One of our favorite year-end traditions at the Paulick Report is to take a look back at some of the most popular stories on the website from the previous calendar year. These have proven very popular. (You can find this year's here.)
Recently, we've done a separate rundown of the most popular Horse Care stories as we continue to grow our Horse Care section.
Horse Care, for us, includes a wide range of topics, from new research to recurring veterinary and farrier topics to coverage of ex-racehorses in new jobs. It's not uncommon to see a story in these subject areas take off on social media, sometimes well after it's been published, and we saw that again this year.
Here are the most-read Horse Care stories from the Paulick Report for 2023:
Readers reacted, much as we did, with horror and surprise when word got out in October that the body of a Thoroughbred had been found on the property of the old Bowie Training Center. The facility hasn't been used for training or stabling for a number of years, and backs up to a park. 1/ST Racing and Gaming, which owns Bowie, indicated it was launching an investigation into the situation. We requested an update on that investigation while compiling this list, but had not heard back at press time.
This story got a lot of attention nationally after it was first reported by mainstream media outlets. The plane was supposed to go from New York to Belgium but had to return to JFK after a horse escaped its stall in the cargo area of the plane and crew on board were unable to capture it. The flight crew requested a veterinarian come check the horse out, but we were unable to get official word on the horse's condition.
Horses are commonly transported in cargo planes, both for racing and sport purposes, without incident. Jet-setting racehorses typically have dedicated caretakers who ride with them and check them frequently in the cargo area, ensuring they have adequate resources throughout the trip.
The legacy of Secretariat continues to hold strong for race fans in this, the 50th anniversary of his historic Triple Crown. Readers responded with sad nostalgia to this report noting the death of Trusted Company, who was believed to be the last living daughter of Big Red, in September. According to a report from the Louisville Courier-Journal, Maritime Traveler is the last known surviving offspring of Secretariat.
We wrote about Maritime Traveler in 2022. Despite grand expectations for his racing career, he failed to break his maiden and was retired in short order and made a teaser in Ocala, Fla. Today he lives at Bridlewood Farm and has been pensioned for several years. He is set to turn 34 on New Year's Day.
- 'He Was So Much Fun': Champion Amazombie Euthanized At Old Friends
The unfortunate reality of running a large retirement facility for aging equine stars is that you lose a few each year. Two obituaries from Old Friends made our most-read list this year – this one, for 2011 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Amazombie, and this one for 2022 Belmont Stakes winner Sarava. Both succumbed to complications from fractures.
The retirement of barn fire survivor Bold and Bossy to Old Friends was also one of our best-read stories. The filly attracted national attention after she threw her rider at Ellis Park ahead of her first career start and went racing down a Kentucky highway. Later the same day, a fire broke out in the receiving barn where she was stabled, but quick-thinking bystanders were able to save Bold and Bossy and the other horses in the building.
- Veterinarians Respond To Findings Of Large-Scale Study Into Radiograph Findings At Thoroughbred Auctions
For years, consignors and breeders have expressed frustration at how quickly buyers have moved to reject a horse at auction because of something on their radiographs. Finally, after a long-term, multi-year study, academic research exists to show some of the most common types of stifle and sesamoid findings don't seem to change the likelihood a horse will make it to the racetrack.
Veterinarians discussed the findings at a panel hosted by the Consignors and Commercial Breeders Association. It's likely that cultural change around the perception of sale radiographs will take some time, but many in the industry are hoping this data will restore some reason to the market, which has increasingly penalized horses for even minor changes.
This story is from 2022, but remains relevant for a lot of Thoroughbred owners today. As radiographing imaging technology has improved, veterinarians say it's more and more common to see horses diagnosed with a condition called kissing spines. This happens when the fin-like dorsal spinous processes on a horse's vertebrae are missing the normal spacing at the top, which can create painful pinching and friction.
This feature traced the case of one ex-racehorse diagnosed with significant kissing spines who was rehabilitated with targeted stretching exercises to slowly lift his mid-back and strengthen his core muscles, which can correct the hyperlordosis one veterinarian believes is the root cause of kissing spine.
Bail pens, which purport to offer the public “one last chance” to buy a horse before they're shipped internationally for slaughter, have become increasingly-powerful businesses in recent years, thanks to social media. This summer, the American Horse Council released an explainer reviewing the potential these operations have to exploit well-meaning horse lovers and the animals themselves. Bottom line: bailing one out just feeds the system.
If a horse dies at a sanctioned racetrack in North America, it's standard practice for veterinarians to perform an autopsy (known in animals as a necropsy) to learn what happened. This fall, the American Quarter Horse Association announced this will now also be true at its sanctioned horse shows, too.
Racing Quarter Horses that suffer a fatality on state-sanctioned grounds were already possibly subject to a necropsy, depending on that state's regulations. The procedure is required for all Thoroughbreds under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.
After a short career at Ocala Stud, Jess's Dream, one of two foals from the great Rachel Alexandra, has been pensioned and will move on to a third career. The announcement came from Stonestreet in October. The farm is hopeful he will become a stable pony, and he's scheduled to be restarted under saddle in the new year.
We've frequently dusted off this three-year-old explainer to help people understand the often-counterintuitive notion that waiting to start young Thoroughbreds under saddle until age three or four would actually be harmful to their safety. Dr. Larry Bramlage, renowned equine surgeon at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, explained back in 2020 that bone modeling in horses (and other species, including humans) happens in response to the forces placed on those bones. Bone modeling and remodeling takes place throughout an animal's life, but is especially vigorous when the animal is young. If you wait to train a horse for high-intensity work until later in life, the blood supply and needed cell populations in those bones will have atrophied, and the modeling/remodeling will not be as robust, leaving the horse vulnerable to injury. This has been proven out in data from the Equine Injury Database.
The post What You Read: Horse Care Stories Of Mishaps, Medical Breakthroughs, And Explainers You Didn’t Know You Needed appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
