Told ya, dumbass.
Big Brown Has 'Slight' Quarter Crack
by Steve Haskin
Updated: May 25, 2008
Big Brown, who will be seeking the coveted Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), has a "slight" quarter crack on the inside of his left front foot, trainer Rick Dutrow said Sunday. May 25.
Dutrow said he noticed a small spot on the colt's foot Friday afternoon and notified hoof lameness specialist Ian McKinlay, who treated it. By Saturday, it had turned into a slight quarter crack, five-eighths of an inch long. McKinlay applied iodine solution and said he’s confident it is very minor. He will “lace it up” and if everything is good, the colt will on the track for full training by Thursday.
"The horse is in no discomfort, he doesn’t even know anything is wrong," Dutrow said. He is trying to figure out why he is not going to the track and he has been tough to walk. Missing a few days of training is not going to hurt us at all. If I can work him on Tuesday before the Belmont, that would be perfect. Or even Wednesday would be good."
"This injury is nothing remotely close to the two foot injuries he had last fall and winter," McKinlay said. "Thos were wall separations and were very tender. This is just a straight quarter crack that will pretty much heal by itself."
"I’ve known Ian for years," Dutrow said. "He worked for my father and (he) gives me lot of confidence. lan doesn’t sugarcoat anything, and if he says this is nothing, that’s good enough for me."
Undefeated Big Brown, who won the Florida Derby (gr. I), took the first two legs of the Triple Crown with impressive victories in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and the Preakness Stakes (gr. I).
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Hey Dumb ASS...Wharf RAt does this help he has had this problem since he was a 2yr old
It wasn't all bad news at the Kentucky Derby. There was one piece of good news that will likely provide a pathway to serious health improvements and longer life - not only for horses on the race track - but for horses everywhere. On Saturday, May 3, 2008, when a beautiful bay horse named Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby he not only became the first horse since 1915 to win with only three prior races. And the first horse since 1929 to win from the far outside position. He unwittingly shattered a tradition that could be the best thing to happen to horses in decades. Big Brown became the first horse in history to win the Kentucky Derby without traditional metal shoes nailed to his feet.
"So what," a friend said. "A shoe is a shoe, right?"
Wrong.
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 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.
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 had caused me to pull the shoes off all of our horses immediately. So, I recognized what the 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.
And then tragedy struck. The only filly in the race, Eight Belles, after racing past the finish line in second place, suddenly collapsed with two broken front ankles and had to be euthanized on the spot. My joy turned to pain. 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 Belle's 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.
There has been much ranting about suspending the jockey, changing the running surface, changing breeding practices, and the belief that the big races are too close together. Absolutely they're too close together because a three-year-old horse is too young to be there in the first place. Holding such races every two weeks only compounds the problem. But however true any of these complaints might or might not be, none are at the heart of the issue. The problem is age and skeletal development. Horses are being trained and raced too young with under-developed growth plates and skeletal structures. Complicated by early pounding of those immature joints, ligaments and tendons with the concussive effect of a metal shoe nailed to the hoof during training.
These issues can actually be solved quickly and easily by lifting the upper age limit to, say, eight years old at these major races. Leave the lower limit at three for the time being. Then require a complete x-ray exam of all growth plates to accompany every entry. Whenever a 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.
Next, 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.
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.
I wish I could conjure up a computerized scientific model of what would've happened if Eight Belles had been five years old instead of three; and throughout her years of training, her hooves had 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.
Joe Camp is author of the new book The Soul of a Horse: Life lessons from the Herd, a book that many have said is going to change the way we all look at horses. He is also the creator of the canine superstar Benji.
Just in case this is to long for you to read
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.
With many horses, this issue never goes away, and it appears this is the case with BB
It wasn't all bad news at the Kentucky Derby. There was one piece of good news that will likely provide a pathway to serious health improvements and longer life - not only for horses on the race track - but for horses everywhere. On Saturday, May 3, 2008, when a beautiful bay horse named Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby he not only became the first horse since 1915 to win with only three prior races. And the first horse since 1929 to win from the far outside position. He unwittingly shattered a tradition that could be the best thing to happen to horses in decades. Big Brown became the first horse in history to win the Kentucky Derby without traditional metal shoes nailed to his feet.
"So what," a friend said. "A shoe is a shoe, right?"
Wrong.
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 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.
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 had caused me to pull the shoes off all of our horses immediately. So, I recognized what the 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.
And then tragedy struck. The only filly in the race, Eight Belles, after racing past the finish line in second place, suddenly collapsed with two broken front ankles and had to be euthanized on the spot. My joy turned to pain. 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 Belle's 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.
There has been much ranting about suspending the jockey, changing the running surface, changing breeding practices, and the belief that the big races are too close together. Absolutely they're too close together because a three-year-old horse is too young to be there in the first place. Holding such races every two weeks only compounds the problem. But however true any of these complaints might or might not be, none are at the heart of the issue. The problem is age and skeletal development. Horses are being trained and raced too young with under-developed growth plates and skeletal structures. Complicated by early pounding of those immature joints, ligaments and tendons with the concussive effect of a metal shoe nailed to the hoof during training.
These issues can actually be solved quickly and easily by lifting the upper age limit to, say, eight years old at these major races. Leave the lower limit at three for the time being. Then require a complete x-ray exam of all growth plates to accompany every entry. Whenever a 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.
Next, 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.
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.
I wish I could conjure up a computerized scientific model of what would've happened if Eight Belles had been five years old instead of three; and throughout her years of training, her hooves had 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.
Joe Camp is author of the new book The Soul of a Horse: Life lessons from the Herd, a book that many have said is going to change the way we all look at horses. He is also the creator of the canine superstar Benji.
Just in case this is to long for you to read
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.
With many horses, this issue never goes away, and it appears this is the case with BB
