The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Them’s The Breaks

Even before I had a Thoroughbred, I knew how important it was to savor the sweet moments when they happen – a training breakthrough, trotting down center line in the Rolex Stadium at the Thoroughbred Makeover, sunset snuggles – because horse ownership is a journey of ups and downs. After our wonderfully successful outing at last month's Makeover, Blueberry and I have been on the shelf in one of those 'down' phases.

After a short vacation, we had just been getting him back into work when he came in with a bump on the inside of his right cannon bone. My veterinarian examined him and came to the reasonable conclusion that he had popped his splint bone.

Horses have two tiny, thin little bones known as splints that sit on either side of their cannons, running downwards from the knee and tapering off about three-quarters of the way down the leg. They serve no structurally useful purpose and are held onto the cannon with a ligament that runs between the two. It's pretty common for young racehorses to have what we call “popped” splints, which refers to a bump that appears along the bone, where the periosteum (the wrapping layer that sits between the bone and other tissue) has become irritated and inflamed. For young racing horses, this may happen as a response to a sudden increase in high-intensity speed work. In slightly older horses, like 4-year-old Blueberry, who isn't in what anyone would call “heavy” work, you usually see this because they've experienced direct trauma to the leg – banging it against something, getting a kick from a pasturemate in the wrong place, kicking themselves, etc.

Popped splints are not uncommon and usually heal within a couple of weeks with little treatment. Horses have to stop work, but usually can remain on turnout.

At first, what we all thought we were dealing with was a popped splint. It was hot, bumpy, and high up on the leg and it initially responded well to rest and anti-inflammatories. When it got a bit worse again though, I had a feeling it was more serious.

Indeed, two or three weeks into the process, the bump was no smaller but no longer hot and Blueberry was no sounder than he'd been at the start. This time, our veterinarian took radiographs, kicking himself for not doing it on his first visit. They revealed a crack along the inside of the splint bone – so that would explain why it wasn't progressing as we'd hoped. Breaking a splint bone is much less common than just bumping/irritating one, and while I wish we had caught it earlier, it looked up to that point like a very classic case of the more common problem based on its location, his response to palpation and initial response to anti-inflammatories.

The good news is, because his splint is cracked but doesn't have either end broken off, he doesn't require surgery. The bad news is, the only real treatment is time…and rest. Time doesn't worry me; it's winter, and the weather in Central Kentucky doesn't lend itself to really consistent training this time of year anyway. Plus, he's four and we are not Olympics-bound; whatever time he needs, he can have. But rest in this case means stall rest – at least 30 days with no turnout. For Blueberry, that means staring at the same four walls for a staggering number of hours and not getting to rough house with his buddies. For me, that means driving to the barn twice each day instead of once for hand grazing sessions, juggling as much work as I can on my smartphone in the cold, and watching him anxiously for signs of ulcers, colic, new stereotypic behaviors, or basically a hair out of place. And it means I'm spending a stupid amount of money on stall toys for this not-at-all-spoiled little dude.

The barn cats are usually not too far away during our hand grazing sessions

This will be new territory for me though probably not for him, given his previous injuries on the racetrack. I'll have the chance – for better or worse – to see how he reacts to prolonged stress, and what strategies are effective at minimizing that stress. We hope at two weeks we'll get clearance to tack/hand walk, which will open up a new world of possible amusements. In the meantime, I am doing all the research into stall toys and low impact games that I can.

Our verdict on what we've tried so far:

  • Jolly Ball: Hates it. Doesn't see the point of it. Not convinced it's peppermint-scented and thinks it gets in the way of his hay net.
  • Super slow feed hay net with half-inch holes: Convinced it's a solid plastic bag hanging from the ceiling and that there is no actual food to be extracted from it, so mostly ignores it.
  • Slow feed net and bag: We like the net more than the bag, despite them both having one-inch holes. I've no idea why, but as long as he will eat out of something I won't question it.
  • Spinning, wall-mounted chew toy: He doesn't know why I added more plastic to his stall. Hasn't this human heard yet that plastic is killing the planet? Have yet to try: smearing some honey on it to see if I can convince him to start mouthing it – and not his doorframe.
  • Traffic cone: Wonderful. The absolute most exciting thing he could be given (I suspect because it was free). With no honey as a bribe, he will pick it up and throw it around the aisle joyfully.
  • Stuffed dinosaur: Per policy in the Roger Attfield barn, we removed the eyes so he wouldn't actually swallow one – and if there's anything to make you feel like a monster, it's hacking the eyes off a stuffed animal and then hanging it with bailing twine by its neck. Regardless of its rather violent look, he thinks this is great, and likes to grab it by the tail and wave it at onlookers.
  • Dog chew toy stuffed with hay and carrots: He doesn't quite get the concept, or is just lazy. Pulls out the carrots he can see and ignores the bitten-off ends and hay inside the ball, despite (I'm sure) being able to smell them.

Yet to try:

  • A snuffle mat with food or hay pellets sprinkled inside
  • A Likit toy
  • Moving into the barn and putting on a variety show outside his stall each hour

The sun is setting on Day 9 of our 30 days, and while Blueberry has grown a little impatient and grumpy, he's still basically himself. We're taking each day one grazing session at a time. We will get through this [someday] and move along to bigger and better things. In the grand scheme of bones he could have broken, this one really won't have long-term consequences for him. In the big picture, it's a blip, but for now it feels very overwhelming and unending. I have to remind myself though, that the nature of rollercoasters with horses is that the dips don't last forever. Sooner or later, you end up back on top again.

The post The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Them’s The Breaks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: My OTTB Did Not Fail

One of the first things I did after adopting Blueberry was to embark on a small online shopping spree for him (naturally, none of the draft cross mare's gear would fit him), followed by a small online shopping spree for myself. I found a t-shirt on Etsy which reads, “My OTTB ran slower than yours.” It made me chuckle, as the new owner of a horse who ran once and placed fourth.

Blueberry is by Uncle Mo, out of a graded stakes-winning mare. He had the mind of a racehorse, and we're told he showed such impressive speed in the mornings, his training team suggested he be nominated to stakes races at Woodbine before he'd even made a start. We joke sometimes about our “underachiever” who cost $400,000 as a yearling and won a little over $4,000 in return.

But the reality is, there's a little air of disappointment when racing people are asked about OTTBs. Many are eager to support aftercare in word and in deed, but there's often a wistful air if you ask them about a specific horse that has left their operation for a second career. 'Oh yes,' they may say. 'It's a shame they didn't work out.'

I get it; no one spends six figures in stud fees, or pays an Eclipse Award-winning trainer's day rates hoping to find out their horse is slow, or injury-prone, or briefly brilliant but eventually flat. Everyone wants to win the Kentucky Derby. Everyone wants to catch lightning in a bottle. Perhaps it's good that so many people in this sport wake every day with these stars in their eyes, continuing to breed, sell, buy, train, and care for the thousands of horses who support so many livelihoods. Everyone who has a role in a racehorse's life is subject to back-breaking work, long hours, lost money, and chasing sleep. There wouldn't be an industry to employ us all if we didn't have crazy dreams to make all of that worthwhile.

But the reality, which I know people understand just as keenly, is that there will be many more horses like Blueberry than American Pharoah. When I wrote about the challenges of aftercare in late 2019, 28 percent of Thoroughbreds born between 2005 and 2014 never even made it to the races. One Australian study found that about 40 percent of that country's racing population retired each year, with only 10 percent of those heading off to breeding careers. The 2020 American foal crop is estimated to be 19,010, but there were only 99 Grade 1 races held in North America last year – it's just a matter of logic that some horses will have a career on a breeding farm waiting them, but most of them will not.

The last few months of under saddle work with Blueberry have been a joy. I tell people that he makes me look a lot smarter than I am, because the level of dressage we're working on now is physically easy for him. Our trainer, Stephanie Calendrillo, told me at one point that she loves a horse who loves to work, who asks her when she encourages them to lift their backs and soften their jaws, 'How high do you want me to lift?' She said Blueberry does it for you and then asks 'Oh sorry, was that enough? Do you need me to do more?'

He loves going to work, but he's smart about it. I pulled him out of his stall for a morning ride this week – his first in a couple of weeks – and where others might have expended calories on exuberant bucks and hops, he was immediately quiet, focused, responding to the slightest twitch of my rein or heel. He does not waste energy (if anything, he can trend towards 'sleepy' rather than quick), and believes with all his heart he is a professional who has Done All Of This Before even when he hasn't.

Having known his mother, I'd hoped when I adopted him that he would have this mindset. I did not know, until about May when he began ground driving walk/trot/canter, how he moved, beyond having a very impressive walk at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in 2018. In his first months with me, he was on 24-hour turnout while he recovered from some minor ligament desmitis and we awaited a stall and better weather at my trainer's main property. When I saw him stretch out at a trot and felt his floaty canter for the first few times, I used a few four-letter words. I hadn't just adopted a nice horse, I'd adopted a really nice horse.

I'm excited to bring him to the Thoroughbred Makeover next month, but I also recognize that it's just our first show season goal. There will be other seasons after this one, and I think he's just going to get better with time.

'I'm not surprised,' Stephanie told me. 'He's well-bred, and class is class, no matter what you're doing with them.'

Blueberry warming up at his second dressage show in July, where he would win his Intro C class and finish second in his Intro A class

I think it's time we change the conversation about these, the vast majority of the Thoroughbred foals born in this country each year. There were 27,700 races held in North America, which means there were fewer than 27,700 winners, but that doesn't mean that every horse who didn't win a race, or who found a non-breeding second career has failed – they were just a predictable part of the statistical picture of competitive racing.

By extension, we can also reframe the successes of the racing connections for those horses. Part of the goal of breeding Thoroughbreds is to create an athlete, and breeders Jay and Christine Hayden did that. One of the goals of a commercial consignor is to be a source for Thoroughbreds with a lot of potential, and Cara Bloodstock achieved that in selling him. One of the goals for responsible owners is to be caring stewards of their horses' welfare, and Godolphin did that, backing off on his training at the first sign of trouble and providing me a sound horse with no limitations on performance. One of a trainer's worries is ensuring that they keep their horses physically and also mentally sound, and Johnny Burke and Brad Cox ensured their staff preserved Blueberry's kind impression of humans, allowing me a relaxed 4-year-old gelding who sometimes gets groomed by my trainer's 4-year-old little girl.

Horses with second careers are simply those who found renewed purpose in a different job. When humans do this, it's called resilience. Let's give our OTTBs the same credit for finding their calling.

The post The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: My OTTB Did Not Fail appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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