Did anyone see that horse injury?

aaharvel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12889693/

It's all over the news, I saw the video footage and had to turn my head.

This is the same horse that dominated the K.Derby a couple of weeks ago and was going for a triple crown. I don't even watch horse racing but man this story is just crazy.

janmike

I did see that, same feeling here. Knowing little about horses, I have never understood why a horse needs to be put down when a leg is broken.

zombie boy 2000

Yeah...
it's pretty messed up.
There are a lot of unanswered questions concerning the handling of the "false start". Generally, all the horses are reloaded into the gate if this occurs, but this didn't happen. As a result, there simply was not enough time alloted to inspect the horse's condition once he had jumped the gun. Much should come to the light in the upcoming days, but I wouldn't be surprised if more than one error was made by more than a few.

Demiurge

I heard something about them not being able to kept laying down because it destroys their digestive system. Don't know if that's true or not. Sounds like one hell of a painful injury for an animal that requires all 4 legs to support it's large frame.

zombie boy 2000

janmike wrote:

I did see that, same feeling here. Knowing little about horses, I have never understood why a horse needs to be put down when a leg is broken.

Very often they don't need to be. But the short and simple answer is that they cannot "lie down" to alleviate the tremendous pressure placed on their legs at all times.

zombie boy 2000

looks like Demi beat me to it....:o

cubdog

Really sad. Took the fun out of the race. I heard this morning the the horse has a 50/50 chance of survival. I sure hope he pulls through.

cubdog

Dennis Gardner

For those that are old enough, I flashbacked to Joe Theisman.:eek:

Skynut

Did Joe Theisman get "put down"?

Dennis Gardner

Skynut wrote:

Did Joe Theisman get "put down"?

Same as...................he never went under center again.

Skynut

I hate to see horses get hurt. The horse just races and gets no choice but when the owner gets hurt.... at least there was a choice made there.

polrbehr

Tim Krumrie, Bengals, Super Bowl XXlll. Ouch.

Schris22

this makes me think of that movie with dakota fanning and the horse in that one. Dreamer?

I forget haven't seen it but hopefully something like that will happen and this horse makes it through surgery

Chris

brettw22

At least the horse could limp away and didn't completely colapse on itself and get trampled on. I've seen that happen and THAT is much uglier than what happened to this one (unfortunate all the same).

ohskigod

zombie boy 2000 wrote:

Very often they don't need to be. But the short and simple answer is that they cannot "lie down" to alleviate the tremendous pressure placed on their legs at all times.

Also, there are problems that occur if a horse can not even place even weight on all 4 legs. the whole put them down thing is not for fun, it avoids alot of pain and suffering for the Horse. A major break is usually not a good thing, but supposedly they operated on it and the horse is improving, but due to the finicky nature of this type of injury on horses, he aint no where NEAR out of the woods yet.

Skynut

He will never be a competitor again either.
I hope he makes it and gets to live the rest of his life with no one on his back.
A happy little horsey.

zombie boy 2000

Talk about a "happy little horsey"...
they say he's been "responding" to the parade of mares they've been bringing to his stall.
I'm sure he'd trade the life of a racehorse for that of a stallion any day of the week and twice on sundays:D

aaharvel

zombie boy 2000 wrote:

Talk about a "happy little horsey"...
they say he's been "responding" to the parade of mares they've been bringing to his stall.
I'm sure he'd trade the life of a racehorse for that of a stallion any day of the week and twice on sundays:D

won't do any good, at least not now. If a horse can't stand on his hind-legs so to speak, he can't procreate.

Infections are the big concern now. Much like a sick person bedridden and dying of bedsores. That's why they're saying his chances are 50/50.

Hope he makes it.

landry_p2000

polrbehr wrote:

Tim Krumrie, Bengals, Super Bowl XXlll. Ouch.

I saw that one. His leg snappped and whirled around like a helicopter blade. Ouch!:eek:

PolkThug

http://www.slate.com/id/2142159/?GT1=8190

zombie boy 2000

PolkThug wrote:

http://www.slate.com/id/2142159/?GT1=8190

good link... this answers a lot of questions

Has anyone heard anything further regarding the false start and why all the horses weren't taken out of the gates?

limashaynut

Knowing little about horses, I have never understood why a horse needs to be put down when a leg is broken.

I breed and show Quarter Horses and will try and answer your question for you.

First, the information in some of the previous post and links are for the most part true when it comes to infection, but I feel that the danger is somewhat overstated. While there is a real risk, there are great antibotics that are available for equines. Horses receive serious cuts and surgeries every day, and we geld (castrate) several each year with no real problems, and if there is infection, it can readily be treated successfully. When we do a gelding, they walk around for about a week with an open and draining six inch incision in their ****, we rarely have a problem, and if we do, antibiotics have always worked.

A number of years back there was not the ability to successfully operate on a broken horses leg, so putting them down was the only option. Things have now changed, and a good equine hospital can now repair a broken leg more often than not. Resetting a horses broken leg is not as simple as resetting a humans leg. With the average Quarter Horse, you have about 900 to 1200 .lbs being supported on four legs that are in proportion to body weight smaller than those of a human, and they take a LOT of stress.

I was watching the race when it happened, and as soon as I saw that right rear hoof flail out to the side, I knew that he had broken his leg. From what I saw, and later understood, the bones that were broken are equivalent to your ankle.

Another reason that some horses are put down, and this is a shame to say, is quite simply cost. It is quite expensive to repair a broken leg that requires surgery. Now for the owners of this horse, that in and of itself should not be an issue, but for some it is.

In the end however, the biggest obstacle to the recovery of a horse with a broken leg, is quite simply the horse itself. Even if the surgery is successfull, infection does not set in, and cost is not a problem, the horse MUST have the temperment to allow the healing process to take place. Equines CAN NOT lay down for long periods of time, if they do, it will kill them. The intestinal tract of a horse is incredibly long, and this is a function of the fact that it is designed to digest large amounts of relatively low nutritional food (grass). If they lay for too long they will get blockages of waste or even gas, this leads to colic, and then death.

For a horse to heal properly, they must be able to stand, but yet not put excessive weight or stress on the broken bone. To do this they are usually put into a type of suspension harness that holds them upright, but does not allow them to move around, and this is for a relatively long period of time. Many horses simply do not have the temperment to accept this, and will fight the restriction, and they are the ones that have to be put down.

Last, but not least, there are the insurance companies. I heard that he was worth about 20 million (I think that is correct), while I have never had one worth any where near that much, I have had several that I have sold for about $100,000. I usually carry equine insurance for any horse worth $20,000 and up. When you carry these policies, the insurance company has final say as to the disposition of the horse if you file a claim. Another words, if you file a claim for a injury or disease to a horse, the insurance company either reviews your vets report, or sends their own vet to examine the horse. Based on this information, they have the right to decide if the horse to be put down or not, if they decide that the horse should be put down (think HMO), and you decide not to do it, then you may have to forfeit some or all of your claim.

The one thing I have seen reported that is just plain wrong, is the crap that this stallion might not be able to even be saved to be used as a stud. While there is the problem of putting stess on this rear leg if he has to do natural cover, he should not HAVE TO do natural cover. Most all equine breed registries allow artificial insemination, Thoroughbreds however have an arbitrary rule that it MUST be natural cover. This is just plain silly and is dangerous to the handlers, the stallion, and the mare. The American Quarter Horse Association (along with most other registries) allow artificial insemination either on the spot, or to be shipped as either cooled or frozen **** (that word may be a first for this forum!). To insure that there is no funny business with insemination, all horses have a DNA test performed when they are registered. This cost all of about $20, and only involves pulling a hair sample from the foal. This is a perfect example of a problem being created by illogical arbitrary rules.

This may have been far more than you ever wanted to know, but it was a slow night!

cfrizz

Great info! Thanks!

unc2701

Holy crap- this week's Newsweek has a picture of the leg with all the pins in it. Yikes- will try to find a link online.

wingnut4772

Poor horse. At least his owners are fixing him and hopefully he will just retire to a pasture somewhere. I hate to see God's creatures trained to entertain us for our amusement. I don't care for horse racing, dog racing, circuses or anything else that does that.

unc2701

If he lives, he's gonna have a full time job getting laid. I can't say for sure, but I suspect he'd prefer that to pasture.

nadams

Just to resurrect this thread... horses can, indeed, lie down. Shot this the other weekend on a warm, sunny day. One of our Arabians taking a light nap. I think he's smiling

marker

Not looking good now.

http://sports.yahoo.com/rah/news;_ylt=AtvKM1t0zZBIToh1OLdz.lM5nYcB?slug=ap-barbaro

PolkThug

nadams wrote:

Shot this the other weekend on a warm, sunny day.

Hopefully it was a clean shot and he went peacefully.

shack

PolkThug wrote:

Hopefully it was a clean shot and he went peacefully.

I can't beleive he shot his horse for laying down. Couldn't they have just put him in "timeout" or something. Does PETA know about this?

zombie boy 2000

Barbaro was euthanized Monday morning. Sad, sad news. This story was followed locally on a daily basis after the injury. I suppose due in no small part to the given popularity of the sport in this area.