More on the Toe Grab Controversy

Preventing Breakdowns
by Melissa Sykes

            California horsemen are concerned about the number of breakdowns experienced so far this season.  Even pony horses are not immune to what is perceived as track surface problems.  Management at the tracks are currently addressing the problem.

            But, even with the best of surfaces, breakdowns will still occur.  Granted, providing a safe surface is a positive step toward eliminating breakdowns – but, by the very nature of the industry, breakdowns are still going to occur.

            There are too many variables involved in the racing of Thoroughbreds to guarantee that a horse will never be hurt.  Variables such as track safety, fitness level of the animal, pre-existing injuries and equipment all contribute to whether or not that horse comes back to the barn sound.

            Science has taken leaps over the last few years in helping to identify and alleviate some of these variables.  Researchers at Washington State University have found that the moisture content of the racetrack is a large part of determining track safety.  Other researchers at the University of Minnesota have been working with infrared imaging to detect the onset of a bowed tendon as much as two weeks before clinical signs are evident.

            Now, studies conducted at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) and published over two years ago show a direct correlation between the use of toe grabs (on the front legs) and failure of the suspensory apparatus.

            “The use of toe grabs may provide too much traction,” explained Dr. Albert Kane, one of the lead researchers involved in the study.  So much traction that it stops the hoof more suddenly than it should, increasing the added force to the lower limb.

            “Under more natural conditions, the horse’s hoof slides a little while landing and taking off.  This is a normal part of the gait cycle and may help to dissipate some of the shock to the lower limb.   Toe grabs may decrease the ability of the hoof to slide as it lands and takes off resulting in increased forces acting on the lower leg.”

            The UC Davis study looked at over 200 horses over a two-year period.   And the result was a staggering statistic – a horse wearing regular toe grabs (6 mm) was 16 times more likely to suffer suspensory apparatus failure than a horse wearing a flat shoe.

            “Can you think of anything having to do with injury that can be changed (by banning toe grabs on the front legs) with the result that the injuries drop by a factor of 16?” asked Dr. George W. Pratt, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a student of racing and surfaces for a number of years.  “Not 16 percent, but by 1600 percent?”

            Professor Pratt recently delivered a paper to fellow scientists in France titled “A Model for Injury to the Foreleg of the Thoroughbred Racehorse.”  Using results of accelerometer measurements on the hoof a horse running at racing speed as well as mechanical properties of the racing surface, Pratt was able to dissect the running horses’ stride into two distinct phases:  swing time and stance time.  Roughly, it takes a horse galloping at racing speed .45 seconds for one leg to complete its cycle during one stride.  Of that, .34 seconds is swing or air time (when the foot is off the ground) and .11 seconds is stance or the amount of time a single hoof touches the ground.

            What Pratt observed and was able to measure was the natural sliding motion of the hoof as it both entered and left the track surface.

            “As the hoof goes in, it is traveling about 25 feet/second forward over the track.  It comes to a stop about .015 seconds later.  In doing so, it slides forward.  Very big forces are generated during this slide” and if the hoof is stopped too quickly, the whole apparatus is subjected to damaging and sometimes catastrophic forces.

            “Toe grabs tend to make the slide more abrupt since the grab tends to plow cushion in front of it.”

            The use of toe grabs may also affect the geometry of the hoof as it makes contact with the ground and the angles of the joints as they support the load of the horse.   By raising the toe, it may create a decreased functional hoof angle similar to the long toe-low heel conformation.

            “The plowed up wad of cushion under the front of the hoof changes the angle of the hoof when it is fully loaded and the leg vertical under the horse,” explained Pratt.  “Raising the toe puts big additional strain on the suspensory and bigger forces on the bone.”

Toe grabs (above left) on racing shoes were found to be associated with an increased risk of fatal injury, particularly suspensory apparatus failure. The risk of injury was found to increase as the height of the toe grab increases.  Rim shoes (above right) actually decreased the odds of injury, offering a safer traction device for racehorses.

Bone of Contention

            Both the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) and California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA) voted in July to support a ban of front toe grabs on horseshoes based on the UC Davis study.

            An informal survey was taken of 56 trainers at Santa Anita.  The question was “Would you have a problem with only using Queen’s Plates or rim shoes in front and toe grabs without turn downs behind?”  The results were 29 no; 27 yes.

            “It wasn’t a very good way to word the question,” said Leigh Ann Howard, vice president of the CTBA and a licensed California trainer.  And some trainers became very vocal about their preference for toe grabs.  Bob Baffert was quoted in TheThoroughbred Times as going so far as to say “It’s when I train two-year-olds without them (toe grabs) that they get hurt.  They slip and slide and pull stifles.”

            Former jockey and current associate vice president of Turfway Park, Steve Cauthen feels California is taking a huge step in the right direction.

            “When I rode in England, they had no grabs at all,” he said.   “Toe grabs were banned in England mainly because of the danger to the jockeys.  “If a horse runs over a fallen jockey while wearing grabs” the damage can be life threatening.  Very similar to the use of metal cleats in football (which have been banned).

            “Having a toe grab doesn’t make a horse sound or unsound,” said Cauthen.  “It might give him a better grip” on the racetrack.  “But I’m not sure (the added traction) is worth jockeys lives,” Cauthen said.

            “I would praise California for their taking the initiative to ban” toe grabs on the front, said Hall of Fame Trainer Bill Mott.  “I think that a lot of things that people put on horses in the front is counterproductive.  It doesn’t help them as much as they like to think it helps them.”

            And Mott doesn’t feel that much traction will be lost through the banning of toe grabs.  “I don’t think they (the horses) will be scrambling to get hold of the course without toe grabs.”

            Michael Dickinson, trainer of two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Da Hoss feels the use of grabs is dangerous for the horse as well as the rider.

            “We run without them,” he said.  “It is a disadvantage on some tracks and I acknowledge that, but I’m trying to conserve the horse.”

            Elliott Walden, Jr. has used toe grabs in the past, but stopped the practice about three years ago.

            “I made a conscious decision (to stop using grabs) because I felt like it would help keep the horses sound.”

            Being allowed to use toe grabs “puts us trainers in a very difficult position,” said Dickinson.  Fortunately for him, his owners defer to his decision to not use them.   But he feels that “if they were outlawed, it would relieve me of an important decision” that could have long term negative ramifications.

            If the playing field were level (i.e. no one could use grabs), then “I don’t see a problem,” said Mott.

Alternatives

            In Ron McAnally’s barn, all the horses run in rim shoes.

            “Rim shoes were associated with a decrease in injury” in the UC Davis study said Kane.  The odds of suspensory apparatus failure with rims was two-thirds lower than without rims.

            As for added traction, Kane feels that “we don’t appreciate how much traction a flat shoe gives us.  It increases the amount of cup in the foot and the crease (in the shoe) will pick up sand–and sand-on-sand gives traction.

            The bottom line is that horses are going to breakdown.  But if horsemen can take the research being conducted and integrate it into their training protocol just as track superintendents and veterinarians have, maybe the industry’s concern over having to euthanize an animal on national television can be somewhat alleviated.