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Ed Yeates Reporting While Barbaro's long battle to recover from a broken leg tragically came to an end this week, another showcase horse from Utah has survived its injury, even beyond expectations.
I was there last year after veterinarians at South Valley Large Animal Clinic had mended a broken leg on a two-year-old showcase cutting horse called Miss America. Two plates, each attached with five to six of the largest bone screws made, had hopefully pulled everything together.
Though it was a critical front leg, now a year later out at the Buffalo Ranch west of Farmington, Miss America is doing great. She's almost back to normal again.
Though under different circumstances and hundreds of miles apart, Barbaro and Miss America broke their legs at almost the same time. But Miss America's outcome is sweet, working her way to what could be a first class performance cutting horse, if she makes it.
Greg Smith, Head Trainer, Buffalo Ranch: "She'll haul from here, all over the western United States, and if she trains good enough to be a top notch performer, she's got full brothers and sisters that have won over a hundred thousand dollars."
Veterinarian Dr. John Sieverts and his colleagues see these injuries all the time. Some make it, some don't. The technology for making repairs is getting better. But then something else is improving too. Sieverts paid a visit to a new racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky.
The recipe: Pipes with drainage holes, covered with gravel, covered with rolled asphalt that's extremely porous, and then finally, topped with specially designed fiber material. Twenty-four injured horses had to be pulled off the old track every year. Sixteen were euthanized. But the new polytrack is now perfectly flat and level in all lanes.
John Sieverts, DVM, South Valley Large Animal Hospital: "The year after they put the new track in, in the season they ran, they only had three horses they had to remove from the track by ambulance, and none of those horses were put down."
Sieverts says with all the money and time now invested in horses like Barbaro, which comfort level, which racetrack would you choose?
