But as has been suggested by more than one writer in the tragic aftermath of Derby 134, and in light of Big Brown’s well documented foot issues and short rest between classics, I’ll be holding my breath until the broadcast ends.
As we all have learned the hard way, the potential for catastrophe doesn’t end at the finish line.
Among the myriad suggested solutions, including my own, made in the wake of heartbreak to solve a problem that ultimately has no solutions--accidents do, and always will, happen--a unique one crossed by computer courtesy of Mark, HRI’s invaluable webmaster.
Much of the following is almost verbatim from a piece written by Joe Camp, author of “Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd.”
Says Camp: “Mother Nature designed the horse's hoof to flex with every step taken. That flexing acts like a secondary heart, pumping blood throughout the thousands of capillaries in the hoof mechanism, which keeps it healthy and provides an excellent hydraulic-like shock absorption [system] for the tendons, ligaments, and joints of the leg. When a metal shoe is nailed to the hoof, it cannot flex. Blood flow is restricted. And the concussion upon impact is far worse than that of a bare foot. In short, fifty-five million years of genetics are constrained.”
Camp continued: “When I first learned that Big Brown had been fitted with some sort of plastic/rubber-based glue-on shoe, I was ecstatic. I had been researching the horse's hoof for my book ‘The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd’ and the information I had found caused me to pull the shoes off all of our horses immediately. So, I recognized what shoe designer Ian McKinlay was accomplishing. He was allowing Big Brown's hoof to flex as Mother Nature had designed it to do. And he was providing much needed shock absorption. This is huge for horses. Huge!
“Big Brown had lameness issues, cracked hooves, and hoof wall separation allowing him to run only three races prior to the Derby. His traditional metal nail-on shoes were pulled and McKinlay's flexible glue-on rig was fitted on each of Big Brown's feet. His hooves healed, and the rest is history.
“When he burst across the finish line five lengths ahead of Eight Belles, I burst into happy tears because I knew what this would mean for horses. It is an acknowledgement that a horse's hoof does not need to be constrained by the traditional metal shoe nailed into his hoof.
“The death of Eight Belles, even more clearly than that of Barbaro, focuses on another need: to find a way to push these races off until the horses are old enough to have matured skeletally.
“The growth plates in the joints of a horse do not all fully mature into strong bone material until the horse is four to five-and-a-half years old. Yet the horses in the Derby are running at three years old, after usually being trained hard from the time they are one-and-a-half to two years old. It's way too young.
“Could the concussive impact of a pounding hoof wearing a traditional metal shoe have contributed to the cause of Eight Belles’ collapse? Could two years of hard training hammering immature growth plates have weakened her joints? Absolutely it's possible. Even probable.
“Would she have had a better chance with McKinlay's new shoeing technique, or rubber boots that are now available, or the plain plastic flexible shoes that can be popped off after the race? Or even running the race completely barefoot? My belief is yes. But it's just a belief because, of course, there's no way we'll ever know. Eight Belles is dead.”
Strong stuff, to be sure, but clearly suggestions requiring research. Perhaps this is an area the Jockey Club’s new Committee on Equine Safety should look at. Beta testing could take years. But, as we said last week, making American horse racing as healthy as humans can make it could take a half century.
Continued Camp: “Throughout [Eight Belles‘] years of training, had her hooves been able to flex, and pump blood, and provide much needed shock absorption for ankles and knees and tendons and ligaments, I know in my heart what the difference would be. My happy tears for Big Brown's amazing win would not have turned to tears of pain. And that beautiful filly would still be alive.”
His suggestion that lifting the upper age limit to “say, eight years old [for] major races,” is impractical, of course. But racing cannot dismiss Camp’s other thoughts as cavalier.
“Require a complete x-ray exam of all growth plates to accompany every entry. Whenever a [young] horse is found with growth plates that are not mature, not closed, the owner would be advised, but not forced, to withdraw his entry.
“The owner would understand that if he doesn't withdraw and something happens to the horse, the exam will be made public. This puts the responsibility, and the heat, solely on the shoulders of the owner of the horse.
“Remove the requirement that the horse wear shoes in the race, leaving the hoof wear, if any, totally up to the owner. He can race the horse barefoot if he chooses. And lastly, lobby insurance companies to exclude from coverage any horse that does not pass the skeletal development exam.” {Ed. Note: In New York, horses have raced bare-footed after receiving stewards’ permission. The public was informed via the track program or over the loudspeaker system}.
“I believe these two rule changes and a willing insurance industry would be relatively easy to effect and could revolutionize the effects on horses. It's amazing what can happen when an owner knows that the spotlight will be on him if he makes a mistake.”
If racing doesn’t effect change, the industry might learn what can happen to it if more accidents occur and it has not taken meaningful steps. The unfortunate glare from this year’s Derby spotlight doesn’t figure to dim anytime soon.
14 May 2008 at 09:45 am | #
Hi HRI, I am watching the Triple Crown proceedings this year with much interest (once I cleared the tears after the Derby). This year was my 47th year as a tried and true Derby fan and I have spent my time in the Thoroughbred industry for almost half a century participating in almost every facet..., except as a jock’s agent. By way of qualifications I have a little background, but am always open to learning. Your article about flexible shoes is very interesting.
My problem comes after reading “Mother Nature designed the horse’s hoof to flex with every step taken. That flexing acts like a secondary heart, pumping blood throughout the thousands of capillaries in the hoof mechanism, which keeps it healthy and provides an excellent hydraulic-like shock absorption [system] for the tendons, ligaments, and joints of the leg. When a metal shoe is nailed to the hoof, it cannot flex. Blood flow is restricted. And the concussion upon impact is far worse than that of a bare foot.”
The Frog is the part of the horse’s hoof that flexes and is the pumping mechanism. The only way a shoe effects that is if a zealous blacksmith has trimmed it to such an extent that it makes no contact with the ground while the horse is in motion.
The fact that THE HOOF OF THE HORSE IS NOT FLEXIBLE is the whole reason that laminitis and founder are so devastating to Equines. When there is swelling in the hoof, the bones and sensitive laminae are forced out the bottom of the foot BECAUSE THE HOOF WALL DOES NOT GIVE!
Sooo, I have trouble going to the well with you on your take that not wearing shoes will be a magic cure all!
Many of the other points you make in your article are quite valid, ie, training your 4 year old to run the Boston Marathon is about the same as training 2 and 3 year old Thoroughbreds to run on immature bone structures, but, due to the immense financial pressures which drive the racing industry as a whole it may always be difficult to resolve some of the issues you raise. But it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be raised!
14 May 2008 at 12:07 pm | #
Kathie,
Thanks for taking the time to write and in continuing my education about the animal from which I have derivec a living for most of my adult life.
I would like to say first that the opinions referred to were penned by “Soul of the Horse” author Joe Camp. All of those observations appearing in the blog were in noted in quotation marks.
I did not suggest that horses compete without shoes, only that it had been done at New York tracks at which I was in attendance virtually every day for two decades.
While I don’t pretend to know a great deal about a horse’s physiology and skeletal structure, the notion that nails hammered into the hoof restricts circulation makes sense, especially while a young horse is developing.
The idea of glue on shoes is not brand new but I’ve never heard that their use was anything but very helpful. While it’s too early to know the long term effects they will have on BB’s foot issues, they certainly have worked well thus far. I would imagine if that weren’t so, he might have suffered some damage racing on the hard, sealed Churchill surface.
I for one am very tired of turning away from television screens abruptly during the running of too many races, no matter what statistics might show and after family and friends, racing is my life.
We need to look at EVERYTHING now. Recalling the battle cry from my youth: “the whole world is watching.”
There was a headline in today’s DRF about a Harlan’s Holiday offspring sold at a two-year-old sale for $700,000 after working a quarter mile in less than :21 seconds.
That’s just great.
Thanks again for taking the time, Kathie.
John
31 Aug 2008 at 05:56 am | #
The mythology among vets and farriers about how a horse’s hoof works is pretty strong and here’s a piece of it.
“The Frog is the part of the horse’s hoof that flexes and is the pumping mechanism. The only way a shoe effects that is if a zealous blacksmith has trimmed it to such an extent that it makes no contact with the ground while the horse is in motion.”
This is simply wrong. Yes the frog is part of the horse’s hoof, and yes it does flex but it plays a very minor role in pumping. It acts to absorb impact and as an expansion joint when the hoof capsule flexes allowing for independent heel action. Period.
THE HOOF OF THE HORSE IS FLEXIBLE AND THAT FACT IS WELL DOCUMENTED.
Joe Camp isn’t the originator of any of the information he sites about hoof function in his writings. This information comes from Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, a German vet and Dr. Chris Pollit, an Australian researcher as well as from historical observations.
The amount of ignorance about how a horse’s hoof function in the horse world is breathtaking. Go to any high level show in any discipline to see that ignorance in actiona and look at the lameness rates of horse’s across the country. It is dumbfounding to me that with all the verterinary colleges across the country there hasn’t been any more serious work done to document hoof mechanism like that of Dr. Chris Pollit.
I wonder why the billion dollar racing industry doesn’t fund more research to accomplish this.
31 Aug 2008 at 09:56 am | #
Thanks so much, Daniel. As stated, I welcome any time I can further my education. There’s always something to learn in this game. Again, thanks for your time.
John
22 Dec 2008 at 07:25 pm | #
Very belated response to this—but I figured if I found it late, someone else might, too, and this could be helpful.
I am both a barefoot and shoe proponent, depending on the situation. I have two horses—one shod, one barefoot. The shod horse is in corrective shoeing for disabling, life-long alignment issues—correct shoeing saved his life. The barefoot one has fabulous feet, self trims most of the time, and has never taken a lame step in her life.
There is some interesting research being done by Robert Bowker at Michigan State University on hoof biomechanics.
And his research does suggest that hooves do flex when they land (a slight amount, but they definitely do). Outwards from the concussion on the ground,
And, his research suggests that the frog (and heels of the frog) do provide valuable pumping action for blood through the feet and the legs. From what I’ve read, they’re not exactly sure why, but there is evidence mounting that it does.
At this point, much of his thought about how that impacts the horse is theory, but he is defining some interesting research protocols to work towards better answers about shoeing.
In response to Mr. Camp’s theories about EightBelles, he probably is right to a great extent—but I would argue that the greatest problem she faced was being trained too hard, too young—and probably shod too young, as well. Horses don’t stop growing until well after five years of age—racing two year olds is a really quick way to destroy them.
Leigh