Factors Leading to Injuries and Breakdowns

[zinn21]

I think the key to sound horses is the art of stress and recovery at early stages. I like stressing them as fall yearlings, mid winter and early summer. Then they go to the track and some get short two week recovery break as they move through their workout progressions. My results with last 6 horses going through program:

Horse A: 50 starts
Horse B: 43 starts
Horse C: 56 starts-still racing
Horse D: 53 starts
Horse E: 10 starts-currently racing-completely sound
Horse F: 6 starts-currently racing-completely sound

Total earnings for above horses: $445,000.00

Above horse's dams; 3 raced and 2 unraced.

[Toccet02]

[Crystal]

Honestly if you guys think the only workouts horses do are the ones in the DRF you are nuts and have never spent the morning on the backside.

The general public is always going to view horse racing as cruel because it is a sport based around money. We don't pull ponies out of a field on a saturday afternoon and trailer over to the racetrack and hire a jockey to ride a race.

Money is spent so it can be earned back. It is a business and should be treated and respected like so. Passion and care for all the animals should be why you continue to be in the business day after day but a love of the sport and desire to win is why you should get into it in the first place.

But really 6-of-10 trainers out there don't know why they do what they do to condition a horse they just know what has been taught to them and what seems to work for them.

[ElPrado]

Trainers would rather rely on chemicals than actual training. Also, tracks aren't set up for real horse training any more. If there were a real track used for training into the afternoon, the time constraints the trainers now have wouldn't be in play. Horses need more exercise than a half hour a day then sitting in a stall for 23 1/2 hours. They weren't evolved for that.
Training methods are different in Europe, Australia, etc. The horses aren't stabled at the track. The trainers have private tracks or turf gallops to use during daylight hours. In the States, you have a stall, the horse is saddled, worked, bathed, cooled and stuck back in the stall.

[casallc]

[ratherrapid]

might have different effects with different folk. there was an old lawyer here that took lasix and i ask him, out of curiosity, the effect which he referred to the constant restroom trips. He said other than that he noticed very little effect, but will take ur word for it casallc. I've seen horses that seem a little down after the shot.

Nevertheless, the effect of lasix has to be weighed. Weight it #1 with the practice of "drawing the horse" and numerous other stupidities that were done to prevent EIPH before lasix. And secondly do you want EIPH or whatever small real or imagined negatives there are with lasix.

For small owners lasix is a necessity on dirt tracks, or u're going to inevitably lose ur horse to EIPH. Again, the idea that lasix "leaches" minerals is likely true, but that this is harmful is likely untrue. There's also now evidence out there that with modern testing methods that lasix is no longer a masking agent.

Finally, I fear the current antilasix movement--and few are aware of this--is being used by the leaders of the jockey club to try to close smaller tracks, shrink the sport, and bring the profits into the control of a few deep pockets. Rich owners can retire their bleeders. For the rest of us, if we retire our horse we also retire ourselves.

[casallc]

[Crystal]

anyone who says race day Lasix should be banned should have seen me the day I walked a 2nd place runner in a 25k MSW race back to the barn covered in blood. My face, my arms, my collared shirt just blood everywhere. The horse choking on blood, coughing (yacking), throwing his head everywhere and trying to go down and thrash his body around on the track because he was literally being choked by his own blood..

First time (and last time) he ever ran without lasix. He trained for 6 months w/o lasix and was at the peak of perfection with fitness. He bled like a pig the first time he ran. I cleaned blood out of my hair and eyes that night.

He obviously was given time off and given lasix (b/c he was on the bleeders list now) and came back to win his next start and 5 races in his career before his owners retired him.

Is it more cruel to give Lasix or not too?

[zinn21]

crystal wrote:

[griff]

ZINN22

where I race a Vet has to certify that a horse is a bleeder before he gets on the LASIX list..

That is not a real impediment as you can find blood with a scope in most horses after a hard work and even more after a hard race.

griff
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"We has met the enemy and he is us" [Pogo]

[Shammy Davis]

For the most part the experts agree that lasix helps.

To another issue on the subject of this thread.

Most recently, I've been looking at GI ulcers having an effect on the overall athletic abilities in the actively training racehorse. I've searched far and wide, but have found nothing specific on the subject. I'm wondering if any of you have any thoughts on this or you know of any resources on the subject.

Ten percent of all horses suffer colic annually. I'm sure the incidence is much higher in the TB, particularly in the OTTB. I haven't been able to find any resources on the annual number of actively trained racehorses that suffer colic either or have been identified as suffering with ulcers.

Statistics indicate that 90% of all horses participating in sport disciplines suffer with GI ulcers. Can't help but think that this is an issue that would definitely effect the entire physical health of the racehorse.

[docjocoy]

[casallc]

[casallc]

Foes of Lasix are Cruel to Horses? Ridiculous Nonsense!

Our brilliant vets and trainers have discovered the only drug in the history of the world with no negative side effects, amazing! How lucky are our horses, huh?

What many horsemen fail to realize is that young 2yo horses are more than just a pair of lungs, most importantly they are running around with a still-developing skeletal system until past age 3. Proper exercise and nutrition has been shown to maximize bone density during this very important development phase for the competitive equine – but nearly no thought has been given to what undermines this skeletal foundation.

Everyone realizes that calcium is one of the necessary ingredients for bone health in humans and horses, it stands to reason that an owner/trainer would prefer that calcium be readily available for a growing horse. As a matter of fact, the marketplace is full of supplements containing extra calcium meant to optimize bone remodeling, so it must be on some radar screens.

Lasix causes the horse to excrete fluid, and accompanying this fluid loss is the loss of certain minerals, of which calcium is one. You see, Furosemide was developed in humans not to prevent EIPH, but to prevent kidney failure. While calcium is necessary for healthy bone growth and maintenance, it is an enemy of the diseased kidney, therefore Furosemide is used to get rid of it through excessive urination. So what we are left with is a young horse that is repeatedly asked to stress his bones at the maximum during breezes and races – all while being forced to do so without adequate amounts of calcium around to repair the subsequent damage. Read more:
http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/foes-of-lasix-are-cruel-to-horses-ridiculous-nonsense/
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- Alexis de Tocqueville

[bdw0617]

i never thought about it like that but it makes perfect sense. it's why when you are losing weight and taking in less cals than you would normally you have to take a mutil vitimian because you aren't getting your necessary amount from your normal diet.
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"When the solution is simple, God is answering.”
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