PROGRESS IN INJURY CARE

The primary health concern for racehorses 100 years ago was musculoskeletal injury, and it still is today. Just as in the past, tendon, ligament and bone injuries are the most common reason for the premature end of racing careers. How those injuries are identified and managed, however, has changed dramatically over time.

“In the early Triple Crown years you could rely only on a very attentive groom to notice when a joint was swollen or a horse was a bit ‘off’; then you’d get the veterinarian, who had limited options,” say Bramlage.

What was missing in the first few decades of the 20th century was, for starters, diagnostic tools. “Before the end of World War II, you couldn’t x-ray a horse in the shedrow,” says Bramlage. “X-ray machines were available for horses, but nothing was both mobile and sturdy enough for any type of practical use at the track itself. Portable xray machines were developed for use in wartime, and that technology, like a lot of things, eventually spun off into horse care. Today we regard an x-ray as basic care when a horse has a swollen joint. We use it early in the diagnostic process, and it allows us to identify problems and get ahead of them. But before 1946, the year Assault won the Triple Crown, that was an impossibility.”