Re: 6 Minutes prior to post in the Preakness... re-posting of alm's excellent post on the subject (663 Views)
Posted by:
marcus (IP Logged)
Date: June 07, 2006 07:14PM
re-post of alms excellent post on the subject
alm Wrote:
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> I posted a few messages about this subject, so
> this is a repeat.
>
> Those of you who assume something was wrong with
> this horse before the race are quite correct. A
> condylar fracture, which was the cause of the bad
> step and the subsequent fractures to Barbaro's
> sesamoid and pastern, occurs from preexisting
> conditions.
>
> It has to do with immature or soft bones and the
> reformation or flattening of the condylar in the
> ankle or pastern socket, due to the pounding of
> training and racing. Tale of the Cat is the
> poster boy of what happens if you stop on a
> promising juvenile and allow his bones time to
> harden with age. He came back super and achieved
> a good career.
>
> Nobody connected with Barbaro will want to admit
> they knew about his problem, but almost all of us
> would have done the same thing they did. This was
> a very fast horse capable of winning at the
> highest level and the Triple Crown only comes once
> in a horse's life.
>
> He was medicated to avoid the pain and showed no
> gimpiness in his stride as a result. He was raced
> lightly to keep the damage to a minimum, but it
> was getting worse all the time and I suppose it
> eventually got so bad that Prado could feel it in
> the warmup.
>
> Basically this involves damage to the soft tissue
> below the condylar, which is invisible to ordinary
> xrays. Fractures occur when the tissue is worn
> completely through and bone hits bone.
>
> I lost a horse in a race this way and learned what
> I am writing about through research. You could
> look it up.
>
> Those of you naive enough to think these vets know
> everything and are always honest should just keep
> in mind what some vets bring to this business.
> It's not their job to protect the breed, but
> rather to protect their client's investments...and
> occasionally more.
>
>
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2006 07:21PM by marcus.