Microfracture

[mike_123_ca]

https://www.thestar.com/sports/opini...-in-sight.html

Although this doesn't necessarily explain what is happening at Santa Anita, I found it interesting reading...

The vast majority of catastrophic racing injuries are preventable, the result of repeated smaller injuries that go undetected or are simply ignored in hopes of getting a horse on the track as much as possible.

“These are orthopedic failures, not single-step failures. The horse didn’t step in a hole. The horse didn’t take a bad step,” she said. “If you bend a paper clip back and forth 200 times, then put it back in shape so it looks brand new and hand it to me, the next time I bend it, it might come apart in two pieces even though I insist I did not bend it hard. That’s how these fractures occur.”

It starts with a microfracture. Then a small, partial fracture. Finally, in the heat of a big race or perhaps just a light training session, the bone shatters. It seems sudden, a fluke. Most likely, it’s not.

“This is really just the normal physiological consequence of an increasing workload,” Lyons said. “Take a human runner. Most runners know that when they increase their distances and then say, ‘Boy, my shins were killing me last night after a run,’ that they need to back off for the next week. They need to let it heal. What they do with horses is give them anti-inflammatories without a diagnosis, then keep training and racing.”

Lyons said new technology is being developed that would allow a CT scan to be performed in a matter of minutes on a horse’s front and rear legs, which could be a revolutionary step forward in equine medical care. But the industry must be willing to pay for the machines, which are expected to cost about $300,000 U.S. apiece. Also, there must be enforcement in place to ensure that when a potential problem is discovered, the horse is kept off the track until fully healed.