Posted by Rick Burten on October 17, 2002 at 18:39:16:
In Reply to: injury to young racehorse posted by Shelly Ames on October 17, 2002 at 17:53:07:
: a friend of mine has her 2YO TB colt in training - just 3 weeks now at a prominent facility. She is overseeing the training and today while the horse was being worked in the round pen, he caught his foot on something and ripped his shoe off and part of the heel, injured the coronary band and cracked the hoof from the back of the heel all the way down to the front of the hoof. The horse has been treated at the barn with bute and wrapped, and is being shipped to the vet clinic tomorrow. My friend seems to think, even though this is a serious injury and there was a bloody trail all the way back to the barn, that she is simply going to have it cleaned up, antibiotics administered and have the hoof glued back together and the horse will resume training in about 2 weeks. I thought that it would take up to about 10 months for the foot to stabilize and the hoof wall to grow back. Shouldn't the horse be rested during that period? Whats the feeling on this type of injury and then putting a horse back into training?
Your friend is mistaken and if she puts this BABY back in training too soon what she will end up with is dog food. Hopefully the vets at the clinic will dissuade her of her intentions and inject her with a dose of reality. Sadly, this injection does not always vaccinate against stupidity or innoculate against a failure of common sense.
Has anyone figured out what the horse caught his foot on? It may well be that there is no culprit other than the horse himself. It sounds as though he may have overreached, caught the heel(s) of the front shoe/hoof with the back hoof and done the damage. If the damage is as extensive as you describe, then layup is necessary.
Rick