Projects
Sesamoid bone adaptation and repair in Thoroughbred race horses in training
Limb injuries are a major cause of poor performance, suffering and death of racehorses and jockey injury. Sesamoid bone injuries are second only to cannon bone injuries as a cause of death in Victorian racing but are increasing in prevalence likely due to the greater use of synthetic racing surfaces. A critical factor in prevention of bone injury is understanding the intrinsic processes of bone adaptation and bone repair and then tailoring training and racing programs to work with the bone to optimise these processes. Our current recommendations on training for injury prevention are based on data from cannon bones and we do not know how they affect sesamoid bone health. Using detailed electron microscopy analysis this project will quantify sesamoid bone adaptation to race training and bone turnover rates (repair) at various stages of the training program in bones from 64 horses. These data will be compared to training and racing data to understand how management affects sesamoid bone health. The data will subsequently be added to our models of training to inform future advice to trainers on injury prevention.
