Horse health was at the forefront during the inaugural sessions of the 10th Safety and Welfare Summit of the Equestrian Summit, held June 22 in Keeneland in Lexington.
Doctor. Larry Bramlage, Dionne Benson and Ryan Carpenter discussed advances in veterinarian care and regulation, while Dr. Tim Parkin, a veterinary epidemiologist, presented statistics from the Foundation equine injury data track mortality data.
Parkin started by recording a 30.5% drop in racing-related deaths since 2009, highlighted by a record low injury rate in 2021. Parkin went on to mention “spotting” morning 2 years” from 2020, with adolescents, usually the least likely age to get the disease. group of horses to experience a fatal injury, experienced a series of catastrophic injuries, leading all age groups that year.
Death figures return to more typical levels in 2021, falling to a rate of 0.98 per 1,000 starting in 2021, compared with an overall rate of 1.39 across all age groups, leading Parkin to conclude that 2-year-olds, more than other age groups in 2020, were impacted by racing and training disruptions due to COVID-19 shutdowns that spring and summer.
Parkin presented a slide illustrating that juveniles in 2020 reported less exercise.
Bramlage, a prominent equine orthopedic surgeon from Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, expanded on Parkin’s comments in his speech after the epidemiologist, concluding that “bones train the extent to work.” , not the workload.”
Larry Bramlage’s Dr @roodandriddle Now talking about the benefits of training 2-year-old Thoroughbred racehorses. Watch live at https://t.co/oNUddxIuWB pic.twitter.com/aEqHpU7aWj
– Jockey Club (@jockeyclub) June 22, 2022
Both Bramlage and Parkin refer to Lasix, a drug used to control respiratory bleeding in horses that is restricted to certain segments of the equine population in many racing jurisdictions. Bramlage says Lasix as a diuretic reduces a horse’s body weight, making it “easier to run”. Some critics of the drug believe it has a performance-enhancing effect.
Parkin said preliminary data shows that horses that race with Lasix have a 16% higher risk of sudden death than those that do not. The numbers merit further examination, he said.
In North America, the vast majority of racehorses without Lasix are juveniles and deposit horses due to restrictions from racing authorities and operators. Races without it may not represent a full segment of the horse population.
Bramlage also looked at another finding from Parkin, in which the epidemiologist noted that horses that move on surfaces in some classifications have higher rates of catastrophic injury than horses that regularly run on a single track. certain surface.
“So if you train a horse on an artificial surface, like Tim just showed, and then move it to dirt, its skeleton will be unprepared. Training is instrumental work,” Bramlage said. body”. “And so you’re asking him to race on a surface-trained skeleton unprepared.”
Synthetic surfaces are statistically safer than grass and dirt in terms of mortality.
Benson and Carpenter followed Bramlage, describing a dramatic drop in catastrophic injuries in California, which has some of the most rigorous veterinary surveillance in the country. Benson, chief veterinary officer of the Stronach Group, executive Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Field in California, outlined regulatory practices implemented as racetrack rules or by the California Jockey Board that have been effective in reducing deaths.
Dr. Dionne Benson, Director of Veterinary Medicine@ 1ST_Racing and Dr. Ryan Carpenter,
Equine Medical Center, offers a California perspective on Horse Safety and Welfare. pic.twitter.com/eYO8gxf1wN– Grayson-Jockey Club (@Grayson_JC) June 22, 2022
These procedures also apply to morning training, including pre-workout checks by private veterinarians and regulators.
“Especially in California – we’re so heavy and so light – that we don’t see these horses very often and that represents a lot of risk,” she said.
A surgeon at Equine Medical Center in Southern California, Carpenter described a 70 percent success rate with fetlock joint therapy — a procedure to stabilize the ankle, preventing joint movement by how to merge it into place — away from the horses at risk of death.
