Tag: Horse Care

Thoroughbred owner Michael Sternklar, founder of Clear Stars Stable, has owned and raced horses in New York since 2005. Coming into the sport as a novice, he has spent the last 18 years learning about the business, including the importance of thoughtful Thoroughbred retirement and retraining. For his $5,000 contribution to the TAKE2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program's 10th Anniversary celebration, Sternklar is recognized as TAKE2's July's “Donor of the Month.”

TAKE2, founded in March of 2012, set a goal of raising $10,000 a month for 10 months in honor of its milestone anniversary. With the generous help of previous “Donors of the Month” Len Green and the Green Group, TAKE2 competitor Patricia Hurter, Empire Racing Club's Kyle Emmich, and the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, the campaign is ahead of its goal. Many more Thoroughbred lovers have contributed, raising more than $48,000 with 10 days to go before the half-way mark.

When Sternklar decided to get involved in racehorse ownership, he asked his friend, artist Michael Geraghty, for a trainer recommendation. Geraghty suggested Rick Schosberg, who for the last decade has led the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association TAKE THE LEAD retirement program, and Schosberg and Sternklar have worked together ever since.

“I wanted to throw myself into it and learn everything I could,” said Sternklar. “And Rick said, 'This game needs young owners, and I'm here to teach you.'”

Sternklar stressed from that first meeting that he wanted to do things “the right way,” establishing ownership groups that care about the horses and putting the horses' health first.

“Our group couldn't be more supportive,” he said, “when it comes to giving horses down time or retiring them. We embrace what Rick has always wanted to do: we want to win, but we want to do it the right way.”

Together, Clear Stars and Schosberg have campaigned dozens of horses, with the trainer often an ownership partner. They purchased New York-bred Myfourchix for $90,000, and the Henny Hughes filly went on to win more than $300,000 and the Seeking the Ante Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

In 2005, the focus on Thoroughbred aftercare was not what it is today. But when Clear Stars' That'srightofficer was done racing in 2009, the relationships in the business that Sternklar had chosen and cultivated accelerated his commitment to horses when they are done racing.

Purchased from the consignment of Niall Brennan, agent, for $60,000 as a two-year-old, That'srightofficer is a graded stakes placed New York-bred by Officer that earned $230,000 and retired in 2009.

“Niall and his wife Stephanie have a program in which they'll take back horses they sell and find them good second homes,” he said. “I thought that was the coolest thing. He became a jumper and I think he earned some awards.”

In 2006, Sternklar and Schosberg claimed a three-year-old out of Maria's Mon (a horse Schosberg had trained) at Aqueduct Race Track. In his eighth start for his new connections, a second-place finish at Saratoga in 2007, Bold Mon sustained a career-ending injury. He became part of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation program at Wallkill Correctional Facility, a state-accredited vocational program in horse care and management for the inmates.

“He was there for about 11 years,” said Sternklar, “and I saw him two years ago, when he was in Saratoga as part of a TRF showcase. He had spent over a decade helping people who need help.”

Sternklar aims to retire horses while they are still sound enough to be retrained for another career, and he wants to be a vocal advocate for retirement programs.

“There's no better way for me to spend my money,” he said of his donation. “I care a lot about the animals, and the least I can do is help them the way they've helped me. I've talked about it in interviews and other opportunities. I think it's good for people to hear that owners are supporting these programs.”

The post ‘Help Them The Way They’ve Helped Me’: Clear Stars Stable TAKE2’s July Donor Of The Month appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Often overlooked, a horse's tongue is integral to his well-being. It allows him to chew and swallow, helping to ensure he ingests enough nutrients to remain healthy. 

The equine tongue is between 11 and 16 inches long, but most horses can only stick their tongues out about 6 inches past their lips.

The tongue is made up of three muscular structures that work together to control movement. It's anchored at the back of the throat by bones called the hyoid apparatus. Any of these can be injured.

Tongue injuries occur in a variety of ways, including from harsh bits, accidents during dental procedures, and even from being caught on bucket hooks and handles. Most tongue lacerations heal on their own within 2 weeks.

A horse that is bleeding from the mouth or that is having trouble eating should have his tongue investigated closely for injuries. Splinters and sticks can become embedded in the tongue, while more serious lacerations may require stitches. 

Tongue lolling may seem cute, but it can also be a sign of trouble, especially if it begins out of nowhere. A horse that lolls its tongue will let it hang out of his mouth or will move it around outside of his mouth. If a horse begins lolling his tongue, it's best to get a vet out to determine the cause. Lolling can be brought on by nerve damage, lacerations, or a neuromuscular disease, among other things. 

To protect the horse's tongue, riders should ride with quiet hands and be aware of the bit the horse is wearing. Other helpful measures to prevent tongue damage include wrapping exposed sharp edges on buckets to minimize the chance of laceration and ensuring the horse isn't chewing on wooden fence boards or trees in the field.

Read more at Horse & Rider. 

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Any public relations expert knows that in many ways, everything rides on language choices.

That was one of the things that occurred to equine surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage as he read through the safety regulations of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. Under Prohibited Practices, he noted item 2271(d), which lists “thermocautery included but no limited to pin firing and freeze firing, or application of any substance to cause vesiculation or blistering of the skin, or a counter-irritant effect.”  

We've written before about the new restrictions on pin firing and freeze firing. See that article here.

But what interested Bramlage was the last part – the prohibition of substances to cause blistering or a counter-irritant effect. Bramlage is a member of the Authority's advisory council and believes that the primary goal of the language was to halt the use of severe materials that cause chemical burns on the skin. He agrees that those need to go, and that the damage to the horse is never an acceptable trade-off for an attempt to increase circulation.

But the fact that so many other substances are currently referred to by many horsemen with the catch-all phrase 'blisters' could be a problem.

“I think as the regulations mature, we should allow people to do things that improve the circulation as long as it doesn't significantly injure the skin,” he said. “That requires interpreting the wording so we understand what we're doing.”

There are “blisters” and then there are what many horsemen call “working blisters,” which Bramlage believes are poorly-named because they're not associated with blister-like bubbles of skin irritation – or any kind of surface damage. Working blisters usually reference liquids or gels that increase the circulation and create a warming sensation below the skin. In his days playing high school football back home in Kansas, Bramlage remembers his teammates applying a mixture containing the same compound of red iodide of mercury made for horses to their own legs for pulled hamstrings. The goal of these topicals is to increase the circulation to the area to aid in the healing but not to destroy the epithelial cells of the skin. When this happens, the horse loses those cells and get scarring of the skin to replace them. Mild or working blisters often “scuff” the skin (cause the shedding a thin layer of skin like a mild sunburn) but they should never destroy the epithelial cells of the skin itself. Horses' skin is actually more sensitive in this situation than people's skin.

Bramlage believes that perhaps the most useful application for a working blister is in managing osselets. Osselets (fetlock joint capsule thickening) have been described in horses for many decades and it wasn't until x-rays became reliable that veterinarians began to understand what they are. The term 'osselet' comes from the French for 'little bones' because veterinarians performing necropsies on draft horses with comparatively large ankles would find calcifications around those joints and believed that all enlarged ankles had similar features. Fortunately, we now recognize and manage “osselets” before these mineralizations occur.

In the racehorse, osselets will sometimes form in response to training stress on the fetlock joint capsules. Bramlage said mild cases will often resolve with time and rest, but a so-called working blister can help. Osselets restrict the movement of the fetlock because there's swelling of the joint capsule beneath the skin which reduces the pliability of the joint capsule, stiffening it and makes it less flexible. This becomes a self-replicating cycle – more stiffness creates more swelling, which creates more stiffness. Applying a warming liniment and allowing the horse to walk or jog will speed the reduction of the swelling, make the horse comfortable more quickly and speed the healing process. It is a management tool for the stress of training and uses the same concepts are used in human sports locker rooms all the time.

Then there's the question of sweats, which Bramlage also worries could unintentionally fall under the new regulation about counter-irritants. Sweats are applied under bandages to draw out swelling as the result of an infection or direct trauma, or to reduce fluid build-up in the legs during prolonged periods of stalling. They're not a solution for major injuries like bowed tendons and are most helpful in the early stages of edema. As with working blisters, horsemen have different product combinations they use, but most sweats contain one of the aromatic oils, like oil of wintergreen, and some kind of salt. The aromatic oil warms the leg, and the salt will draw moisture out of the subcutaneous tissue and reduce swelling. Because sweats rely on some degree of warming though, they could be considered counter-irritants.

Bramlage says that both working blisters and sweats have their place in the tack rooms of good horsemen so long as they're applied properly.

“These are all steps and I think we need a middle step,” he said. “We need a term like 'warming liniment' or some kind of term, not 'working blister' to define these treatments and save the term 'blister' for compounds that actually do damage to and cause scarring of the skin. Those are the compounds we want to outlaw.”

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