Two horses die in first four races of Preakness Saturday

That is the way it should be. The horse should be in charge, and drug free. I do wonder about their knees, what they look like after a few years on the road doing barrels.

As for these million dollar road hauls, one could hope the legs would be xrayed for hairline fractures with some of the overhead money.

We never had a horse with knee issues except one that injured herself in a pasture.

What we like is a sturdier conformation than most people want today, we like an old time “cowhorse” built horse and they have bigger stronger legs and feet than is popular today. We also had them on a fitness program and worked with veterinarians closely enough that they became friends. We didn’t start any of our horses on barrels until they were older than most people start them, some people start with young horses like they do racehorses.

I noticed something when we were going all the time. There were people whose horses never seemed to have issues and there were others that had so many issues it was insane. Different people have different programs is all I could figure.

Horse athletes are like people athletes though and an injury can happen any time so I am not saying if you have the right horse in the right program nothing will ever happen to them. I am saying the odds are sure better.

Some people keep a horse in a little pen with little or no exercise then take them out every couple of weekends and run their legs off. Those same people cannot understand why their horses become lame. That would be like a person that did not run or regularly exercise running marathons.

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