The Winning Edge

Sport Horse Science

2013-05-15T14:21:00Z

There are few places as horsecentric as Newmarket, England, a small town 90 minutes north of London known for its prestigious race meets and first-class breeding and training facilities. It's the type of town where horses have the right-of-way at traffic intersections, roads are flanked by bridle paths rather than bike paths, and passersby can watch Thoroughbreds gallop daily up the famed heath hills.

Dr. Sue Dyson confers with an intern while performing a lameness exam at the Animal Health Trust.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

The AHT's clinical yard houses up to 26 horses.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

A designated rider works horses under saddle during lameness evaluations.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon there prior to covering the British Equine Veterinary Association's annual Congress last fall for The Horse. Besides being home to thousands of horses, Newmarket hosts the Animal Health Trust (AHT), a veterinary charity and research hub to better the health and welfare of cats and dogs as well as horses. I took the two-hour train ride from London to visit the organization's orthopedics department within the Equine Centre, headed by esteemed veterinarian Dr. Sue Dyson.

Dr. Dyson and a small, core team of researchers and interns combine money-earning with science, functioning as both a clinic and a research platform. Clients sign wavers giving the clinic the ability to design studies around their patients. Their focus is lameness and diagnostics, and their clientele is primarily performance horse.

While watching Dr. Dyson examine a gelding presenting with a stubborn hind-limb lameness, I asked if most of the horses she sees are Thoroughbreds, given the local racehorse population.

She shook her head and explained that although the AHT is located just three miles from the track, they attend to very few racehorses. Two other equine clinics in town handle the racing caseload, whereas Dr. Dyson sees a large influx of show jumpers, dressage horses, and other sport horse types.

Accordingly, her research is sport-horse-related. Current areas of study include saddle slip causes, the effects of arena footing on a horse's gaits, the effects of extension and collection on the suspensory apparatus, the Pessoa Training Aid's effects on performance and rehabilitation, and how MRI can help pinpoint pathological changes in horses' limbs, among others. Above all, Dr. Dyson wants to see horses have more sustainable athletic careers, and each element of her and her colleagues' research--from conformation types to arena surface--is helping achieve that goal.

The department's facilities are equally sport-horse-oriented, with 26 main yard stalls, manicured paddocks, allocated longeing and trot up areas, and a full-size outdoor arena with all-weather footing (Dr. Dyson likes to evaluate horses under saddle and even has a designated rider for doing so). They also have an impressive array of imaging technology to see inside horses' bodies and pinpoint complex problems.

When I hopped on the train back to London, I left with a great appreciation for what the AHT's equine orthopedics team does. They perform lameness exams and diagnostic procedures day in and day out like any other clinic, but they also note the patterns and pathologies they see and work to put science behind their observations. After all, the longevity and soundness of our equine athletes depend on such clinically related research.

If you're interested in reading more about the ongoing research at the AHT's equine orthopedics department, check out my feature in the July issue of The Horse, due out mid June.

Have you ever had a particularly impactful experience at a veterinary clinic?

Conditioned to Run

2013-04-29T19:45:00Z

I can't vouch for the rest of the country, but here in the Bluegrass there's an air of excitement and anticipation: It's Kentucky Derby Week. Horse lovers and racing fans are putting finishing touches on First Saturday in May plans, securing the perfect Derby hat, and singling out race day favorites.

While much of my Saturday will likely be spent at the barn rather than the track, I plan to carve out a few hours of TV time to watch the Run for the Roses from home. This means lounging on the couch rather than battling the crowds, as well as reviewing my favorite moments via DVR rather than peering through hats and fascinators to catch the stretch run.

I tend to pick my Derby favorites, such as 2010 contender Stately Victor here, based on their athletic good looks rather than past performances.

Photo: Chad Harmon

I must admit though, my first in-person Derby experience, in 2010, was pretty special. Media pass in hand, I staked out a spot railside not far from the finish. I could nearly reach out and touch the horses as they strutted by on their way to the paddock and then again in the post parade. It was my first time seeing this caliber racehorse up close, and each one seemed more magnificent than the last.

It was Super Saver's year, but I remember noting my favorite as he pranced past--the lovely longshot Bluegrass Stakes winner Stately Victor. I chose him for his chiseled head, sport horse build, and hunter movement, and, of course, he finished middle of the pack. Each one of the contenders, however, exhibited a level of fitness rarely achieved in most of our horses. They were alert, glossy, and heavily muscled yet hovering around body condition score 4.5. These animals had been conditioned essentially since birth to gallop a mile and a quarter--the fittest barely blowing by the time they arrive back at their stalls. And to think they're only 3!

As I've learned from my Blood-Horse magazine colleagues, the show season conditioning strategy I employ with my horses (30-40 minutes daily flat work, much extension and collection, various jumping gymnastics, and regular turnout) pales in comparison to what Derby horses endure:

A future racing star's fitness program begins the end of his yearling year. Typically, Thoroughbred trainers start these youngsters at the walk, trot, and canter in groups of two or more, getting them accustomed to responding to a rider. Their daily routine then expands to include short, slow gallops on the track. By age 2 they're ready to enter real race training and conditioning, which includes longer, 1 ½- to 2-mile gallops.

A typical weekly exercise routine for a horse in top training might consist of four days of gallops (going 1 to 2 miles at approximately 16-20 seconds per furlong, or 1/8 mile) followed by one breeze (which is more like a sprint at 12-13 seconds per furlong for 3/8-3/4 miles), a day of 30-45 minutes hand-walking, and a day of jogging for a mile or more before starting gallops again. It's on this day of jogging that the trainer can best gauge the horses' soundness and energy level.

By this point, these horses are at such a level of fitness that they rarely get a "day off" (with the exemption of hand-walking and jogging days) pending soreness or injury. Commonly seen physical issues that might delay a racehorse's training and conditioning include shin soreness (essentially, microfractures or remodeling of the cannon bone), bucked shins, minor tendon strains, bone chips or spurs in the sesamoid and knee areas, and strained gluteal muscles (particularly when horses first start breezing).

So while, frankly, I don't think I'd ever have the time, patience, or desire to implement a racing-caliber conditioning program with my horses, it is fascinating to learn how different disciplines compare. How do you get your athletes in top shape?

(And just in case you're wondering, this year I'll be cheering Revolutionary and Will Take Charge on to the Derby winner's circle. I'm still a sucker for a pretty bay with a sport horse build and a 17-hand flashy chestnut.)

No Four Feet Are Alike

2013-04-15T14:35:00Z

Magazine deadline weeks at The Horse consist of much proofreading, fact checking, and vetting of stories and images--literally. While turning out the May issue, for instance, International Equine Podiatry Center founder Dr. Ric Redden swung by to give his stamp of approval on an illustration we had made of healthy front hooves. But getting Dr. Redden to Okay something is easier said than done. As soon as he sat down to look over our images, he scrambled for a pen and covered our neat print-outs with scribbles and line drawings. At a glance they made little sense, but Dr. Redden's message was clear: Each hoof is very different from the next; there is no such thing as a "perfect" hoof; and asymmetries and imperfections are quite the norm.

Dr. Ric Redden left me with a hand-drawn hoof anatomy lesson.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

"Imagine if you had picked up the feet of all the horses that competed at the World Equestrian Games (held here in Lexington in 2010)," he said. "These are the top athletes in the world, but are any of their feet going to look like an image out of some textbook? No way. And if you did try to make them look like that, they'd be crippled."

Dr. Redden's WEG story made far more sense to me than did the pile of scribbles he left sitting on my desk. After all, I too have an equine athlete with mismatched and imperfect-looking feet, but when trimmed and shod the way she wants to be trimmed and shod, she's as sound as can be.

I remember the first time I saw Lily, after my trainer had talked her up to be some nice hunter prospect ("You've got to try this mare, she's just your type!"). She was ribby, her coat had faded from once-black to dull seal brown, and there was something odd about her feet. Her right front hoof was small and clubby, making her left front look like a dinner plate in comparison.

If you look closely, you can see that Lily has mismatched, albeit healthy, front feet.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

A prepurchase exam, however, revealed her inner limb and hoof structures to be in great shape, and I trusted my farrier to help keep them that way. And over the past eight months, he has. Although Lily's farrier bills look more like lists (1 front aluminum, 2 hind steel, 1 aluminum bar shoe, 1 wedge pad), I don't worry. Her feet might look a little funky, but that's just the way they were made; there's no sense trying to mold them into a shape I think looks nice if abnormal is ultimately what keeps my horse sound. (And yes, Lily is now fat, black, and--as predicted--a nice, sound hunter.)

Dr. Redden probably sums up this whole concept better than I can: "There is a basic standard principle of mechanics required for all feet that deals with suspension and support components of the foot," he wrote in one of our many e-mail exchanges. "These components as they are placed together can vary greatly, but they can be very functional, healthy, and balanced even though they are strikingly different in appearance from the textbook foot. There is no one standard formula for balance, mass, and shape that covers all feet.

"It is much like conformation," he added. "Most horsemen of the world try to find a horse with textbook correct conformation; however, they really do not exist. All have unique characteristics that deviate in various degrees from this ideal horse."

How imperfect are your horses' feet?

German Hackamores: Over My Head

2013-04-05T12:40:00Z

Tera's a lovely Oldenburg mare, 12 years young and full of typical female 'tude. I give her a good hack from time to time when her college-age owner is back home for the holidays or enjoying a week of spring break. And each time I grab her bridle off its designated tack room peg, it's equipped with a different bit: a three-ring elevator, a loose-ring Waterford, something else I've never seen before ... Needless to say, she's sometimes a bit "tough" in the mouth.

Tera is the first horse I've ridden who really took to a German hackamore.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

Last week, however, I was surprised to find no bit at all. In her normal bridle's stead was a German (or mechanical) hackamore. At first I thought it must be a mistake but, no, there were the letters T-E-R-A engraved clearly on the crown.

I immediately thought back to my only prior experience using a hackamore--on then 6-year-old Helios when he was overdue for a dental exam. We struggled to steer, bend, and change leads, and jumping proved near-disastrous. I assumed the hackamore's mechanics were simply too severe for my sensitive steed. All in all, it was a frustrating experience for us both.

So when I struck up a trot on Tera, I was wary of how well this headpiece would work. I reminded myself to use a guiding rein and ample leg direction but had low expectations of how she would respond. Much to my delight, strong-willed Tera did all I asked and more without argument (this was a first). We had a surprisingly productive ride.

This led me to wonder just how these contraptions work on a horse's body. How can it seem like an elixir for one horse's pulling problem and open a Pandora's box of behavioral issues for another? I couldn't find much published research on the topic, so I called upon a few equine experts for their advice.

Robert Cook, FRCVS, PhD, a professor at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and the founder of the "Bitless Bridle," explained that, basically, hackamores' forces act on a horse's nose rather than mouth. The mechanical hackamore that Tera sports, in particular, "uses leverage on the nose, and a curb chain presses behind the chin." Cook then listed other hackamore design aspects that affect this bridle's mechanics, including:

The shorter the shank the less severe the pressure;
Shanks that curve back are less severe than straight shanks; and
A wide/thick nosepiece is less severe than a narrow/thin nosepiece.

"While the hackamore fails to provide a good lateral signal for steering, it does provide a vertical signal for slowing or stopping," he said. "It does this by encouraging the horse to lower his head and flex, the same as a curb (bit)."

So what types of horses take to these types of forces? Those that are not able to wear a bit (due to mouth injury, severed tongue, etc.), for starters, said Hilary M. Clayton, BVMS, PhD, Dipl. ACVSMR, MRCVS, the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University, who has performed tons of performance horse research, albeit not on hackamores specifically. She cited other cases in which trainers simply believe certain horses "go better" wearing this bridle.

She did caution, however, that "horses are very sensitive to pressure on the nose. Riders should be careful not to apply high or continuous pressure when using a hackamore." Cook has even seen improperly used hackamores obstruct horses' nasal passages and fracture nasal or jaw bones.

All told, there seems to be no cut-and-dry advice on exactly when, where, and how to employ a hackamore--except for "do so sensibly." Like most pieces of riding equipment, it's subject to both rider and horse's personal preference (sorry, Helios). I know some people swear by using a hackamore, both for the control it offers as well as the idea of not using a bit in the horse's mouth. What are your thoughts and experiences?

EHV-1 Down Florida Way

2013-03-22T15:10:00Z

The sport horse industry has been on high alert in the wake of several confirmed equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) cases at racetracks, horse shows, and fairgrounds nationwide. These venues are hot spots for herpesvirus transmission, and now is prime competition season for many disciplines.

Take the winter show scene in Florida for instance: When the index case of neurologic EHV-1 was diagnosed Feb. 20 at HITS horse show in Ocala, there were thousands of hunters, jumpers, eventers, and dressage horses congregated in the Sunshine State. Just think of the mayhem that might have ensued had area farms and competitions not employed immediate biosecurity measures and quarantines.

The Palm Beach International Equestrian Center took immediate action to prevent EHV-1 spread.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

With my impeccable timing, I was competing that following weekend in Wellington, Fla., at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). I was a bit worried about case proximity (a farm less than three miles from where my horse boards was under quarantine after an EHV-1 positive) but I was mostly curious to find out what the general attitude was on the front line. Here at The Horse we had been posting daily case and quarantine updates and fielding concerned readers' questions nonstop. For a horse health media outlet, disease outbreaks are a big deal!

Upon arriving in Wellington, however, I was surprised at how relaxed everyone seemed. Comments from fellow competitors were consistently nonchalant: "We're taking horses' temperatures daily, but everything's been normal," or "There haven't been any positive samples here at WEF, so I'm not too worried." Even a few "Wait, some farms are under quarantine here in Wellington?"

Fortunately, the horse show took many steps to keep owners informed and protect equine inhabitants, posting regular updates on its website, canceling classes and restricting access to certain barns when warranted, tightening security, refusing after dark horse arrivals, requiring 48-hour health certificates for all horses entering the grounds, and installing signs advising exhibitors to practice smart biosecurity.

Seeing these preventive steps in action was reassuring, and I realized why so many owners and trainers might seem lax in the face of EHV-1: Through greater media attention and news outlets such as social media, the horse industry is becoming better informed and better equipped to handle and prevent disease spread.

So I, too, pushed my fears of some massive outbreak wiping out WEF to the back of my mind, heeded the "Don't let horses touch noses" warnings, and focused on enjoying a weekend of showing.

Have you seen changes in the way the industry handles outbreaks?

Snap, Crack, Pop: Equine Chiropractics

2013-03-13T13:42:00Z

Hannah looked like a million bucks when she stepped off the trailer in Lexington from her winter stint in Ocala (a week before the EHV-1 scare, whew!). But when I hopped on her for a hack the next day, my normally well-balanced and forward-moving mare felt short-strided and unwilling to engage her hind end. I immediately called my trainer and asked how soon we could get the vet out to diagnose the problem. (Could she have a soft tissue injury? Painful gastric ulcers? Raging hormones?)

But my trainer had a different idea. Chiropractor-of-the-equine-stars Shirley McQuillan was scheduled to come to the barn in a few days to pop several horses' bodies back into place--why not add Hannah to the list? I've neither been to a chiropractor myself, nor have I actually watched one work on a horse, so this wouldn't normally have come to mind. But hey, maybe it would be cheaper than a vet bill.

It was fascinating to watch the chiropractor work, as she quickly identified and corrected problem areas.

Photo: Alexandra Beckstett

Watching Shirley work was rewarding in and of itself. Her hands have graced the spines, hips, and polls of horses the likes of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Funny Cide and Reed Kessler's Olympic show jumping mount Cylana. As she went stall to stall down the barn aisle, she would ask each horse's owner what they were feeling under saddle and then migrate toward the area of the animal's body she suspected hurt. You could tell by a horse's reaction--head tossing, ear pinning, teeth gnashing, and even a few kicks--when she hit a sensitive spot. And with each adjustment she made, the horse would immediately relax, lick his lips, and droop his ears.

When I mentioned to Shirley that Hannah had days before endured a 12-hour trailer ride, she quickly moved to the pelvis area. Yep, something was out of whack. Then she felt and observed Hannah's head and neck movement; her poll needed some readjusting as well. After running her hands over the rest of Hannah's body and finding her in otherwise good shape, Shirley theorized that my mare had likely been sitting back on the trailer butt bar during much of her transit. She watched me ride Hannah for a few minutes, was pleased with her way of going (as was I--there was that impulsion again!), and advised me on which muscles might be sore for a few days.

While I won't necessarily call the chiropractor before the vet each time I feel something's awry with one of my horses, I've discovered another equine therapy I can add to an ever-growing list. There's only one thing that concerns me, however, about the world of equine chiropractics: its subjectivity. Everyone seems to have their own opinions as to what's "best" when performing these complementary therapies.

One fellow horse owner, for instance, swears by manually stretching her horse's limbs, neck, and back before each ride; another believes you should never ask your horse to perform a stretch he would not do naturally. One veterinarian pooh-poohs complementary therapies altogether; another believes chiropractic is a useful modality that should be performed regularly. A major reason chiropractic and other complementary therapies are so subjective is because of the lack of published, evidence-based research on the topic until very recently.

Personally, I'm still on the fence. I've had a very positive first chiropractic experience with one horse, and I'll certainly consider it again. But is it something I feel like I need to employ regularly with my show horses to keep their parts in place? Maybe not quite yet.

I'd love to hear your experiences and beliefs on the topic though!

Lessons in Prepurchase Exams

2013-02-27T14:43:00Z

Four years ago, before putting pen to paper and signing a bill of sale indicating I'd waived my right to have a prepurchase exam performed on a 5-year-old gelding, I hesitated briefly. It wasn't too late to call the vet out to give Helios a once-over. But impulse got the best of me. I had "vetted" many horses over the years before buying, and none had ever presented with a significant issue. The cost of a full veterinary work-up on this young "failed" dressage horse would nearly equal his purchase price, so I passed. Besides, I had been riding him for six months and he had yet to take a bad step.

Bypassing a prepurchase exam on a jumper prospect led to some unwelcome surprises a few years down the road.

Photo: Erica Larson

Fortunately for me, Helios stayed healthy and sound for several years as he transformed into a nice show jumper. When it came time to sell him, however, a prospective buyer's prepurchase exam raised several questions: When did he have hock surgery, and why? Has his early stage ringbone ever bothered him? What about the arthritic changes in his front fetlocks?

This was all news to me. Maybe these brewing issues had not yet affected my young horse's performance, but had I known what was going on in his limbs and joints I could have managed them accordingly and taken steps to slow their development.

Helios still went on to a great new home, but his sale price plummeted and I learned a valuable lesson: When buying a horse for performance, always cough up the extra cash for a prepurchase exam.

How much money might that be? Well, I checked in with one of our veterinary advisors, Duncan Peters, DVM, MS, director of the Clinical Equine Sports Medicine Program and associate professor of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, for an estimate: "The basic physical evaluation with a summary report, which can include body systems health assessment and musculoskeletal exam, may range from a couple hundred dollars to $800 depending on the location in the country," he explained. "The add-ons to the initial physical evaluation are what may significantly add to the cost of the prepurchase. Radiographs (X rays), ultrasounds, bloodwork (CBC, Chemistry, drug screen, hormone levels, Coggins, other lab tests), endoscopy, nuclear scintigraphy (bone scan), MRI, and possible consultations with other specialists can push the cost into the multiple thousands of dollars ($2,000-7,500)."

Based on the results of this exam, it's then up to the buyer (with the trainer and vet's guidance) to decide whether to purchase that horse in his present condition. There's no need to pass on the horse of a lifetime because you find he has a few blemishes here and there. Rather, the veterinary exam results can help guide your management and training choices. Better to know now whether your horse will need specialized shoes or periodic joint injections.

Because I've never had to pass on a horse for health reasons, I also asked Dr. Peters what red flags should give a buyer pause. These include:

The discovery of undisclosed items such as medications administered, multiple treatments to the horse within a couple weeks of examination (e.g., joint injections, neck/back injections, shock wave therapy, etc.), or past surgical treatments;
An overt lameness;
A significant variation in the horse's supposed age and his dental age (greater than ~5 years variation);
Conformational changes that might manifest future lameness problems for specific disciplines (e.g., straight hind limbs with dropped fetlocks for jumpers, severe sickle hocks for reiners); and
Evidence of a chronic problem.

Six months ago I bought another failed dressage horse--this time to retrain as a hunter. And I had my veterinarian radiograph what seemed like every inch of her body and evaluate everything from her bloodwork to her vision (News Editor Erica Larson just wrote a great piece on eye evaluations during prepurchase exams). Lily passed her exam with flying colors. In my opinion, the extra money spent is well worth the peace of mind each time I head into the show ring.

Feel free to share your own prepurchase lessons in the comment section below!

Keeping Our Athletes Healthy

2013-02-20T15:16:00Z

My first real appreciation for how truly athletic horses can be occurred when I was about 9 years old. That was when my cantankerous 12-hand pony Millie began showing off her acrobatic side, pulling all sorts of stunts to unseat me. ("You don't think I would try jump out of the ring rather than over this cross-rail? Watch me.") Some days she was more successful than others.

My appreciation for how much effort and care it takes to keep an equine athlete healthy and at the top of his game, however, didn't develop until I was in my teens. To get through a rigorous competition schedule sans injury, my horses needed to be incredibly fit, fed high-quality feed and supplements, receive first-rate farrier care, and undergo routine veterinary exams and maintenance. And despite my trainer-vet-farrier-family team's best efforts, year-end goals and dreams of qualifying for national shows were sometimes spoiled by bouts of lameness. I learned that with pushing a horse to his athletic limits comes this risk and others.

I've learned that with pushing horses to their athletic limits comes the risk of injury.

Photo: Courtesy Alexandra Beckstett/Anne Gittins

My level of involvement in the sport horse world has waxed and waned over the years as I've focused on various other things (college, Warmblood breeding, career ...), but I'm currently getting back into the A-circuit groove, campaigning a few young hunters and jumpers as time and money permits. And I'm learning that while these athletes still need specialized care, sports medicine has advanced some since my teens. Certain veterinary technologies are now trendier than others, and it seems trainers and vets are always coming up with new "tricks" to give a horse that much more of a competitive edge. Last year was the first I'd spent competing in the winter sport horse land known as Wellington, Fla., while my summer show base is the Kentucky Horse Park. Behind the scenes I've watched some of the industry's elite horses receive impeccable veterinary care, but I've also seen things that make me cringe.

In this blog I hope to explore with you and my veterinary sources the ins and outs of performance horse care--from the good to the controversial. While my personal experience is limited to English horse sports, the information you'll gather here from the vets and trainers I've worked with can apply to performance athletes of all breeds and disciplines. Our collective goal at the end of the day, after all, is a sound, happy competitor.

What sport horse health topics are of most importance or concern to you?