Cross Breeds

Why do they put horses down after breaking their leg? especially Racehorses they do it on the spot?

Poor Rewilding he was put down last week, what a great horse. I am sure they are doing the right thing when they put down the injured horse? but cant the leg heel at all? even though he will not race again?

Public Comments

1. It is very sad , and i have asked the same question , they put them down because a horse needs 4 strong legs one brakes and it is very painful and it takes a long time to heal
2. yeah the leg can heal. but since its a racing horse maybe they dont want that specific horse to reproduce since maybe the legs are slightly weaker then others. now there are other ways to stop a horse from reproducing but that costs a lot more money then just putting it down. im not entirely sure thats the reason, just a thought.
3. This question is very dear to my heart. The horse you see in my avatar was born on my farm and I helped him come into this world. In October of 2009 my son and I got up to feed the horses and Casper was down in the pasture. I immediately called my vet and he was here in a matter of minutes. Casper had fallen and broke his leg. There was nothing they could do, so they had to put him down. It broke my heart and to this day I have not gotten over him. Horses need all four legs to stand on. They can't walk or even stand on three legs. Sometimes a brake is very mild and some can fix it with surgery. But if the brake is too severe, surgery will not help because as I said, horses need all four legs to stand on. I could name some very famous horses that had to be put down because of a broken leg. Not only did the owners lose something they loved, but a lot of money as well. Eight Bells broke down in the Derby and was put down on the spot because her injuries were too bad. Same thing happened to Go For Wand, she had one of the most horrific breakdowns in history. Hope this clears things up for you a bit. Good luck Source(s): Lifelong horse racing enthusiast
4. Many factor's have to be considered when a horse breaks their leg. It's not that simple it's the complications that comes along with recovery are many. Even humans with severe pain want to die..severe pain is tragic. Age of the horse is important too, for young horses tend to have a better chance than older horses because their bones are still growing and they are much lighter in weight. The Quality of life is so important here. The type of break makes a big difference in determining whether a horse will be able to recover successfully. A complete fracture, which can result in the bone shattering. Many horses with incomplete fractures can recover. It's the extensive damage and multiple breaks that is serious and reason for euthanasia. Also, with some breaks bone fragments protrude through the skin the exposed bone can increase the chance of serious complications and suffering. I provided a link so you can meet Molly, Molly is a horse with prosthetic leg and lives a great life..keep in mind not all horses are killed on the spot..it depends on the situation and what is really most humane thing to do...we really do care and want the best for horses at all times. :) http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?&p=molly+the+horse+with+prosthetic+leg&rs=0&fr=yfp-t-701-s&fr2= Other - http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701-s&sz=all&va=horse+with+prosthetic+leg
5. the type of injury had no chance of healing, i saw the race and had the winner.
6. First of all, a broken leg is NOT ALWAYS an automatic death sentence, even for racehorses. I can think of at least two American racehorses from this season who've had leg fractures and are in the process of recovering from them. Archarcharch, who won the Arkansas Derby, is one of these. He was found to have a fracture in his right front leg on the day of the Kentucky Derby, and is currently recuperating at home after having had surgery to repair the break. Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner, was also found to have not one, but 2 fractures in his left hock, and he too is recovering after having had surgery. The plan is to bring AK back next spring as a 4 year old, and possibly to send him to Dubai for the races there. And we all have heard Barbaro's story- he was the Kentucky Derby winner from 2006 who broke a hind leg at the start of the Preakness, and then spent the next 8 months attempting to heal and recover. He actually lived long enough that the original fractures healed- but he could not overcome laminitis, a disease caused by the long confinement and the unnatural pressures on his remaining legs. So you see, a broken leg is not always fatal. It can be, but it doesn't always have to be. The issue in Britain and most of the UK is that they lack the kinds of facilities which we have here in the States. Britain has no hospitals for horses which are the equivalent of a facility like New Bolton in Pennsylvania, or like Rood and Riddle in Kentucky. When a horse breaks a leg catastrophically there, it usually does mean a death sentence. Racing in Britain and in most of Europe also differs drastically from American racing in other ways too. For one thing, horses in that part of the world run in both directions during races. They also race up and down hills, something which is unheard of in America. Races are also considerably longer in the UK than they are here in the States- distances of up to two miles and more are not uncommon over there. Plus, the track surfaces are either natural turf or dirt-there are virtually no synthetic or Polytrack surfaces. All these things put together increase the likelyhood that accidents will be severe when they happen. In Rewilding's case, I understand that he stumbled badly and fell, and that there was nothing that could have been done to prevent such an accident. They might have tried to save him if he'd gotten hurt here in the States, but because Britain has no equivalent to the kind of places we have here, the most humane thing to do was to put the horse down. Yes, it was painful for everyone- tragic accidents like that generally are. But they are also part of the sport and always have been. The more speed a horse has, the greater the likelyhood of injury. The slow ones almost never do themselves any harm.
7. Ok the answers on here are all crap. Horses do need four legs to support their weight but they don't have to be put down. The reason why race horses are usually put down after breaking a leg during a race is because it costs the owners a lot of money to have the horse's leg operated on and there is no guarantee that horse will fully recover.
8. Sometimes the leg won't heal depending on what kind of leg injury it is. If it never heals it would be worse to keep the horse alive but make him suffer the rest of his life from being in pain. And it's not always that they put the horse down because sometimes it could just be a crack in the bone or it's not fully broken. Sure the horse won't work ever again but it's something that can be fixed or will heal. They don't do it just because he's got a broken leg, it's because they don't want the horse to be in pain for the rest of his life.