures of draft horses and you'll see that breeding them for drawing power drives them toward sturdiness.

Amazing how things change. I know one story from WW2 of a horse that had one of his front legs ripped off in an explosion. The only effect this had on the horse was that he would twitch the stump once in a while. I can imagine an older horse saying to his grandchildren, "Back in my day we had to walk 15 miles through the snow to reach the stables! And we were getting shot at too! Kids today, whining about every little bone fracture....."

Hate to have to say it, but that was the joke, man. "Design" being the crux word.

*slaps forehead* This conference is going too long and has turned my brain to mush. My bad.

Comment #5 was fascinating! Learn something new every day. Now, is that speed advantage the reason why they put robot jockeys on camels?

I can't add anything that technical, but I know someone who runs ultramarathons, where a short race is 50 miles. They run against horses, who use the same course. (He also claimed that they can beat the horses.) One of the rules for the horses is a periodic mandatory vet check on heart rate, etc. Apparently, a horse will run until it dies without giving any hint to the rider that too much is being asked of it. They don't check the humans.

Although it has been covered quite well, here is some quality info from one of my (almost) vet friends:

So there's a saying "no hoof, no horse". In Vet medicine, horses are what we call that "exception" species ...all the rules are broken physiologically when it comes to horses. to begin with, the amount of weight distributed per square inch of hoof is more than any of our other domesticated species and they are very very pre-disposed to laminitis. I mean these things can eat the wrong plant, and get laminitis which is this weird inflammation in the hoof followed by rotation of the bone and things just go down hill form there. They are a very fractious species and are easily stressed by forced immobilization so trying to keep a horse in a sling for both ankles to heal is like a death sentence, that and they are really slow/poor healers when it comes to leg injuries and when it comes down to it, the amount of money that would be spent trying to bring that philly back, she definitely would never race again and it would prob. be more than she was worth. look at Barbero, they tried really hard at Penn to bring him back but no success..hoof injuries are just really tought to work with in horses and they are so miserable during the process that it just decreases quality of life, the legs just get horse and you just prolong their misery...