First, here are my "credentials" so you can decide for yourself whatever weight what I say may or may not hold. I have been an avid horse racing fan for going on two decades. I've been riding horses for 17 years, owned horses for most of that time, and been deeply involved in the day to day care of horses. I have taught riding lessons and horse care, and for going on three years I have worked for the world's foremost veterinarian in the field of equine foot disease and catastrophic injuries, Dr. Ric Redden. While I have no education as a vet, I have had the opportunity to witness several cases that many vets would never see in their lifetime, and I have learned a great deal about laminitis and catastrophic foot injuries from Dr. Redden.* Anything opinions I offer should be considered mine. I'm not speaking for Dr. Redden by any means.



As plenty of her connections and professionals of the industry have said, Eight Belles suffered a freak injury after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. No doubt it was a horrible tragedy, one that deeply affects even those of us who cherish this sport and fully understand and are prepared to accept the risks. She suffered fractures in both front limbs while pulling up from the race. They were not incurred by any use of the whip, excessive or no, and they were not sustained before the finish. A horse with that kind of injury, in one leg or both, could not have maintained her stride just to finish the race, contrary to PETA's claims. Nothing we could have detected was wrong with her at the finish of the Derby.

I believe her connections and the emergency staff at Churchill Downs did everything they know how and are trained to do in such a terrible circumstance, and the blame and finger pointing being passed around is misplaced and grossly inaccurate. Re-evaluating the trends in the breeding industry are difficult if not impossible to achieve in a timely fashion. The pursuit of safer racing surfaces is ongoing, but regardless of the strengths or weaknesses of a synthetic surface, one simple truth remains: speed kills. You can make cars with airbags, install special brakes, improve warning signals and pass laws to improve safety on the roads, but cars will still wreck and people will still die. The same goes for horse racing. It is a terrible thing, but it has been and always will be a sobering reality. Speed kills.

That said, I do believe major yet simple to implement changes in the emergency procedures at racetracks could drastically improve prognosis for life of the injured horse, as well as surgical options and their chances of success. And it could be done before the horses enter the starting gate at the Preakness.

Existing racetrack protocol calls for the euthanasia of any horse that has suffered an open fracture (or in this case bilateral fracture), as the assumption is that nothing can be done to help the horse that is suffering inhumanely. I don't think this is true, and this is why.

Vets typically measure heart rate and respiration to determine the pain level in a quiet horse. Clearly, those criteria cannot be applied to a horse that has just run second in the Kentucky Derby, as both heart and respiration is already maxed. Similarly, an anxious eye can also indicate a high level of pain, but it also reflects excitement, exertion and fatigue, all three of which are experienced by a horse that has just run a race. Therefore it is all but impossible to differentiate pain from the typical state of a horse after a race. To make things even harder, you are dealing with an animal that has just experienced a very alarming sensation: the sudden loss of support from one of its legs. This is extremely distressing and confusing to the horse, and with all the adrenaline already pumping through their system, their reaction can easily be mistaken for pain.

So how do we know the horse isn't in terrible pain? We look at other horses who have suffered catastrophic injuries without the pre-existing condition of having just run a race. Horses do not just injure themselves on the racetrack. They can suffer injuries just as severe, or even more severe, in their paddocks, in their stalls, while walking from one to the other, etc. Let me offer you a few case studies that indicate very little pain is actually associated with even the most grotesque fractures and severed limbs.

Case #1. Thoroughbred broodmare, heavy in foal. She slipped on ice in her paddock and snapped her cannon bone. When Dr. Redden arrived, she was in her stall standing quite calmly on her stump. As the leg was only attached by skin, Dr. Redden was able to cut the rest of it off and apply a temporary prosthetic right there in the stall and then walk her onto a trailer to bring her to the clinic for surgery. En route, the prosthetic came off in the trailer, sending the mare into a panic. After a dedicated effort, the temporary prosthetic was re-attached. The mare immediately became calm once she was able to support her weight on the injured leg. She walked out of surgery with no signs of discomfort, and was quite content in her stall. Nine weeks later she delivered a healthy foal.

Case #2. Thoroughbred broodmare, heavy in foal. She shattered her leg and carpus (knee) in a paddock accident and was placed in a cast. A few days later, Dr. Redden was brought in to see her. Again, she was very content in the cast despite the fact that her leg was essentially detached. She too walked out of surgery on her own power and was very happy. She also delivered a healthy foal some weeks later.

Case #3. Breeding stallion caught in a high tensile wire, creating a tourniquet around the left rear hock. When he came to Dr. Redden several days later, he had no hoof, a luxated fetlock and totally denuded cannon bone (no skin or tendons). He walked sound off the trailer, and immediately began neighing at a nearby mare. Dr Redden removed the dangling fetlock, and the horse immediately stood on the end of his bare cannon bone with no signs of pain. Fourteen years after he was amputated and fitted with a prosthetic, he covers his mares live. You can read about him here.

Case #4. Thoroughbred yearling filly, snapped hind leg just below the hock. As soon as the injury happened, she went ballistic trying to kick the leg off, as she could no longer feel it and did not know what it was, much like her reaction if you had tied a rag to her. In addition to the strange thing that she couldn't shake off, she could no longer put weight on the leg. She exhibited the classic pain signs of a wild eye and increased heart rate and respiration. However, the moment Dr. Redden was able to sever the skin holding the leg on, she immediately stood on the stump and became quiet, even though the stump was just below her hock.

These case studies of Dr. Redden present a pretty good argument that a high level of pain is not associated with these injuries. It would not have been difficult to apply casts or modified Kimzey splints to Eight Belle's fractured legs, even without sedation. She was already down on the track, with experienced horsemen at her head. Once the legs were stabilized, it would have been possible to get her to her feet without much effort, and allow her to look around and get the feel of the casts before walking her onto the ambulance and taking her back to the barn.

Once she'd made it back to the barn, she could have taken an hour to cool out and calm down in familiar surroundings, allowing everyone to get over the shock and think clearly. Once she was cooled out, she could then easily be transported to an equine surgical hospital, where a full radiographic workup could be done and the options discussed, ranging from fetlock fusion or arthrodesis of one foot to both feet, fusion of one and amputation of the other, etc.** Then, if the involved parties elected not to pursue any of them, euthanasia could be performed. The important thing is that there could have been options with a thorough evaluation, and those options must be considered with a clear head, neither of which is possible when the horse is lying in the dirt and thousands of fans are crying out in dismay.

This emergency protocol would not solve the problems of breakdowns in the racing industry, and it would not save the life of every horse. But it could improve the prognosis of many, and it would most certainly send a different message to the world. It's also a relatively easy standard to implement, if people are willing to alter their mindset and approach these terrible accidents from a pro-life standpoint. Our own minds are what are defeating us here. Saying nothing can be done certainly does nothing to help the animal, and once you've pulled out that needle you're absolutely right. Nothing can be done. But can you just imagine what would have happened had Eight Belles stood up on that track, looked around, and then walked onto the ambulance under her own power? Can you hear the crowd?

It can happen. It wouldn't take much.

*I did not personally witness the case studies mentioned in this entry.
**Again, I am not a vet.

Tags: dr. redden, eight belles, horse racing
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