Programs for Prevention of Bucked Shins

Reprinted with permission of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, Inc.’s newsletter Research Today. Part 1 of 2 installments.

Bucked shins are so common that they might be regarded as virtually an inevitable part of a young horse’s development and maturity from two to three. However, work carried out by Dr. David Nunamaker at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center under a National Institutes of Health grant suggested that altering traditional early training philosophy could markedly reduce incidence of bucked shins.

Dr. Nunamaker, head of the department at New Bolton Center, along with Dr. Ray Boston has been carrying out additional study, funded in part by Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. By carefully tracking the training techniques and results of cooperating stables, the researchers have been able to verify that those following the altered procedure are able to avoid bucked shins in considerably more cases than is true of the stables using traditional methods.

Moreover, avoiding bucked shins may be more important, and ultimately more beneficial to the horse, than is apparent on the surface. Since most horses recover from bucked shins, the condition might be seen as not much more than an annoying interruption of a young horse’s racing and training. However, Dr. Nunamaker makes the point that, "The primary benefit of avoiding bucked shins is that every horse that has a saucer fracture is a horse that previously bucked his shins.

"If you can stop a horse from bucking his shins, you now don’t have to worry (as much) about treating that modality, which is very difficult to treat and causes catastrophic injuries.

I’m sure there is a horse somewhere that has a saucer fracture that hadn’t bucked his shins, but it seems to be prophetic that every horse that has a saucer fracture, six months or a year before bucked their shins or had a shin problem, at least. It’s not just the lost training and racing from bucked shins. Most horses get better from bucked shins, but then they can progress into the second phase, this so-called saucer fracture or stress fracture."

Increased understanding of how bone responds to training underlies the altered technique which Dr. Nunamaker and his various research associates have come to regard as beneficial.

"I’m an orthopedic surgeon, not a trainer, but understanding the physiology of the bone and how what you do influences the bone is helpful in making judgement in training," said Dr. Nunamaker. "What we have done with our bucked shin programs over the years is try to show people what the problems were, and let individual trainers come up with their solutions. What you can do is influence how the horse trains, exercises, so you can minimize some of the problems.

"One of the problems is that Thoroughbred horses are trained much differently than Standardbred horses are. Thoroughbred horses in effect are trained to accomplish training, but then are expected to race. Our whole hypotheses of what we have done really is the fact that training should mimic in some way racing. If you mimic racing, then the horse will then be prepared to race in his bone structure and all the other components.

"If you can get the bone in shape, the rest of (the horse’s systems) probably already is in shape, or can be molded very quickly."

Different Responses Among Systems

Dr. Larry Bramlage of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., also speaks of how bone responds to training differently from how soft tissue responds.

Dr. Bramlage was asked if, in simple terms, there is an inherent conflict between doing what would be optimal in training the skeleton and what would be optimal in training the heart, lungs, etc.?

"True," he responded. "The very best thing for the bone would probably be to build the degree of load, or speed, with very short amounts, progressively increasing. But what happens then is the horse doesn’t gain the ability to stay, to go the distance.

"A lot of people have the concept that if you put miles and miles and miles in a young horse that you’re doing them a favor, but it’s really not. People say, ‘Well, I’ve got a great base in this horse; I’ve been galloping him forever.’ The bone adapts to that exercise, and it really doesn’t get any stronger. When you are doing it at a level that you’re trying to make the heart and lungs and muscles more fit, then you’re sort of getting them past the level of where bone is.