Cuts, how common is this?

[geowarrior]

For the second time in my seven months as an owner of shares in racehorses, one of my horses has been cut in a race. One was cut last September as a jockey tried to force him up the inside and a horse kicked him several times. Now this weekend another has been cut enough to need six stitches. I think she must have been kicked as well but no-one seems to know quite what happened.

My question is - I only have three horses and two of them have been cut. Yet I can't think of an article I've read of racing news that describes a horse being cut. Is this because it's such a common injury that it isn't worth mentioning, or only worth mentioning when there is an associated tendon, ligament or other leg injury? Or have I just been unlucky?

[Foggytrip]

Happens all the time

[SIBONEY]

most likely just bad racing luck......?
Yes, when in tight quarters you can clip heels, catch another one's legs, it happens. These can also occur in the starting gate.

I'm curious to know the specific areas. Sometimes bad conformation or soreness can cause horses to hit. I noticed you're up in Washington...have you shod with "stickers" lately? Or changed shoeings because of an offtrack? Have an experienced farrier take a look?

[geowarrior]

Thanks for the info - I thought it must be common but was wondering why I never read about it.

In the first case, it definitely was a case of the horse being kicked half a dozen times by another horse. The cuts apparently looked bad but weren't deep.

The most recent case is a big cut on the right outside rear leg above the ankle. I have doubts that the horse could have done that to herself (can't visualize it), and she has no history of hitting herself.

Neither of these horses are actually racing in WA, the first injury happened at Mountaineer in September, the second at Fair Grounds this weekend.

[Tucumcari]

Could be bad luck or could maybe need a different shoeing job as Siboney said... tough to call... maybe a bit of both...

[angelsprite]

If you are using the same jockey from race to race, change riders. If you are seeing the cuts from rider to rider, you have a jockey colony wide problem. Or maybe it's raining a lot and they can't see out there in the mud. When you see cuts on the hocks or back of the rear legs at all, it usually means someone ran up your horse's rear and ran into him.

[geowarrior]

Different horses, different trainers (at the time), different tracks, different jockeys. Only commonality was that the track was good both times so no off-track shoeing. Looks like maybe bad luck.

[Tucumcari]

I was thinking about it and a horse hitting itself (if that's what it's doing) can also be a sign of back poblems.

[Roguelet]

We once had a horse who acted up a bit in the gates before his first race. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, but we thought it was no big deal because they didn't scratch him. We weren't too worried because the gates had never bothered him before... we just figured it was "first race jitters" or something.

He ran pretty badly, but it was his first out and he was a bit immature anyway, so we weren't totally surprised. However, when he came back, we could see that he had a darn good excuse for running poorly. He had blood dripping down his leg, and his leg was already swollen. He had a puncture wound that acutally went all the way in and touched the bone on the upper part of his hind leg. Running with that wound had caused air to suck into the leg, and he looked really bad.

Needless to say, this is not the "first race experience" that you hope a horse gets, and he was a mighty slow breaker for a while after that. I don't know if the puncture happened first and caused him to act up, or if he was acting up which somehow caused the puncture, or if the two were unrelated, and I guess we'll never know.

We had another one who always tried to anticipate the gates opening, and she would lunge forward a split second too soon sometimes. A couple of times she hit the front of the gates, but they always settled her right back down. She hit one night but didn't bust out, settled right back and they started the race. She broke well but faded pretty bad. She came back with blood all over her face, chest, legs... it was not a pretty sight. Once they got her cleaned up, they realized that when she had jumped forward in the gate and hit with her nose, she broke off a tooth and also bit her lip, so that's where all the blood was coming from.

Both horses recovered fully and both are winners, so I guess they can get pretty beat up and still do OK...