Are they Training right or is there a malfunction somewhere?

Question

With all the news on the Filly in the Derby, and with Barbarro still on our minds. Are we over training our young horses and pushing them to far to fast? Or are the younger horses just not ready for the pounding of the track, training and travel for to top spot?

I have had show horses for over 24 yrs.. There are breakdowns of muscles, joints after yrs of work that when it is time things just give out.

In racing, is there really a way to prevent this from happening again?

It is really sad to have such a young life and career ended so soon (something that might have been prevented).

Answer 1

In my opinion, they are racing too young. A lot of this is money driven. It's not a cheap sport and to add another year's expense  to raise and train a horse in any equine sport offsets the rate of any ( if any) return. The  industry designates Jan 1 as every thoroughbred's  birthday.So the average horse is really only about 20 months when they race as a two year old. It takes months for the respiratory system to reach peak condition, ,bone and soft tissue close to a year. A horse isn't considered mature until it's 4 years old .It's still growing during it's training. It's a no brainer. Early conditioning can help , but overdoing it can hurt. A whole lot of two year olds never make it to a three year old season due to injury. Some of it's too fast too soon, some of it's bad luck. Most of these are "repairable" and the horses go into another career (jumping, dressage etc) where raw speed is not demanded. Arabian racing doesn't allow horses to start until they are three. Endurance horses can't start until they are four. Jumpers usually wait until they are five or more before hitting the circuit.These horses usually have a longer career because of longer conditioning and the lack of speed demands (I know of a couple endurance horse with well over 5000 miles of competition, we can only guess at the  training mileage!!)  If the industry could just take a big swallow and say  no starts until the age of three , and enforce  it with a chronological age  check ,I think you'd see a great reduction in injury and horses would race a lot longer.  And there are a lot of alternative training methods besides running flat out at the track to help build them stronger. A lot of successful trainers are using them.  Just as an aside, I have a retired Arab race horse. He ran  close to 100 races, set 2 track records and retired sound. His owner took his time condtioning him and trained him in the mountains . After 6 years at the track, he's about to start an endurance career . He still loves to work those hills!   But Kateybaer is right. Sometimes , even if you do everything right and all seems perfect, things can go terribly wrong.

Answer 2

I think that over the years, there has been increased pressure to breed faster horses. Unfortunately this also means pressure to breed horses with things like lighter bones, and so make them more susceptible to breaks.

I am no expert, but it seems like the best way to prevent future injuries like Eight Belles would be to breed stronger (not necessarily faster) horses. But it is hard to see what incentive any owner or breeder would have to do so. If you have 4 winners, 2 or which break their legs and are euthanized, you will still be better off than if you have 4 slower horses who are perfectly healthy (but who don't win).

Answer 3

Freak accident.

It has nothing to do with training or age.

Answer 4

I don't think it was her age that killed her. She wasn't neccesarily "pushed to far" either. Her accident was just a trip, a freak accident. The same thing could have happened to a 12 year old horse galloping on a trail ride.

Perhaps they are raced to young and we could probably change that, but I don't know if it would really stop the deaths on track. There is really not many ways to prevent these things from happening.

RIP eight belles

Answer 5

With TWO broken fetlocks, I'd have to bet on genetic defect in the actual bone structure.  With one broken fetlock, I might blame lack of conditioning and/or riding too early, but two is just too coincidental!

That said, it would be GREAT to WAIT to race these babies. To prepare for racing at 2yrs old, thoroughbreds are often gotten on and breezed as early as 18-20 months old.  A horse's growth plates are NOT fully closed until 5-7 yrs old!  The knees are the first growth plates to close (after those in the feet and ankles) at 2-2.5 years old.  The growth plates in the hocks (back knees) close at 4-4.5 yrs old.  The large bones in the neck close last at 5-5.5 years old.  Geldings (male horses that have been neutered) mature about 6 months slower than "average", so add 6 months to those statistics for boys who will mature 16 h or larger (TALL horses).  These approximate times are true for all breeds.

It would DEFINITELY be good for horses to wait until 3 or 4 years old before they raced.  We'd see a lot less breakdowns (CNN reported an average of 2 career ending break downs a DAY in the USA alone!) and longer racing careers.  We'd also see less drugs (lasix (sp?) being the most common for track horses).  We would also see less prospect-breeding (breeding tons of foals without enough regard to conformation, soundness, and race record of the mare, in hopes of finding just one or two big time winners).

Answer 6

My late husband was a farmer - certainly not an animal-rights enthusiast. He was also a farrier (blacksmith) all his life and could ride and manage any horse he ever came across. He gelded his own horses and knew more about horses than anyone I ever knew. However, he hated horse racing because of what the horses are subjected to. He said that a horse's legs and skeleton are not fully developed by the age of three and running them at that age is always dangerous. He would not have been surprised at what happened to Eight Belles. Horse owners know all this, but the money is worth far more than the horse. Gandhi said that you can judge a civilization and its people by the way it treats its animals. Amen!

Answer 7

probably too young