On-Track Pharmacies Restore Racing Integrity

On-Track Pharmacies; the potential to improve racing integrity

On-track pharmacies have the potential to restore racing integrity in America. 

The on-track pharmacy would be the only place drugs are allowed on the racetrack. The attending veterinarian examines a horse and prescribes a treatment. If medication is determined to be part of the therapy, the veterinarian submits the horse's name, the diagnosis, and requested medication to the racing regulatory body. The pharmacist and regulatory veterinarian evaluate the request and dispense the medication to be administered to the specific horse. Everything is recorded; drug, dosage, frequency of administration, expiration date, lot number, brand name, etc. 

Veterinarians would not be allowed to drive around the backside with truckloads of drugs, as this current practice has led to indiscriminate inappropriate treatments, that have led to breakdowns and doping problems. Rather than trainers dictating medication protocols, on-track pharmacies would restore the medication protocols to be decided by veterinarians rather than trainers. Currently, trainers in large part decide what drugs their horses receive.  With an on-track pharmacy policy in place, if a trainer has a notion that his or her horse needs a certain medication, a veterinarian would be required to examine and assess the horse, arrive at a specific diagnosis, and then request the medication from the pharmacy, where further vetting of the plan would occur from the regulatory veterinarians and pharmacists. Rather than being utilized as medication technicians as attending veterinarians currently are utilized, attending veterinarians would again become doctors practicing the science and art of veterinary medicine. Instead of being paid for drugs they administer, horse doctors would again be compensated for their medical evaluation of the racehorse patient.

The pharmacy is the only place medication could be stored or dispensed on the racetrack, other than with the emergency trauma and colic responders. Veterinarians will have to practice veterinary medicine as veterinary medicine should be practiced with racehorses. Pharmaceutical manipulation to enhance performance would be eliminated, while therapeutic treatments could be sustained. No drugs would be allowed to come into the track through any other venue. Every horse medicated is medicated via this process and no other, with the exception of emergency treatments. This is the model in Hong Kong where the breakdown rate is one of the lowest in the world. This policy effectively prevents doping, while providing all of the horses with the necessary therapeutic medications to train and race. Every treatment is transparent. The bettors, trainers, owners, and all others are made aware of every treatment for each and every horse. The result is racing with increased integrity, increased safety, increased public support, and increased handle.

The effectiveness of an on track pharmacy on a wide scale basis depends on the construct that all of the horses are stabled at the track, or stabled at the track for a period of time before they race. Horses that are stabled off the track would be able to avoid the pharmacy protocol, unless some sort of stabling island surrounding the track could be established. In Hong Kong, horses are required to be stabled at the track to race. Modifications to manage American racing could include that the pharmacy protocol, while best serving horses on a continuous basis, would be enforced after horses are entered into a race. This would also allow a gradual implementation of the on-track pharmacy. Protocols to include ship-ins could include pre-race testing for horses stabled off track, but as we have seen, testing as a reliable method to manage doping has vast limitations.

Horsemen and veterinarians will oppose this, of course, as it is inconvenient, restrictive, and allows total transparency. On track pharmacies have the potential, nonetheless, to manage doping and restrict the pharmaceutical manipulation of performance. It is pharmaceutical manipulation that has caused much the trouble the industry is experiencing. Injuries to both horses and jockeys are often due to doping and other unwholesome improper medication practices, which also devalue the horse while shortening their careers.  A problematic part of American racing has become the ability of veterinarians and trainers to pharmaceutically manipulate performance, a practice so entrenched that it has become part of the game. The sport was designed to test the natural ability of the horse, and the trainer’s ability to bring out that natural ability. Doping and pharmaceutical manipulation were never intended to be part of horseracing, but pharmaceutical manipulation has become an integral part of horseracing in America. The breakdown rate in America is manyfold higher than in Hong Kong, and the ease of pharmaceutical manipulation is a primary reason for this safety differential.

Development of an on-track pharmacy policy is the doping prevention policy that is in the best interest of the racehorses, the riders, the players, and the owners. It is this system that has the greatest potential to restore integrity to horseracing in America. The model is in place in Hong Kong, where it has been tremendously effective in supporting racing with integrity while sustaining ethical horseracing values, while experiencing excellent handle as a result.  

On track pharmacies represent the health and welfare of the horse. On-track pharmacies can make racing considerably safer and more ethical, restoring public trust in the sport.

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. He helps refine horse and dog training methods to accommodate the inherent nature and behavior of horses and dogs. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses. DrSid provides equine behavior consultations to help recreate the needs and preferences of horses in training and competition.

Racehorse Advocacy

Racehorse Advocacy
The Trouble with Raceday Medications

By Sid Gustafson, DVM

April 12, 2012

Thanks in part to the racehorse advocacy efforts by The Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, a variety of racing jurisdictions are reviewing raceday medication practices and are making advancements to support the drug-free welfare and humane care of racehorses. Raceday medications are in the process of being gradually prohibited, as are the indiscriminate and abusive use of drugs in racehorses in general. It has become clear to many that current racehorse medication practices in the United States and Canada exceed the adaptability of the racehorse, resulting in unnecessary breakdowns, injuries and even death to both horses and jockeys. Rather than drugs, it is the humane care of racehorses that supports soundness of wind and limb.

The practice of administering raceday medications    is being called into question.    Gina Hanf

A variety of groups have responded to the call to provide better care for racehorses. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission invited The HSUS to testify at its raceday medication hearing in November 2011, and I provided a version of the racehorse advocacy that follows. The Interstate Horse Racing Improvement Act (H.R. 1733/S. 886) is making its way through the U.S. Congress, and is supported by several congressional representatives. Make sure your representative supports this important Act. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for an investigation of the New York Racing Association breakdowns. The New York Times is running a series of articles exposing the medication charade that has endangered horses and riders for decades in America. The Breeder’s Cup committee has banned raceday Lasix for two-year-olds competing in this year’s race¹.

Drug-free racing will improve stabling, conditioning and husbandry practices for racehorses. Medication has long been a crutch that facilitates the improper care of stabled horses. Rather than alleviate medical conditions, recent data clearly demonstrates that racing medications allow people to exceed racehorse adaptability. Drug use perpetuates fragility in racehorses². Fragility is dangerous for both horses and riders.

To appreciate the principles of equine behavior is to understand what is required to maintain pulmonary health in horses being conditioned to race who are confined to stalls, and it is not drugs. The solution to managing exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) and preventing breakdowns is appropriate breeding, development, horsemanship, training and husbandry—not drugs. The care that establishes and enhances pulmonary health and endurance in horses is the same care that enriches stabled horses’ lives. It is the same care that keeps racehorses’ musculoskeletal systems sound. It is humane care that keeps horses on their feet during races. Limb soundness and pulmonary soundness are physiologically entwined.

Horses who are bred, socialized, and developed properly from birth, and who train while living enriched stable lives, are seldom likely to experience performance-impairing EIPH while racing. They are more apt to stay sound of limb. Bleeding in a race is reflective of inadequate care and preparation, of miscalculations and untoward medication practices. Drugs and raceday medications perpetuate substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result (bleeding and breakdowns) of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred. The solution to manage bleeding and prevent breakdowns in racehorses is to breed, develop, teach, train and care for horses in a horse-sensitive fashion.

Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains; group survivalists moving and grazing together much of the time. Horses require near-constant forage, friends and locomotion to maintain health of wind and limb, even if they are stabled. Racehorses are no exception. The last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall, alone, with a limited view and uncirculated air. The solution to managing racehorse health is proper horsemanship and husbandry, which is sadly lacking at today’s racetracks. Horses prefer to graze together and move nearly constantly in natural settings; to race without drugs, natural conditions have to be re-created in the stable. The equine requirement for near-constant grazing and moving is essential for joint and bone, hoof, metabolic, and pulmonary health. In order for lungs to stay healthy, horses need more movement than they are currently provided. Abundant on- and off-track locomotion is necessary to condition a horse’s lungs. To enhance pulmonary health is to enhance the horse’s entire life and outlook. Not only do properly stabled and trained horses’ lungs hold bleeding in abeyance, they hold sway and win. Pulmonary health and bleeding prevention are dependent on smooth running and biomechanically-sound locomotion.

Horses evolved in the open spaces of the Northern Hemisphere and require the cleanest, purest air to thrive and develop healthy lungs and hearts. Stable air needs to be constantly refreshed to maintain pulmonary health. Ventilation is essential, and enclosed structures are often inadequate in providing the healthy air horses require. Appropriate barn design and stabling practices maintain pulmonary health. Bedding is critical. Clean straw provides stall movement by simulating grazing. Horses stalled on straw are noted to move about with their heads down nibbling and exploring for hours, recreating nature to some degree, keeping their lungs healthy with movement, their respiratory tracts drained by all the head-down nibbling and grazing. This is not enough. For healthy lungs, horses need to get out of their stalls for hours each afternoon. Not only does near-constant movement maintain and enhance pulmonary health, abundant locomotion maintains metabolic health, joint and bone health, hoof health, and digestive health. To enhance, support and maintain lung and limb health without drugs is to enhance the overall health and soundness of the horse.

Sid Gustafson, DVM

Sid Gustafson, D.V.M., is an animal welfare advocate, educator, writer, and equine veterinarian. He teaches Equine Behavior at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He practices regulatory veterinary medicine, representing the health, safety and welfare of thoroughbred racehorses.

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. He helps refine horse and dog training methods to accommodate the inherent nature and behavior of horses and dogs. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses. DrSid provides equine behavior consultations to help recreate the needs and preferences of horses in training and competition.

Racehorse Advocacy, The End of Raceday Medications

Racehorse Advocacy

The End of Raceday Medications 

Sid Gustafson DVM

Equine veterinary behaviorist representing the health and welfare of horses

Thanks to a wide and diverse variety of racehorse advocacy efforts, a review of racehorse raceday medication practices by a variety of racing jurisdictions and organizations is making advancements to support the drug-free welfare and humane care of racehorses. Raceday medications are in the process of being rescinded, as are the indiscriminate and abusive use of drugs in racehorses in general. It has become clear to many that current racehorse medication practices in the United States and Canada exceed the adaptability of the racehorse, resulting in unnecessary breakdowns and injuries and death to both horses and jockeys. Rather than drugs, it is the humane care of racehorses that supports soundness of wind and limb.

A variety of groups have responded to the call by the HSVMA and HSUS to better care for racehorses. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission invited the HSUS to testify at its raceday medication hearing, and I provided a version of the racehorse advocacy that follows. The Interstate Horse Racing Improvement Act is making its way through the United States Congress, and is supported by several congressional representatives. Make sure your representative supports this important Act. Governor Cuomo has called for an investigation of the New York Racing Association breakdowns. The New York Times is running a series of articles exposing the medication charade that has endangered horses and riders for decades in America. The Breeder’s Cup committee has banned raceday Lasix for two-year-olds racing in this year’s Breeder’ Cup.

Drug-free racing will improve stabling, conditioning, and husbandry practices for racehorses. Medication has long been a crutch that facilitates the improper care of stabled horses. Rather than alleviate medical conditions, recent data clearly demonstrates that racing medications allow people to exceed racehorse adaptability.  Drug use perpetuates fragility in racehorses.[1] Fragility is dangerous for both horses and riders. To appreciate the principles of equine behavior is to understand what is required to maintain pulmonary health in horses confined to stalls being conditioned to race, and it is not drugs. The solution to managing Exercise-Induced-Pulmonary-Hemorrhage and preventing breakdowns is appropriate breeding, development, horsemanship, training, and husbandry rather than drugs. The care that establishes and enhances pulmonary health and endurance in horses is the same care that enriches stabled horses’ lives. It is the same care that keeps racehorses’ musculoskeletal systems sound. It is humane care that keeps horses on their feet during races.

Horses with healthy lungs and sound limbs are content and fulfilled horses whose lives their caretakers adequately and extensively enrich. Lung health is supported by limb health. Appropriate husbandry and training maintains and establishes soundness of both wind and limb. Breathing and running are biologically intertwined on the track, a breath per stride. To stride correctly is to breathe correctly. To breathe correctly is to breathe soundly, and race sound. Limb soundness and pulmonary soundness are physiologically entwined.

Horses who are bred, socialized, and developed properly from birth, and who train while living enriched stable lives are seldom likely to experience performance-impairing EIPH while racing. They are more apt to stay sound of limb. Humane care of the horse prevents bleeding, my friends. Humane care of the horse prevents breakdowns. Pulmonary health is reflective of appropriate husbandry, breeding, training, nutrition, and the abundant provisions of forage, friends, and perhaps most importantly, locomotion. Bleeding in a race is reflective of inadequate care and preparation, of miscalculations and untoward medication practices. Drugs and raceday medications perpetuate substandard horsemanship, artificially suppressing the untoward result (bleeding and breakdowns) of inadequate preparation of the thoroughbred. Drugs are no longer the solution. Humane care of the horse based on evolved behavioral needs is the solution to safe horseracing.

The solution to manage bleeding and prevent breakdowns in racehorses is to breed, develop, teach, train, and care for horses in a horse-sensitive fashion. Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, group survivalists moving and grazing together much of the time. Horses require near-constant forage, friends, and locomotion to maintain health of wind and limb, even if they are stabled. Racehorses are no exception. The last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall, alone, with a limited view and uncirculated air. Training and husbandry need to be a good deal for horses in order for horses to maintain healthy partnerships with people. Pulmonary health is reflective of overall health and soundness in horses. Pulmonary health is reflective of limb soundness.

In order to maintain pulmonary health, natural conditions need to be re-created in the stable. The solution to managing racehorse health is proper horsemanship and husbandry, which is sadly lacking at today’s racetracks. Horses prefer to graze together and move nearly constantly in natural settings, and to race without drugs, natural has to be re-created in the stable. The equine requirement for near-constant grazing and moving is essential for joint and bone health, hoof health, metabolic health, and pulmonary health. In order for lungs to stay healthy, horses need more movement than they are currently provided. Abundant on track and off-track locomotion is necessary to condition a horse’s lungs. Lungs deteriorate when movement is restricted by excessive confinement in a stall. Horses breath all day long, and trainers need to appreciate abundant movement is required through much of the day to maintain pulmonary strength and health.

To enhance pulmonary health is to enhance the horse’s entire life and outlook. Not only do properly stabled and trained horses’ lungs hold bleeding in abeyance, they hold sway and win. Pulmonary health and bleeding prevention are dependent on smooth running and biomechanically sound locomotion.

Horses evolved in the open spaces of the northern hemisphere and require the cleanest, purest air to thrive and develop healthy lungs and hearts. Stable air needs to be constantly refreshed to maintain pulmonary health. Ventilation is essential, and enclosed structures are often inadequate in providing healthy air horse require. Appropriate barn design and stabling practices maintain pulmonary health. Bedding is critical. Clean straw provides stall movement by simulating grazing. Horses stalled on straw are noted to move about with their heads down nibbling and exploring for hours, recreating nature to some degree, keeping their lungs healthy with movement, their respiratory tracts drained by all the head-down nibbling and grazing. This is not enough. For healthy lungs, horses need to get out of their stalls for hours each afternoon. Horses need near-constant movement to maintain optimum lung health. Long-standing horses’ lungs deteriorate quickly. Not only does near-constant movement maintain and enhance pulmonary health, abundant locomotion maintains metabolic health, joint and bone health, hoof health, and digestive health. To enhance support, and maintain lung and limb health without drugs is to enhance the overall health and soundness of the horse.

Sid Gustafson DVM

http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/goodbye-lasix-and-good-riddance/

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html?pagewanted=all

Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance. Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. 

Horsemanship and Horse Racing

June 11, 2008, New York Times, The Rail
Horsemanship and Horse Racing
By SID GUSTAFSON
I have to be careful writing about jockeys and riding as I still do veterinary regulatory racetrack work from time to time representing the horses and jockeys safety and welfare on race day. I try to stay out of debates involving riding strategy, so as not to have jockeys lose confidence in me should I happen to perform regulatory work at their track in the future. In order to effectively carry out regulatory duties, veterinarians have to maintain trusting working relationships with the jockeys. On the other hand, proper horsemanship is essential for horse racing safety, and regulatory veterinarians are certainly responsible for that.
I teach natural horsemanship at the University of Montana Western, where I have the good fortune to ride in all of the horsemanship classes. We study the nature and behavior of horses and base our training on this understanding of horses.
After the gate opened in the Belmont Stakes, Kent was dealing with a Big Brown anxious to sprint to the lead. Brown seemed to shy sideways to the right away from the starter standing in the track after he slipped out of the gate. Kent reacted and Brown did not respond to the rider’s initial reaction and instruction like Kent had anticipated, and the rider had to apply a large amount pressure to the reins, repeatedly, wrestling the horse in one direction then the other. The early issues between horse and rider cascaded, and the partnership between horse and rider deteriorated out of the gate well into the first turn.
It seemed that the Brown team knew that a deficit in the connection between Kent and Brown existed when they last observed Kent gallop Big Brown. It was reported by the trainer through the media that the horse was all over the place on a morning gallop with Kent aboard.
The general horsemanship belief is that once a horse gets his way with an unassertive rider through the course of a gallop, the horse will attempt to have its way with the rider on future rides by ignoring the cues the rider gives with the reins and legs. According to the news media and Dutrow, Brown got the best of Kent the last time Kent galloped him. Kent was not able to get Brown to respond to his cues on the gallop.
Apparently, the trainer observed the horse get his way with Kent on the last gallop and did not take measures to correct the racehorse’s relationship with the rider before the race. Subsequently, the horse did not respond to Kent in the race. In essence, Kent had to retrain the horse to respond to his cues through the first quarter mile.
If Brown understood he could get away with refusing to answer to Kent’s cues appropriately on gallops, Brown is not going to react any better to Kent’s cues in a race.
Dutrow’s description of Kent’s last gallop of Big Brown seemed to match the subsequent race ride Kent gave Brown, which is what horsemanship studies would expect, and even predict. In trying to find answers as to what might be done differently to prepare Big Brown for future races with Kent up, the horsemanship issues between horse and rider regarding response, connection, and communication need refined before the race.
Nothing is simple in horseracing, and most race finishes are the result of many, many factors and sequences of factors. Horses’ reaction times are lightning quick. However practiced, a human’s reaction to a horse’s reaction is not always a rhythmic thing when extenuating pressures and surprises arise, or when preparation has been lacking. In retrospect, it now seems that it may have been inappropriate to let Brown get away with a disobedient gallop with Kent up before the race. Brown also could have been better prepared mentally for the race, so to have been in a partnering mood with his rider. This is of course all very complex, and horses regularly fool horsemen. Developing a better understanding of equine behavior is the goal of all horsemen, but much of our learning is trial and error.
I do not share these horse behavior observations to place blame, but to clarify an aspect of horse training and memory. Certainly, losing the race was not Big Brown’s fault. He is in the hands of people, the training, the riding, the conditioning, the medication; everything the horse does is at the hand of man.
In natural horsemanship, we teach that the horse is never wrong. Riders have to develop partnerships of confidence, respect, and connection with each horse they ride, and consistently maintain all aspects of those partnerships to ensure a responsive partnership. If people are not consistent with horses, horses will not be consistent for people.
Not only was Big Brown unwilling to respond evenly for his rider, Desormeaux, Big Brown did not work as evenly as hoped for his regular exercise rider, Michelle Nevin, before the race. Horsetraining is in order for Big Brown, refinement of the basics of confidence, respect, and connection going both ways between horse and rider, all Brown’s riders. The owner and trainer’s idea to resume medicating Big Brown with Winstrol is a mistake, as anabolic steroids are notorious for making horses less trainable and responsive. Big Brown needs to get more connected with his riders, and anabolic steroids can contradict that goal.
If Desormeaux rides Big Brown in the coming races, the horsemanship issues between the horse and rider should be refined so that the horse and rider connection is more secure when the Haskell or Travers roll around.
Sid Gustafson is a novelist, social commentator, and former thoroughbred attending and examining veterinarian licensed in New York, Washington, and Montana, where he has had significant experience in the regulation of racehorses, especially as it pertains to soundness and breakdowns.

Eight Bells, continued from the NYTimes the Rail

By SID GUSTAFSON

Sid Gustafson is a novelist, social commentator, and former thoroughbred attending and examining veterinarian licensed in New York, Washington, and Montana, where he has had significant experience in the regulation of racehorses, especially as it pertains to soundness and breakdowns.

There are medical and cultural human-animal issues in the thoroughbred industry that warrant exploration and acknowledgment.

A prudent horseman could begin with the essential topic of stabling: how do we move forward to best recreate the natural preferences and tendencies of stabled racehorses? More intense issues such as racing age, medication, track surfaces, and breeding can be better addressed in subsequent articles after the nature of the horse and the implications of racetrack confinement are addressed.

The Fetlock Epidemic: When horses break their legs in races and have to be euthanized on the track, we have clearly exceeded the adaptability of the horse. Racetrack breakdowns are endemic, if not epidemic, in America, an undeniable veterinary reality of which I have first-hand experience. There are at least 60 identified factors which contribute to breakdowns, the leading one of which is a lack of prerace scrutiny by the trainer, his veterinarian, and the regulatory veterinarians. There are accidents, bumps, missteps, and bad luck, yes, but in my experience the vast majority of breakdowns are predictable, and most breakdowns are a result of running horses with fetlock lamenesses. Fetlocks are among the thoroughbred racehorse’s most vulnerable and complex joints. The fetlock gathers a vortex of anatomical structures that are intricately interdependent and essential. Inflammation, pain, or swelling in any one of the structures alters the essential biomechanical synchronicity for proper function and support of the critical joint.

As a professor equine studies, I attempt to teach my students appropriate moral reasoning regarding the well-being of the horse. Acquiring an academic and intuitive understanding of the horse’s nature enhances moral reasoning. Time spent with horses combined with intellectual academic pursuit helps us realize when equine welfare standards are exceeded by our competitive pursuits. This is not an easy task, as horses have been utilized intensely and harshly, assertively and aggressively through time, a cultural ideology that does not fade easily, although significant progress is taking place. In situations involving the welfare of animals progress is sometimes all we can ask.

Understanding horse behavior is necessary to refine our contemporary relationship with the horse. I attempt to engage my natural horsemanship students in analytical thinking regarding the management of confined horses in the context of the well-being of the horse, and in consideration of the intimately connected physical and mental needs of horses, especially the mental. Thoroughbreds are one of the most intensely stabled breeds. Mental and physical health become challenging to manage in confinement scenarios. After their yearling year, many thoroughbreds spend the rest of their performance life stalled, contrary to their nature. To restore confidence in thoroughbred racing, we could begin by trying to modify stabling practices to better accommodate horses’ nature, allowing the horses to develop stronger and more durable physiques in a natural fashion; to become more psychologically content and physically sound athletes, to become less dependent on drugs and surgeons. We need to place more focus on the horses’ racetrack environment and take steps to design appropriate stables and training facilities to accommodate the horses’ sociobehavioral, nutritional, and physiological requirements and preferences. To make horseracing a safer sport for horses and riders the industry could best be served by attempting to improve racetrack stabling practices, a topic on which most horsemen should find common ground in which to contribute appropriate practices and facility ideas to improve the horses’ racetrack life.

The contemporary racetrack-stabling scenario significantly displaces the horse from its natural preferences. Little semblance of a horse grazing the plains with its herdmates is apparent in a shedrow stall, where today’s racehorse spends over 90 percent of its time, depending on the trainer and his or her regimen of training and enrichment. Somehow, certain effective trainers recreate enough natural preferences for racing success despite this restrictive stabling. Their horses train sound and win races and return sound and uninjured in the best circumstances. These trainers create success for their horses; make it easy for the horses to succeed by fulfilling their inherent needs. Other trainers fail to adequately fulfill their horses’ needs. Adaptation is exceeded. Their horses become injured, sometimes because of inappropriate conditioning, and subsequently become prone to break down, as certain conditions really never return to normal function. An injury in one location, or two or three as can be the case, significantly disrupts the synchronous movement of the horse, stressing multiple joints and legs, an interdependence demonstrated so unfortunately by Eight Belles, fracturing not one, but two fetlocks.

How do we strengthen legs? Improved husbandry and stabling practices can offer remedy when the horses’ adaptability is exceeded. How can we better recreate the natural needs and conditions of stabled racehorses? All horsemen have ideas about recreating natural circumstances to fulfill natural tendencies of horses, like friendship and play, sleep and grazing and walking together. If we design the stable and manage horses in a more horse sensitive manner, horses have the potential to race stronger and safer. Many trainers adequately fulfill these needs in horses. Certain individual horses require more fulfillment than others, they are less adaptable to stabled life, require more patience and understanding to facilitate gate relaxation and acceptance.

What improvements in stabling facilities and exercise paddocks can be implemented to improve the horses’ mental health and physical endurance? Let’s ask the horsemen. Let’s ask those who study horses. Let’s attend The Horse display at the Museum of Natural History. Let us look to many venues to understand the horse. Can natural approaches improve the durability and safety of thoroughbreds? Can we create stabling conditions that promote the need for less medication while creating increased physiologic durability and mental health? Yes. Educational, informative articles make a difference for racehorses, literarily, medically, and journalistically.