Fractured Run: The Truth About a Horse's Legs

With the Preakness race just two weeks away and Eight Belles having to be euthanized on the track after shattering both of her ankles, this kind of reminds everyone of two years ago when Barbaro shattered one of his hind legs on a turn during a race and was euthanized several months later after developing a painful and incurable condition called laminitis and other complications.

The legs of a horse are strong to hold its own body weight and the weight of a rider, but horses' leg bones are extremely sensitive and race horses almost always fracture their legs in a turn or just after take off. Usually this fracture always happens when a horse falls on the track when they're riding too close to each other or when the gate catches their leg and they trip.

It was pretty sad since the vet said there was nothing they could do for Eight Bells because she fractured both of her ankles and usually once a horse becomes incapacitated and can't stand up and move on it's own the animal is pretty much dead because a horse spends all its life on its feet. Eight Belles was a young horse, a filly not even quite old enough to be called a mare and she was in the prime of her life as a race horse only to have it tragically cut short due to having both of her front feet fractured at the end of a race.

This may have shown that the owners started Eight Belles off too early racing because a young horse shouldn't sustain life threatening injuries at the end of a race. The Kentucky Derby's on call veterinarian said the fractures were so bad she couldn't even stand up to have her legs splinted to be removed off the track, and decided out of the horse's well being to euthanize her on the track which was something the audience didn't need to see because anyone who's had a pet euthanized is well aware of how depressing it is to look at the creature that called a member of your family to be humanely euthanized because it would be more cruel to let them live with a medical condition or injuries.