Why is it the horses of the past seem to be more sound than the horses of today

Question

Why is it the horses of the past seem to be more sound than the horses of today

Answer 1

We use to breed to horses with speed and most raced past 3 years old. Now we are breeding to three year old horses with less than 10 starts. We are breeding the durability out of the horse.

http://www.saferhorseracing.com/gpage14....

Answer 2

Horses of the past were bred more for stamina and speed. The present breeders breed for speed. If you have noticed horses have also become smaller in size then they used to be.

Answer 3

Because they were.  We're breeding the animals to be less sound.  We want them to run faster which means they have to be lighter... which means they must have a lighter bone structure.  Furthermore, we're breeding unsound horses.  Horses who were unsound in their racing careers are being sent to the breeding shed and producing more unsound horses.  Had Barbaro been saved, he would be breeding... should we allow a horse who broke its leg to breed?  And look at Big Brown's feet... that's no coincidence that he has weak front hooves that are prone to quarter cracks... it's because of his breeding.

Thoroughbreds used to be durable animals.  They'd race once a week.  Heck, the Derby Trial is a week before the Kentucky Derby... It's called the Derby Trial because it used to be the last major prep for the Kentucky Derby.  Citation ran in both.  Now we have horses running 5 times a year and retiring as 3 or 4 year olds instead of 6 or 7 year olds like the horses of the past would have.

Look at War Pass... he was injured right before the Kentucky Derby and he's not going to race again... he's going to be sent directly to stud.  And our medication policies are a problem too... if you're allowed to bute a horse on race day, it can win because it can't feel that it's in pain... then we retire the horse and it goes on to produce more horses who will have to be buted to run through their pain.

Breeding is a major problem.  Unfortunately breeding is a private venture.  There's no state or national regulation about breeding your horse.  People like a certain sire, so they'll breed their mare to it, then sell the foal... they don't think about producing a healthy sound horse.  I think Big Brown ought to be sterilized... he's Nothern Dancer 3x3, Damascus 3x4, and Round Table 4x5.  Nothern Dancer is Big Brown's great grand sire on both sides.  That means that Big Brown's parents were cousins.  If people bred like that it would be called incest.  Unfortunately, there's no ban on stupidity in breeding racehorses.  It makes it all the worse that this horse went on to win the Derby and Preakness undefeated.  It's going to encourage more bad breeding.

Unfortunately, the truely durable horses... John Henry, The Tin Man, Evening Attire, Lava Man... are all geldings... that's the only reason those horses raced as long as they did.

Fortunately the NTRA and other horse racing organizations are looking into making changes, but unfortunately, I don't think they're trying to change breeding at all.

Answer 4

No,

it gotten better we know more, we have better shoeing etc,

Answer 5

The trainers of the past were better. the purses were smaller and they picked there spots to rin there horses. today they run them in races to close together.for example big brown will run saturday in the haskell and then may be pointed in the travers on aug 20th. only 20 days in between