Retired Racehorses

Biomechanical Hoof Tester; however it remains to be shown that the dynamic response is correlated
with the response of the horse at a gallop.
Although the machine is large and somewhat complex, unlike the other tools, the biomechanical
hoof tester replicates the speed and impact of one of the most critical phases of the gait for risk to the
horse. While the two measured characteristics, shear and impact force, are expected to be related to
performance of the horse, it is even more likely that these parameters measured with the full load and
speed of the hoof landing represent the risk to the horse of catastrophic injury to the forelimb. The
biomechanical hoof tester has been shown to be capable of measuring the effect of typical maintenance
on a surface (Peterson and McIlwraith 2008). A sufficiently large study has not yet been done which
makes it possible to link these measurements to risk to the horse. The immediate effect of the
availability of this tool is to be able to characterize those aspects of the surface which pose the greatest
risk of catastrophic and career ending injury. Even in the absence of a large epidemiological study,
methods which are likely to result in more consistent surfaces will move racing toward the goal of
providing a safer surface. It is also likely that data will be available which can also be used to predict
performance of the horse on a surface. This less ambitious goal creates a potential for the testing to
provide information to the public which can help to support the need to do continued testing which will
provide the data which can eventually be used to estimate the risk to a horse.
Figure 3: Biomechanical hoof tester used to replicate the speed and loading by the hoof on
the racing surface.
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