Barbaro at Preakness

[redbirdy80]

Ok.

I am an absolute animal lover. I'm the guy at the movie that's saying, "Kill the person, don't kill the dog".......anyways......

I'm obviously completely ignorant with horses and don't understand how a broken leg can be deemed "life threatening".

Can someone please shed some light before I hate horse racing even more due to, "if he can't race anymore, end him".

And obviously there's more to it then that.

Someone explained this to me last night, and this is the Reader's Digest condensed version of what I understand of it... maybe someone else can do better, but basically, with that kind of fracture, because of the way the blood vessels in the horse's legs are, their circulation gets WAY messed up, and because they're such big animals, the blood can't get to the rest of the horse's body... It's not that they want to put him down necessarily, it's that it really is THAT bad for the horse...

I hope I got that right, and please feel free to correct me/elaborate if you know more...

[silkamilkamonic]

Someone explained this to me last night, and this is the Reader's Digest condensed version of what I understand of it... maybe someone else can do better, but basically, with that kind of fracture, because of the way the blood vessels in the horse's legs are, their circulation gets WAY messed up, and because they're such big animals, the blood can't get to the rest of the horse's body... It's not that they want to put him down necessarily, it's that it really is THAT bad for the horse...

Right on.

I was acutally under the impression that they were deeming the horse 'worthless' if he couldn't race anymore.

It actually makes sense.

Save Barbaro!!

[redbirdy80]

Right on.

I was acutally under the impression that they were deeming the horse 'worthless' if he couldn't race anymore.

It actually makes sense.

Save Barbaro!!

Yeah, I was glad when someone explained that to me last night, too, because I felt a lot better about the whole thing, knowing it really WAS about the horse's welfare...

[Kapaibro]

The time and costs involved in saving a horse after a broken leg are usually dependant on what the future holds for that horse. Due to the fact that they are such large animals, and can't be expected to lie down for a couple of months with their legs up, surgery is very tricky, and many horses just re-injure themselves when the come out of the surgery, trying to stand up.

For a horse like Barbaro, who has a huge future as a stallion ahead of him, the cost of the surgery and care far outweighs his future earnings. He'll never race again, but if he makes it through this, he'll make millions in stud fees.

Now I've been involved in horse racing and with horses my whole life, and I can tell you that most horses break legs out in their paddocks, and not while been ridden. Horses are incredibly delicate for such large creatures, and sometimes even hurt themselves just lying down, or running around playing. Because racing is televised it seems like more injuries happen in racing, but that's not the case.

Good example, one of my mother's horses was just about to start doing some trackwork, when she noticed him wobble a bit, and she jumped off. He collapsed, and died almost instantly. The cause, ruptured aorta. Just something that happens, he had a weak heart. He wasn't racing, but I can tell you this, my mother was happier for him to die there, than in the middle of a race, and possibly bring other horses down.

[BroncFanIN]

They showed a portion of the race here on the news...and Barbaro was still trying to run, trying to put pressure on that leg before jerking it back up in pain. It was a sad sight to see.

I did hear he underwent surgery last night, and pulled through the night.

Keep fighting on, Barbaro!