Following the euthanasia of the filly Eight Belles, who suffered catastrophic injuries to both front legs a quarter-mile after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, members of every sector of the Thoroughbred industry have banded together to proactively address safety and welfare issues.

The Horse: Your Guide To Equine Health Care is proud to present a FREE downloadable special report on catastrophic injury research. This special report is sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health.

In this report, respected members of the equine industry, such as Larry Bramlage, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, and Wayne McIlwraith, BVSc, PhD, FRCVS, DSc, Dr med vet (hc), Dipl. ACVS, provide an in-depth exploration of catastrophic injuries in the Thoroughbred racehorse, focusing on what veterinarians know about catastrophic injuries, based on the available scientific data, and highlighting what work is still to be done.

The Horse presents a Special Report on catastrophic injuries.
View the Special Report

• What are catastrophic injuries?
  
• How often do Thoroughbred racehorses suffer catastrophic injuries?
  
• Why do catastrophic equine athletic injuries happen?
  
• Gender, age, and drug issues.
  
• Bone pathology, conditioning, and microfractures.
  
• Breeding dilemmas: speed vs. soundness.
  
• The role of track surfaces.
  
• What is the industry doing?
  
• Who is responsible for racehorse safety?

Stacey Oke, DVM, MSc, authored the report. She is a Canadian freelance medical writer, scientific researcher, and licensed veterinarian. Oke’s primary fields of interest are nutrition and dietary health supplements, osteoarthritis, and inflammation. Oke writes for magazines and peer-reviewed veterinary and medical journals, and she is involved in continuing education for human doctors and veterinarians.

“The Horse magazine is all about the physical animal and how we can better care for and manage that animal,” said Kimberly S. Brown, Publisher/Editor of The Horse. “We saw the need to collate information on catastrophic injuries and delve into what we know, and what we don’t know, about protecting our competition horses, whether they are Thoroughbreds or any other breed or discipline.”

View the Special Report.