Well, I started out in the debate thinking racehorses mostly break down from youth, not inherent weakness. I do think that's still true. Certainly they would be stronger if they waited another year to run them.
But I've now read about so many TBs on the farrier forum and elsewhere that all have almost uniformly crappy feet, weak, thin walls and soles. That may be part of why they could heal past a bout of laminitis in Barbaro. He probably didn't start out with the best of feet. WHY? of all the breeding programs that should be able to breed for good foot (and bone) why have they let the feet go to hell on them?
Err... ~couldn't~
I saw a show years and years ago on PBS. I've looked for it for years, would love to have a copy. I don't know if it was a National Geographic thing, or what, but the title of the show was "A Magic Way To Go". It was about race horses, and the race horse industry. Secratariet (sp) was a big part of it.
Anyway tho, there was a segment in it about bones, and stress on bones, and how they measure how much stress each individual horse can take by measuring the density of their bones, and exraying at intervals to see how the bones are holding up by checking to see if micro fractures are happening, which does incredibly often, then the horse has to be rested.
Anyway, with all this I find it hard to believe that a horse with the resources behind it like this one could have something like that happen. It had to be a freak thing, but very easily the freak thing could have been a weakness in him from a genetic standpoint.
Becky