I saw a horse that really caught my eye and would like to make him up into a hunter type horse. He’s had 20 or so races, won some money, but bled in his last race. That was five weeks ago. They said they scoped him and he was clean. I’m not really sure what that entails or means. Would a horse like this be suitable for lower level jumping, say 3’? What should I be aware of in a horse like this? Or are there just too many variables? Thanks for any information you can give me.
Depends on the extent of the bleed. Evidence of past bleeding can be found in ALL race horses. Most of the time it goes undetected, since you need to scope or do BAL to see it. Unless it was a catastrophic bleed, chances are the horse will be fine for your purpose, and even if it was, given time to heal the horse will probably be fine.
Race horses bleed because the blood pressure in their lungs gets too high when they run, you don’t see those kinds of pressures in most other sports (although eventers, barrel horses and pulling horses have been noted to bleed as well)
I just bought one who came a vet’s certificate to run on Lasix stapled to his foal papers. Honestly it had never even occurred to me to ask if he ran on Lasix/Salix–it’s harder to find a horse who doesn’t.
Like the vet who did the PPE on my horse (I didn’t bother having him scoped) said, there isn’t anything that a private owner is likely to do with them that will be anywhere near as athletically stressful as racing.
Thank you for the information.
Shy of the highest levels of eventing, I cannot imagine what you might have a horse do that is comparable to the stress of racing.
If the horse was available for sale before the last race, then he’s probably not for sale “because” of the bleeding.
Dont worry about the bleeding unless you are going to be training at race speed. ;):lol::winkgrin:
I wouldn’t worry about it at all! Nothing you will be doing with him will even compare to the stress of racing! Go for it!
As long as the bleeding is not catastrophic (which this one seems to be a long ways from being a bad one), a bleed will slow a horse down in a race, which saves his legs from injury as he begins to get tired. So a race horse who bleeds enough to bother him will tend to be sounder at the end of his career than one that doesn’t have a problem with it. As pointed out earlier, they all bleed to some extent during a race. A horse who runs hard the whole way round a race will be putting more stress on his limbs than a bleeder that slows down after a half mile because of the bleeding.
Past bleeding episodes during racing will not negatively effect a show career.
The filly I recently bought also came with the Lasix cert stapled to her foal papers. I’m not too concerned about it. If she does bleed when we ride(I doubt she will) at least I’ll know she has a history of it. It’ll be something I mention to our vet when she comes out…my vet worked at Aquaduct for a few years, so she’ll give me the full scoop on what I need to know.
Going forward, it’ll always be in the back of my mind that she is a bleeder, but that knowledge hasn’t put me off of the horse.
[QUOTE=up-at-5;4582186]
The filly I recently bought also came with the Lasix cert stapled to her foal papers. [/QUOTE]
In order to receive Lasix on raceday, a horse needs to be certified as a bleeder, so MOST horses will have the certification either stapled to or stamped on their papers (depending on where it was done). A horse that is bleeding through Lasix is a concern - that can generally be managed - when it comes to racing, but shouldn’t pose any problem whatsoever for riding horse purposes.
There are very, very, VERY few racers that aren’t on Lasix. Trust me, it does NOT usually reflect their tendency to bleed during a race, recognized either overtly or upon scoping after a workout or race.
It is not at all unusual to put a non-Lasix horse on Lasix after a lackluster performance, usually within the first couple of starts. Lasix is still considered to be a (sanctioned) performance enhancer, and handicappers may use the introduction of Lasix as a bonus when considering betting options. It’s a bit like offering a horse water: everybody does it.
The crux is this: horses that have raced on Lasix are usually NOT bleeders and, if they are, it is not a major issue. Some horses will bleed through 10 ccs Lasix and whatever other therapies are allowed in their jurisdiction. They are the true bleeders. They tend to be worse in extremely hot weather conditions, but a true bleeder will not be held by acceptable (e.g. legal) modalities and the results are obvious.
I believe it is not likely that an OTTB with a bleeding problem, even an overt observance of bleeding by the Stewards, would continue to have a problem in a non-racing discipline. All others who have raced on Lasix…par for the course and absolutely not a problem.
