A Review of Fatal Fetlock Injuries in California Racehorses

One of the most common sites of catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses is the fetlock.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

When a racehorse breaks down on the track, you’re not only faced with the devastating loss of a horse, but also economic loss and, potentially, an injured jockey. One of the most common sites of catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses is the fetlock and its surrounding structures.

To try to prevent more of these injuries from happening, four veterinarians involved with the California Horse Racing Board and University of California (UC), Davis, Racing Injury Prevention Program recently studied past breakdowns and their causes. Erin McKerney, DVM, a veterinarian at the UC Davis J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory, presented the team’s findings at the 2013 American Association of Equine Practitioners’ convention, held Dec. 7-11 in Nashville, Tenn.

"Fetlock injuries comprise over half of fatal musculoskeletal injuries among California racehorses," McKerney said. "Repetitive loading and fetlock hyperextension associated with training and racing subject fetlock-supporting musculoskeletal structures to degenerative and adaptive changes. These changes can weaken key structures, thus predisposing the fetlock region to catastrophic fracture."

This is fairly common knowledge among sport- and racehorse practitioners. The problem is pinpointing which pre-existing lesions put these horses as most risk for breakdown and how to detect them before the worst happens

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Alexandra Beckstett, a native of Houston, Texas, is a lifelong horse owner who has shown successfully on the national hunter/jumper circuit and dabbled in hunter breeding. After graduating from Duke University, she joined Blood-Horse Publications as assistant editor of its book division, Eclipse Press, before joining The Horse. She was the managing editor of The Horse for nearly 14 years and is now editorial director of EquiManagement and My New Horse, sister publications of The Horse.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
302 votes · 302 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!