It makes sense that a racing horse would be fairly prone to certain injuries; they are often sprinting at top speed along a small track against a number of other horses. Injuries among racehorses are not quite as common as most people think, but they do occur, and while they can be fairly minor in most cases, sometimes a horse can suffer an injury that either leaves them out of racing forever, or having too be put down.
Many of these injuries are kept on record by bookmakers as a means of giving horse racing bettors a chance to look at the history of an animal and see whether it’s suffered any particular injuries during its career. This can often have a big impact on how the betting will go, especially among more experienced punter. Th following are some of the more common injuries in horse racing.
Suspensory Ligament Damage
The suspensory ligament is a large ligament that runs down from just below the knee, and then splits into two as it branches down to the ankle, and then ending at the front of the pastern bone. The ligament does a lot of work for a racehorse, supporting the ankle and allowing them to gallop at fast paces.
When a horse is racing, it puts a huge amount of extra pressure on this ligament, and it’s fairly common for it to tear while out on the track. For the most part, this is usually not a serious injury and it’s one that a horse can easily recover from. If the tear does happen many times in a row, it can potentially lead to the bone fracturing, which is why this injury is watched for consistently.
Bone Bruising
Another ailment among racing horses is the bruising of bones, especially near their ankles and sometimes lower down. These kinds of injuries are not nearly as serious as something like a full fracture, rather small amounts of damage are done to the bone, but not quite enough to cause any permanent damage to the horse.
This is an injury that tends to be more common among event and jumping horses, and repeated bruising can eventually weaken the bone and lead to worse injuries down the road if the horse is not given adequate time to recover, so it might be worth switching over to Philippines mobile casinos until your favourite horse is back in commission.
Bone Breaks
Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a horse is breaking its bone, and while it’s not that common among racing horses these days, it can and does happen.
When a horse breaks a bone in its legs, there is often very little that can be done due to the anatomy of the horse. This often means that the animal will no longer have any real quality of life, and horses that break their bones are typically euthanised. If the break isn’t too bad, sometimes the horse will retire before moving out to live on a farm for the rest of its life.
