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Originally Posted by kentuckyrosesinmay
I have a story to tell. One of my friends purchased a 75,000 dollar horse from a Florida sale. He was a strapping chestnut colt, a Graded Stakes caliber colt. When this colt first raced, there was some buzz about him because he broke his maiden first time out as a three year old by four lengths under a strangle hold. The jock never asked him to run, and was actually holding him back down the stretch. In his next start, he's not moving as pretty and gets beat, but finishes second. He came back with puffy ankles, and has never been the same since. The trainer is very careful with the colt, but is constantly battling the horse's puffy ankles. Yet, the colt still wins races in quite the company because of the careful management. Sometimes, in a race, he even looks back to his old self, but the front bandages tell the story. However, a lot of races, he hasn't moved as pretty as he once did. It is amazing what a little bit of rest, ice, front bandages, and joint injections will do.... However, this cycle never continues because eventually the damage becomes too severe to continue. The horse either gets turned out and, with time, gets better, or is done racing.... The most careful and talented trainers can usually get at least a couple of good races out of the horse under these conditions or can keep the horse going for awhile if the horse has plenty of time in between starts.
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