Horse Care | Horse Racing Free Tips

The No. 1 Factor To Determine Wound Severity? Location

Horses seem to have a penchant for getting into trouble, sometimes injuring themselves in the process. When trying to decide if a vet should be called to look at an injury, the main assessment of the severity of an injury is its location.

Size doesn't matter much when it comes to wounds, said Dr. Suzanne Mund, a veterinarian in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences. A small wound on a joint can be much more serious than a large wound over a lot of muscle.

More-severe wounds often occur on areas of the horse's body that has a lot of blood vessels, which increases the risk of bleeding and infection. Areas of concern include along the jugular vein, between the hind legs, around the elbow and underneath the skin. Injuries to the backs of legs are of great concern as many tendons and ligaments are located here. Wounds in any of these areas should be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible.

Wounds that occur on high-motion areas like joints are fraught with complications, including the trapping of gas beneath the horse's skin. Wounds in these locations open and close as the horse moves, forcing air up and potentially elsewhere into the horse's body, like between the lungs and heart. This can become an emergency situation if the air collapses a horse's lung.

Tears or cuts to the skin are generally treated by flushing, draining and stitching them. Puncture wounds are more dangerous and can carry bacteria and debris deep into tissues, potentially encouraging an abscess or tetanus.

If there is an object embedded in a horse, it's important that it not be removed until an X-ray of the area can be taken. This will help guide the veterinarian on the correct course of treatment. Any wound that exposes internal structures is an emergency situation and a vet should be called.

Mund encourages owners and caretakers to call a vet if there is any question on how serious the wound is.

Biologic Therapies May Repair Equine Joint Damage

Dr. Mark Hurtig is leading a team of researchers at the Ontario Veterinary College in studies to see if biologic therapies injected intra-articularly could be used to repair tissue instead of just suppressing signs of joint disease. He cautions against using joint injections for maintenance or as a preventative therapy.

Hurtig notes that many equine leg injuries can be related to the surface on which a horse is worked, in addition to how hard he is worked on that surface. When deciding if a horse is ready for more-strenuous work, it's best to use caution. It can take up to three months of prep work to get tendons and ligame ts ready for high-level performance.

He recommends that any horse that has had time off:

Return to work slowly with lots of walking
Increase duration and intensity of work incrementally
Avoid trotting on hard surfaces
Promote relaxation
Save complex movements when first bringing a horse back into work
Cross-train on different surfaces
Allow time for the horse to adapt to new surfaces

Watch a video of Hurtig talking about his therapy and returning a horse to work here.

American Horse Council Shifts National Issues Forum To Virtual Format For 2020

After much deliberation, and in consultation with AHC members regarding their travel concerns due to the pandemic, AHC's Annual Meeting & National Issues Forum originally scheduled for June 7-10, 2020 and postponed to October 2020, has now made the decision to forego an in person meeting and will instead be hosted in an online virtual format the week of October 26-29, 2020.

The AHC is known for convening the equine industry's visionaries and leaders in an intimate three days of informative and innovative discussion on some of the most relevant challenges and initiatives facing the industry. Attendees get to participate in discussions that help shape the industry and optimize existing and emerging legislative and regulatory issues.

AHC President Julie Broadway stated: “While disappointed we won't be able to network and socialize, we are excited about the possibilities a virtual event allows us to embrace. We envision opening attendance to some speakers to anyone interested for free, while some educational content will be offered at a deeply discounted rate. We'd also like to have a virtual cocktail party and celebrate our Van Ness, Rolapp and Hickey Award winners.”

Registration will open on or around August 1, 2020 on the AHC website for the virtual conference www.horsecouncil.org. Guest speakers and specifics regarding meeting dates/times to be announced very shortly.

AHC will hold its 2021 meeting June 6-9 at The Le Meridien in downtown Denver, CO.

The post American Horse Council Shifts National Issues Forum To Virtual Format For 2020 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Two Inseparable Racehorses To Retire To Old Friends, Avoid Heartbreak

When Carl “Bunny” Meister Jr. and wife Linda sold their 133-acre Tarad Hill Farm in West Chester, PA, they were lucky enough to remain on the property as the new owners planned on building a home. However, two of the horses the Meister's had pensioned on the farm were unable to remain on the property: Bo's a Ten and Magic Weisner.

During her racing career, Bo's a Ten raced 43 times and won about $40,000. After retiring from racing, the mare had three foals for Marie Morrisson and was then sold to Theresa Groff. The mare was a cable jumper, but Groff decided she was more interested in riding outside of the arena; Groff moved the mare to Tarad Hill Farm to allow for more trail riding time.

Magic Weisner had a much more illustrious career, most notably finishing second to War Emblem in the 2002 Preakness Stakes and winning the Maryland Juvenile Championship in 2001. He then finished three-quarters of a length behind War Emblem in the Preakness and ran second to him again in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth. The gelding was trained by Nancy Alberts.

Plans to run Magic Weisner in the Pennsylvania Derby were derailed when he was diagnosed with West Nile Virus and retired to Tarad Hill Farm. Bo's a Ten, owned by Theresa Groff, joined the gelding five years ago, much to Magic Weisner's delight. The two horses became inseparable—so much so that Groff purchased a second horse to ride so Bo's a Ten didn't have to leave Magic Weisner behind while out on the trails.

When Tarad Hill went up for sale, Meister asked if he could have Bo's a Ten to ensure Magic Weisner's heart didn't break if they became separated. After a few phone calls to Michael Blowen, the fate of the two was sealed: both would ship to Georgetown, KY, in the summer of 2020 and live out their lives at Old Friends Farm.