Horses gearing up for their races
The barrel racers and steer wrestlers aren’t the only ones gearing up for the 2018 Calgary Stampede. Many animals are getting ready for the Stampede, too.
Chuckwagon racer Jordie Fike was working with his horses Thursday to ensure they are all in peak condition to race this weekend.
“People ask me if I compare wagon racers with hockey players and I don’t, because they (the horses) are treated better than we ever were,” said Fike, who used to play hockey.
While Fike ran his horse through the barn, Dr. Erin Thompson-Shields checked each horse’s temperature and heartbeat.
Thompson-Shields is one of many veterinarians at the Stampede grounds this year. She’s already started checking on the health of the athletes in the barns as part of the “Fitness to Compete” program.
Although the program has been in place since 2011, better technology this year has increased efficiency and improved the thoroughness of the checkups.
“We’ve upgraded the software system considerably. So as technology evolved, we luckily have a system that’s very integrated across the park so we can communicate with head office where all the entries go in,” said Thompson-Shields.
Every horse is screened and checked for cardiovascular abnormalities or infectious diseases. The horses are also checked to ensure they are fit to compete and won’t be at risk for injury.
The new technology enables all of the horses’ data and checkup results to be stored in a central database. Every horse has a microchip that allows the vets to easily access the horses’ information in the database.
“The process allows us to identify each horse … The microchip wand is used to identify the horse in the database where we can identify who owns the horse and who’s riding the horse,” said Thompson-Shields.
Fike is grateful the Stampede goes to such lengths to care for the horses.
“These horses are our family, they’re our livelihood. We spend every day of our lives with them so anything we can do to make their lives better, easier and make them feel better, we are 100 per cent for it,” said Fike.
Fike said the preventive measures ensure the horses don’t compete if they show symptoms that could lead to an injury, such as irregular heartbeats.
“To have these professionals here to spot these things is great for us,” said Fike.
“We do not want to run a horse that is fatigued at all because you want your athletes, your horses, to feel good before a competition just like with any other sports team and we’re no different. We want to make sure our horses are as healthy as they can be.”
The Fit to Compete program also puts a cap on how many nights in a row each horse is allowed to run.
Thompson- Shields said this gives the horses a chance to rest during the 10 days of Stampede.
“Identifying the horse gets everything in sync to make sure everyone is all on the same page about whether the horse is eligible to run that particular night or not,” said Thompson-Shields.