Running Commentary

One of the things that disturbed me tremendously when I went to the New Holland horse auction a few weeks ago, was the presence of so many Amish buggy horses, trotting at top speeds on paved roads. I know most of these horses are standardbreds who are used to trotting quickly, but I don't believe any of them are used to doing so on hard, paved surfaces.

Running on pavement takes its toll on human athletes; think what it is doing to ankles and bones supporting about 1100 lbs. of weight. To me, it all looked like a recipe for disaster. As far as I'm concerned, no one--human or animal--should run at top speeds, day in and day out, on hard, unforgiving pavement.

Fans of thoroughbred racing know that even running on hard, uneven dirt tracks can contribute to breakdowns and even fatalities. Many racetracks are switching to synthetic surfaces to try and alleviate this variable, but the jury is still out on their effectiveness.

According to a small report in the Philadelphia Inquirer a few weeks ago,"horse fatalities from a new on-track injury reporting program showed fatality rates among horses that run on synthetic surfaces are nearly identical to the fatality rates of horses that run on traditional dirt tracks."

The report goes on to state that the figures for fatalities on both surfaces are nearly identical. Synthetic tracks averaged 1.95 deaths per 1,000 starts over the length of the study; dirt tracks averaged 1.96 deaths per 1,000 starts over the same time period.

There are, of course, other variables associated with equine racing fatalities, not all of them related to track surfaces, but it is indeed interesting that the numbers are so close. I would have hoped that synthetic surfaces would have proved to be less injurious, but then again, not all synthetic surfaces are created equal. Remember those early days of Astro-turf on football fields when it was laid on top of concrete? The new generation of faux turf is laid on dirt, giving it more cushion.

All of which probably goes to show that horses, like people, should run on grass as much as possible if they want to keep running for as long as they possibly can.