Eight Belles Down (sad)

Front ANKLES? Both of them? My God. This is really really sad, I hate seeing this happen. Does anyone remember Ruffian?

You are just full of good news tonight!
 
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Regardless, Ruffian herself may be regarded as one of racing's best and brightest. The Blood-Horse ranked Ruffian 35th in its list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century. Sports Illustrated included her as the only non-human on their list of the top 100 female athletes of the century, ranking her 53rd.

Boohoo. This is bringing tears to my eyes again. She died when I was 9 years old, I was very much into horses then (no way, a pre-teen girl?) and I was terribly sad when she died.
 
Why does 2 broken ankles equal immediate euthanization?
 
SkyHog said:
Why does 2 broken ankles equal immediate euthanization?
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These were very severe fractures according the vets. There were even bone fragments outside of the skin. I think you have to imagine it was like her ankles exploded under the tremendous forces. With that type fo injury there is no way to have the horse able to support its weight. Even using a sling will put a lot of pressure on the gut and result in respiratory problems. The animal was in tremendous pain with no chance for recovery.
 
SkyHog said:
Why does 2 broken ankles equal immediate euthanization?
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In this case Nick at least one of the fractures was "open" (old word; "compound").
That means the bone penetrated the skin. No doubt with the motion of this horse in full stride, the fragment(s) of bone was/were driven into the track surface and became grossly contaminated. The bone is not like a cylinder of metal, it is porous - more like a stiff sponge. So dirt, bacteria gets pushed deep into what is likely many pieces of bone. That kind of contamination is something which is near to completely impossible to deal with - even humans will sometimes have an amputation when this occurs.
Another factor is the number of bone fragments. A clean break of one bone into two fragments is the ideal fracture but rarely occurs. More often the bone does explode as noted. So you get 5, 10 fragments. Yes you can piece these together but they often won't heal because they are ripped from their vascular supply. Its not a simple 'wire and screw the parts together like a woodshop project' unfortunately. Being living parts, they have to heal, knit together - and if they were torn from their vessels, they may never 'take'...ending up with a 'sequestra' which means a non-healing, festering wound and loss of strength because that part of the bone did not heal.

We have not even talked about the nursing problems of getting a horse to stand still for 4-6 months while it heals.
A human you can say, "Stay off it!" but animals won't listen, they are programmed to keep going til the end. So a horse with a fracture even on one leg is a huge challenge. You have to confine them or sling them. Some will tolerate this, others will go nuts and break the repair trying to get their freedom. Its an immense, time consuming and expensive post op problem.
This horse would have needed a sling I'd say, with two legs busted no way she could be walking around after surgery even with external coaptives.
Even if you had only one leg fractured you have the other side to deal with. I think I read Barbaro had this issue if anyone recalls him. You injure one leg and the leg on the other side has to bear all the weight. Often the additional burden is too much and the good leg breaks down; tendon inflammation & stretch. These racehorses are built more like a delicate racecar, not like a robust pickup. They just don't have huge bones or tendons with a lot of reserve strength, unlike a tough old Quarterhorse ranch animal.
The one lucky stroke in my career was a big strong gelding that had snapped his pastern in two (a closed fracture - intact skin) about 14 years ago. He stood there quietly, as we talked about euthanasia as that is the usual outcome. I said, why don't we 'try' and if it fails, then euthanize. I laid him down and backed the pickup near him. I drilled some holes in his hoof and threaded baling wire into the holes. I attached the wire to a come-a-long and that, to the bumper of my truck. This is wild west Texas you know. I cranked on the come-a-long til the fracture was reduced (in the correct position) and used every bit of fiberglass casting I had to wrap it, holding it straight while the glass set.
I saw that horse last month, he is sound and the owners have ridden him many years. This horse gets all the credit, because he was calm during the recovery period and not a banana-brain, and had plenty of strength in his limbs to support his mass while the broken leg healed.
 
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woodstock said:
Boohoo. This is bringing tears to my eyes again. She died when I was 9 years old, I was very much into horses then (no way, a pre-teen girl?) and I was terribly sad when she died.
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I was browsing in a book store last year and came across this book about Ruffian which I immediately bought. I had not heard about or thought of her since I was a teenager. I remember watching the match race with Foolish Pleasure on TV. Those were the days when there were many big, publicized "boys vs. girls" events (Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King). I also loved horses as a girl, until I discovered airplanes, but that was not until I was in my late teens.
 
I grew up on a farm with farm horses, including this one(photo). Though I don't know a lot "about" horses they are(were) wonderful friends. The photo is a bad digital image of a print on my wall. The painting, done in 1955 and titled South Cushing, is by Andrew Wyeth, a neighbor back home in Cushing. Andy gave the preparatory sketch to my grandfather. The painting? It was sold at auction a year or two ago for something like 4.4 million dollar$.

Adam Zucker: The painting was owned by a family out of Philadelphia who had a summer estate in Masachusetts. "Spring Hill Trust" comes to mind. The couple's daughter wanted a horse. They wouldn't give her a horse. She kept yearning for a horse; "No horse." She kept yearning. Finally, the couple bought the Wyeth painting, gave it to the daughter and said, "There's your horse." Lord knows what was paid for the painting in 1955, considering that in 1964(or so) the Farnsworth Museum(Rockland, Maine) paid $65,000 for "Her Room," which at that time was the most money ever paid for a painting by a living American artist.

Time went on, the daughter got married; more time, and an eventual divorce. In order to maintain her estate on a par with the previous the daughter put the painting up for auction. I think it went for 4.4 million $. Nice little profit. If one is to Google South Cushing one of the hits should detail the painting and the auction; however, it won't detail what I know.

I cried when I heard the broadcast of the Derby, yesterday; so sad. And I won't watch any replay for fear of seeing the great lady's greatest race and her demise.

HR

(Note that on my "print," other than the artist's name at the usual bottom right of the painting, my print has a personal signature at top right, which Andy did for me several years ago.)

EDIT: http://www.thecityreview.com/s06samp.html and scroll down about 25 paintings.
 

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Let'sgoflying! said:
A human you can say, "Stay off it!" but animals won't listen, they are programmed to keep going til the end. So a horse with a fracture even on one leg is a huge challenge. You have to confine them or sling them. Some will tolerate this, others will go nuts and break the repair trying to get their freedom. Its an immense, time consuming and expensive post op problem.
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Exactly. Remember that horses are herd animals. Their instinct, particularly when injured, is that safety is within the herd. Instinct drives them to get up on their feet and follow the herd. If they are injured and alone, they go nuts.

-Skip
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
These racehorses are built more like a delicate racecar, not like a robust pickup. They just don't have huge bones or tendons with a lot of reserve strength, unlike a tough old Quarterhorse ranch animal.
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Right again. Thoroughbreds are bred for speed. The "wrist" on a T-bred is smaller than my wrist, and it gets pounded by the force of a 1000 pound animal going 40 miles per hour. If they land on it just wrong... it explodes.

-Skip
 
We were in KY for the Derby (just got back) and the crowd at the party was odd. One person would be going ballistic because they just cleared some chunk of money, the next with a haunting, empty look on their face trying to look towards the screen.

So, so sad. It was kinda sobering driving through LEX today, seeing all those beautiful horses at the "Retirement Farm"

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
Thanks for all of that, Dave. That was a fantastic explanation.

I have to say that I am constantly amazed by the knowledge contained on this board. It's nice to have friends in so many different walks of life. :yes:
 
I suspect that if cattle had their own message boards, that they'd be doing a lot of bitching this morning (when they _should_ be working!) about the crocodile tears shed for this horse by a population of sensitive beef eaters in touch with their feelings.
-harry
 
mantakos said:
I suspect that if cattle had their own message boards, that they'd be doing a lot of bitching this morning (when they _should_ be working!) about the crocodile tears shed for this horse by a population of sensitive beef eaters in touch with their feelings.
-harry
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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
mantakos said:
I suspect that if cattle had their own message boards, that they'd be doing a lot of bitching this morning (when they _should_ be working!) about the crocodile tears shed for this horse by a population of sensitive beef eaters in touch with their feelings.
-harry
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I miss The Far Side.....
 
mantakos said:
I suspect that if cattle had their own message boards, that they'd be doing a lot of bitching this morning (when they _should_ be working!) about the crocodile tears shed for this horse by a population of sensitive beef eaters in touch with their feelings.
-harry
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Harry there is so much truth to that statement it is scary.

Here in Northern Illinois the last horse slaughter house was closed by people protesting the killing of animals for food. No this was not the likes of PETA but of regular meat eating folks. Their main 'beef' with killing horses for food were that horses were good pets and companions. Bizarre logic if you ask me.
 
smigaldi said:
the last horse slaughter house was closed by people protesting the killing of animals for food.
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I did an interview on that last week here, this was a fine example of people (legislators) pandering to their concerned constituents....without ever walking it through, and considering the full consequences of their actions.

The bottom line is horses now suffer horribly as a result of this new slaughter ban act.

Those concerned with using horses as a source of food asked the lawmakers to enact a law to close down the US horse slaughterhouses. Sounds great right? (sarcasm)
The horses are "saved", the people are content, the politicians get their votes. Well not exactly.

Can you guess, or have you read what happened?

Apparently I live on a main thoroughfare between a bunch of horse sales barns and Mexican slaughterhouses. We started seeing a huge number of trailers packed with horses going south. Find out - that after the slaughter plants were closed, the horse market shifted across the border, and buyers were taking them deep into Mexico to be.....slaughtered.

So no real change there, except now the horses have to be trucked a lot further (such transport is very stressful to them) and their trucking methods are not nearly as kind as ours are. I have heard stories of extreme crowding and smaller horses falling in the trailers, being trampled. Not stopping for rest, food, water as is required here.
And now instead of a relatively quick and painless end as mandated by the US humane slaughter act, they are killed in Mexican slaughterhouses often times in this manner --> Warning. Stop reading if you have a kindness for animals and an empathy for their pain.





What I have read, and other reliable people I know have claimed to have seen on videotape is that they stick a sharp knife into the spine of a fully conscious horse in order to paralyze it. Once the horse is on the ground, then they tie their back legs, and hang them upside down, cut their throat in order to exsanguinate them (bleed them out).

That is what short-sighted, weak-willed legislators do when they cannot see beyond tomorrow.

Being in a position of power means that you should be able have some foresight, and be able to tell people, "No, we cannot do that.", without any concern about the next election.


we are definitely spin zone now.
 
Thanks for sharing "the other side", Dave... when we don't know all the details, it's hard to be far-sighted.
 
Dave, thanks for the insights. Your horse sounds like my pony (from when I was really little). She got caught in barbed wire once and just stood there patiently until we discovered her and rescued her.

Another thing that isn't brought up much - race horses officially have a birthday on January 1 of each year. This means that a horse born in July is officially "two" for racing purposes when they are actually barely 1.5 years old. That's just way too young to be racing them like that. They are babies! There is a reason they call them colts and fillies.
 
ps. Dave I didn't read your description of the horses sent to Mexico. Thank you for the warning. Why can't they just put these horses out to pasture? It really makes me angry that people just drop their commitments to their animals when they become too much to deal with.
 
woodstock said:
ps. Dave I didn't read your description of the horses sent to Mexico. Thank you for the warning. Why can't they just put these horses out to pasture? It really makes me angry that people just drop their commitments to their animals when they become too much to deal with.
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The big reason is that there are people who like to eat horse meat. Just like cows, sheep, goats, chickens, etc. So instead of spending more money on an animal that is 'retired' better to turn him into a revenue generating commodity aka meat.
 
smigaldi said:
The big reason is that there are people who like to eat horse meat. Just like cows, sheep, goats, chickens, etc. So instead of spending more money on an animal that is 'retired' better to turn him into a revenue generating commodity aka meat.
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Had it once in Japan. Of course, they didn't tell me what it was until the next day. Tasted like a sweet beef. Once was enough.
 
smigaldi said:
The big reason is that there are people who like to eat horse meat. Just like cows, sheep, goats, chickens, etc. So instead of spending more money on an animal that is 'retired' better to turn him into a revenue generating commodity aka meat.
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And there's a lot of horse meat in dog food.

My parents bought my sister a pony when we were pretty young (I think I was 4 and she was 7), and when he wasn't "mowing the lawn" for us he was in a large pen that was pretty close to the road. We were approached more than once about selling him for dog food. There were also attempts to flat-out steal him in the middle of the night shortly thereafter. Good thing we had a German Shepherd too. :D
 
flyingcheesehead said:
And there's a lot of horse meat in dog food.

My parents bought my sister a pony when we were pretty young (I think I was 4 and she was 7), and when he wasn't "mowing the lawn" for us he was in a large pen that was pretty close to the road. We were approached more than once about selling him for dog food. There were also attempts to flat-out steal him in the middle of the night shortly thereafter. Good thing we had a German Shepherd too. :D
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FYI from the ASPCA
The use of horse meat in foods for human and pet consumption is frowned upon in the United States, Rena. As a result, almost all horses slaughtered in the U.S. are shipped overseas for consumption, which decreases the chance of horse meat being included in products manufactured here. However, if you’re curious about a product's ingredients, the best thing to do is thoroughly check the label. The FDA requires that all ingredients be listed on pet food labels. Foods that list "meat by-product meal,” as one of their ingredients can contain any number of meats, so you may want to watch for that and instead, choose foods that include "chicken by-product meal,” or are more specific with their list of ingredients.
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BTW Horsemeat is lean, protein-rich, finely textured, bright red, firm, and more so horses are immune to BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). So no mad-horse disease
 
Ghery said:
Had it once in Japan. Of course, they didn't tell me what it was until the next day. Tasted like a sweet beef. Once was enough.
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Japan and Quebec here. Both times it was interesting, but not interesting enough to pursue it or order it again. Cingihale.... that's an entirely different story.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
woodstock said:
Why can't they just put these horses out to pasture?
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I suppose there are several reasons, I can think of these ones:

-many owners do not own pasture, they rent someone else's...and when they run out of money (its a very expensive hobby) they have to do something else.

-in my part of the world and much of the SW pasture is not a viable source of food. There is just nothing to eat where I am right now so you still have to buy feed. $$

-"hey, I can make a buck off this old nag at the sales barn"
 
BTW out of the three horse slaughter houses in the US I think there are only two left open and both are in Texas. Hence the trucking them to far away places.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I suppose there are several reasons, I can think of these ones:

-many owners do not own pasture, they rent someone else's...and when they run out of money (its a very expensive hobby) they have to do something else.

-in my part of the world and much of the SW pasture is not a viable source of food. There is just nothing to eat where I am right now so you still have to buy feed. $$

-"hey, I can make a buck off this old nag at the sales barn"
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I bought my Mom an "old nag" a few years ago that would probably have ended up this way.. she is just the sweetest, calmest horse. And not even that old - the owner couldn't afford her anymore and was going to just dump her. Wrong wrong wrong.
 
BTW out of the three horse slaughter houses in the US I think there are only two left open and both are in Texas.
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they are all closed now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_slaughter
"The last remaining horse slaughter plant in the country was effectively shut down Sept. 21 when a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled an Illinois law banning horse slaughter for human consumption is constitutional."
 
woodstock said:
the owner couldn't afford her anymore and was going to just dump her. Wrong wrong wrong.
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I've always thought there should be some sort of screening before you get a horse to make sure you can actually provide the basic needs for it, feed, water, fresh air, space, health/farrier care, some time with it each week.
Read the wiki article, some project 100000 horses abandoned in the US each year!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I've always thought there should be some sort of screening before you get a horse to make sure you can actually provide the basic needs for it, feed, water, fresh air, space, health/farrier care, some time with it each week.
Read the wiki article, some project 100000 horses abandoned in the US each year!
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Should have the same sort of test before allowing someone to get any sort of pet or child!
 
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