Just noticed at Parx

[lamboguy]

on the overnight sheet it is written that once horses are entered they are not allowed to leave the grounds until after they race.

if someone by chance that is stabled at Parx was shockwaving their horses the day of the race on a farm located somewhere else, that would stop them. not that sure what that would mean for horses that are shipping in from other places though.

[RunForTheRoses]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

on the overnight sheet it is written that once horses are entered they are not allowed to leave the grounds until after they race.

if someone by chance that is stabled at Parx was shockwaving their horses the day of the race on a farm located somewhere else, that would stop them. not that sure what that would mean for horses that are shipping in from other places though.

What is shockwaing? Sounds unscrupulous. There are a lot of horse farms in S Jersey, PA, and MD.

[horses4courses]

Interesting to see if handle is a fair bit lighter there today.

There is a Euro bookmaker that regularly post fixed odds
prices on Parx racing. Nothing today, which is unusual.

[Bluenose]

Are you talking about Paddy? They don't take bets anyway!!

[horses4courses]

Originally Posted by Bluenose

Are you talking about Paddy? They don't take bets anyway!!

Not from the US, no.

They are posting prices for today now.

[Grits]

Originally Posted by RunForTheRoses

What is shockwaing? Sounds unscrupulous. There are a lot of horse farms in S Jersey, PA, and MD.

It is like much like ultrasound, but with greater intensity. Ultrasound is probably the greatest diagnostic tool to come to medicine in the last century involving deep tissue revelation. However, "shock waving" as you called it, isn't like electrical shock treatment, which was used years ago in psycho therapy on patients with several mental illness. (This is what you may be thinking of. It was radical.)

http://equusmagazine.com/article/sho...y_102308-10698

[chadk66]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

on the overnight sheet it is written that once horses are entered they are not allowed to leave the grounds until after they race.

if someone by chance that is stabled at Parx was shockwaving their horses the day of the race on a farm located somewhere else, that would stop them. not that sure what that would mean for horses that are shipping in from other places though.

it states they aren't allowed to leave. didn't say they weren't allowed to enter the horse while horse is at the farm and bring it in x number of hours before a race.

[chadk66]

why would anybody have a problem with horses being given therapy with therapeutic ultrasounds of shock wave therapy?

[mountainman]

On a somewhat unrelated note: I won't be surprised if tracks soon post thugs at the gate to prevent ANY horse from leaving. The threats, scare tactics, and harsh measures employed to keep horsemen from racing elsewhere have become ridiculous. For several reasons (I won't get into), I'm not a fan of racing secs who behave in this manner.

[SG4]

Originally Posted by chadk66

why would anybody have a problem with horses being given therapy with therapeutic ultrasounds of shock wave therapy?

Came across this part in a DRF article the other day about Firing Line's therapy, perhaps this helps explain? Link is below if you want to review the entire article.

http://www.drf.com/news/firing-line-...-sunland-derby

Twice in the past month – on Feb. 27 and March 9 – Firing Line has undergone shock-wave therapy, which can be used to treat soft-tissue and bone ailments. Callaghan said it was done on Firing Line “to cover all the bases.” Because horses must be lightly sedated for the treatment, and because research studies have described an analgesic-type reaction in horses to shock-wave therapy, horses who undergo the treatment in California must be put on the veterinarian’s list and are excluded from racing for 10 days.

[lamboguy]

i know that since Sal Sinatra has gone over to work at Laurel, the new racing secretary at Parx Sam Elliot had personally told me he was going to do things differently there. years ago Sam Elliot used to walk around the backside hustling riders in New England. he used to work for Dodie Duys. i remember when she got into fist fights with Carl Gamberdella.

i was just guessing about shocking horses, there are plenty of other things that can be done on race day if there aren't any eyes watching that aren't to cool for horses either like highblocking and tapping or administration of substances that don't test.

[chadk66]

it seems to me that it's alot of huggabaloo over nothing. it's simply a therapeutic treatment. may be or may not be any more beneficial than swimming a horse, using a transpirator on a horse, using a vibration bed or hanging a DMSO jug on em. Sedating them is of no concern. Horses are sedated for many reasons and some fairly often.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

According to Augustin Stable owner George Strawbridge, shock wave therapy is painful to the horse and is used to mask pain if used on an in-competition horse. The only time he would consider using it is when horses rehabilitate out of competition and he is still unsure if it actually does heal.
On the other side, the vet interviewed seems to believe it helps heal injuries (implied in the short term).
[YT="6CQAkNsZXYo"]6CQAkNsZXYo[/YT]

[Grits]

Thanks for posting the video. Its a good listen. The article I linked above notes, by Dr.McClure, a good deal of what he's stated in the video, even though its an older interview.

This doesn't appear to be a therapy, at all, that should be administered by the hands of trainers or barn help, which may by now, be sometime the case. This could be extremely damaging as the shockwaves can be detrimental to some tissue areas of the horse.

As researchers have documented the potentially beneficial effects of ESWT, they have also learned more about the inadvertent damage the technology can cause. For example, serious injury can result if ESWT is misdirected at any tissues not dense enough to absorb the pressure waves. A recent Taiwanese study with dogs found that shock waves can cause inner layers of the wall of the femoral artery to separate, leading to life-threatening weak spots. In addition, ESWT is dangerous when applied to gas-filled structures, such as the lungs or intestines. Because air is so much less dense than muscle, bone or connective tissue, the impact of the shock waves is much greater at the border zone and can lead to hemorrhage and severe tissue damage.

Mr.Strawbridge has valid concerns that seem to be emphasized with these notes, again, by Dr.McClure. Long term rehab may be a better setting, as opposed to ten days prior to the animal entering a race.

The trainer's recent comment? "We're covering all our bases" is a poor one. Kinda like giving thyroid med because everyone is doing so.

One human note. As far as the pain, if one has ever undergone lithotripsy for kidney stones....one can identify.

Another type of equine injury that seems to respond well to ESWT is inflammation of the suspensory ligament, which runs from the back of the upper cannon bone to the pastern bones and supports the fetlock joint, preventing it from sinking to the ground. When McClure induced suspensory ligament lesions in four horses, he found that the ESWT-treated injuries healed significantly faster.

After 15 weeks, ultrasound examinations showed that the treated lesions were a third smaller than the untreated controls.[/b] A group of German researchers used ESWT to treat 30 horses who had chronic suspensory ligament inflammation that had failed to respond to conventional treatments for at least three months. Six months after the last treatment, 24 were sound, and 18 of those horses were back in full work; only three of the original 30 showed no improvement. "There's no question that ESWT has made a difference in how we treat suspensory injuries," Snyder says.

A good thing...in the right hands, at the right time.

[lamboguy]

i would never shockwave a horse while he is in training but i have to admit i had a good experience with it. about 6 years ago i had a filly that bowed a tendon training. i have a friend that is in Fairhill, i gave her the horse and she brought it home with her. she recommended shockwave therapy. we got a ver to come in every other week for about 3 months. the bow eventually looked like it would hold. i put the horse back in training about a year later and she went on to earn $300,000 before she retired her racing career. today she is a broodmare.

but to administer shockwave in the morning and have the horse run in the afternoon is nothing short of cruel to me.