Page 101 - Speedhorse July 2018

bring them in every morning and go over them. We then turn them out in the after- noon and leave them out all night. They often get to running and may run up to a fence and stop hard. This can be where they get ankle chips,” he says.
EVALUATING POTENTIAL FOR RACING
When young horses are evaluated and checked before a sale, prospective buyers scrutinize them closely. Every horseman has a picture in their head of what they consider the perfect horse to physically look like.
“We look at them and watch them walk, but you really don’t know how they move unless you’ve been to the farm where that individual grew up” says Casner. “You don’t have any idea how he will run, but, if a young horse has good biomechanics when he walks, hopefully it translates into being
a racehorse. I have seen a few bad-walking horses, however, that were great racehorses.”
What really makes a racehorse are the things we can’t see. These intangible things are very important. “Generally, the speed horse has the shortest path to the wire,” Casner says. “Speed has all the advantages in dirt racing.”
The veterinarian doing a pre-purchase
exam can determine if a horse is medically and physically sound, but no one can predict if that horse can run. Duncan Peters DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVSMR, and co-owner and founder of East- West Equine Sports Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, does a lot of pre-purchase exams. “The buyer of a horse is making a decision and we as veterinarians are there to assist with the medical aspects of that horse as to what we see at that particular time. It’s like a home inspec- tion. We are trying to see if there is anything that may affect the intended use of that horse. For racing, we are looking closely at the mus- culoskeletal system, the respiratory system and cardiovascular system,” says Peters.
“The hardest thing to predict is how those horses are going to do a year or so down the road,” he says. “Racehorses have a short win- dow of athletic performance compared with sport horses where we are looking for longev- ity in a lifetime career. In either case, we want a horse that is solid and sound from a medical, respiratory and cardiovascular standpoint, as well as muscles and skeleton.”
“The pre-purchase exam is basically a physi- cal exam looking for flaws in that horse’s ath- letic ability that may hinder or not allow him to be the best he can be,” says Peters. “Luck has a lot to do with it along the way. It seems as if a horse can find a way to hurt himself, he will.”
Even though good conformation is important, you can’t predict how successful a horse will be based on what he looks like. Sometimes, it all comes down to heart.
CONFORMATION
General conformation is important, look- ing at length, depth and angles in the body. “Is the horse well-balanced from front end to hind end? Is he strong through the top line? Does he have the musculature, as well as the bone mass, to support the body and to develop into an athlete that can do the job? This can be hard to determine,” says Peters. “When looking at young racehorses, we are hoping we can predict that future based on certain parameters such as lineage and the physical attributes in front of us.
“There are many things that are part of
a general exam. We look at the feet and legs. We want to make sure that their conformation will allow him to run at speed. Angular limb deformities or hoof abnormalities are scruti- nized. Is this horse put together well enough to deal with the forces and stresses that come with training and running? We look at basic medical specifics, such as how the heart and lungs sound. Does the horse have good jaw and dental conformation?
“If everything is all right in the general exam, we then look at muscles and skel- eton,” he says. “We palpate the joints and look for any increased fluid or abnormali- ties associated with fluid or tissue enlarge- ments. We check for soreness by palpation, flexion of the joints and by putting pressure on them to see if the horse reacts abnor- mally. All these things can give us an indi- cation of whether there may be a potential joint problem.
“We also palpate ligaments and ten- dons, such as flexor tendons, suspensory ligaments and sesamoidean ligaments. We are looking for any enlargements, abnor- malities, sensitivity or tenderness. Even
at a very young age, we sometimes find abnormalities in some of these horses that might interfere with being an athlete down the road,” he says.
“With young horses, especially racehorses, we usually don’t get the chance to evaluate them at different gaits. We typically only get to evaluate them at the walk. We can only speculate and make projections as to what they may do at the trot or gallop. This can
be difficult and takes a well-trained eye; someone who has been around these horses and has seen them develop and go into train- ing, and has seen the type of walk that may project or correlate with the ability to run. There are some people who have a tremen- dous eye and a knack for that. In many cases, however, potential buyers like a young horse because of what they see in his walk and how he carries himself in terms of body language.
“As veterinarians, we are mainly look- ing to see if that horse has any physical
A thorough exam will include palpation of ligaments and tendons to look for any abnormalities associated with fluid or tissue enlargement, and by flexing and applying pressure to areas to see how the horse reacts.
impairment such as a tightness behind the knee that might indicate that the horse could have problems with the flexor tendon down the road,” he says.
A horse that is bench-kneed (with offset cannons) might be more prone to splints or medial suspensory problems on the inside of the leg. “We view this from a little different perspective than the person who is look-
ing at the lineage or focusing on how the horse looks. As veterinarians, we may see if he is a little abnormal on one leg, if it is
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EQUINE HEALTH