Cracksman

© Racing Post/Racing.com

By Brent Zerafa
 
Professor Chris Whitton from the University of Melbourne joined Shane Anderson on After The Last on Tuesday to discuss the Equine Limb Injury Prevention Research Program.

The program was launched in 2016 and is aimed at the early detection and prevention of bone injury to thoroughbred racehorses and aims to better identify horses that may be at risk of serious bone injury.

The project is co-funded by the Victorian State Government via the Victorian Racing Industry Fund, Racing Victoria and the University of Melbourne.

More than $350 million a year is spent on the training, care and welfare of Victoria's racehorses and this major investment represents the industry's continued commitment to improving the welfare of thoroughbred horses before, during and after their racing career.

Better understanding of the bone response to exercise is crucial for trainers - and the industry as a whole - to properly implement a training and management plan that safeguards the health and welfare of horses.

The ultimate aim of the research is to create a 'mathematic model' of bone injury that trainers, owners and racing authorities can use as a tool to guide their training and racing regimes.

"We are trying to understand the loads that the skeleton is put under in race horses and what the limits are that it can cope with to try and work out how we can train horses so that we prevent them injuring themselves due to excessive training that they sometimes do," Dr Whitton said.

"This is the second year of the program, we had an ongoing research program for some time at a lower level, but with funding from the state Government, Racing Victoria and the University of Melbourne, we have increased the level of research we are doing in the last two and working towards making a bigger impact."

Equestrian Life visited Melbourne University professor Chris Whitton to discuss various injuries that occur in thoroughbreds in the racing industry. This was covered in issue 38, in the September/October 2017 issue.

This article first appeared on Racing.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission. To find out more about Racing Victoria's Off the Track program, visit rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track.

 

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