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NOTABLE CRIPPLES OF THE TURF There came out of the west in the days of Morris Park a rare old sport who had just one horse a patchedup cripple named Daniel B At the bush meetings in the Middle West and the transMissis ¬ sippi country Daniel B had been an occasional win ¬ ner but be was not looked upon as having much chance against the higher class horses of the east He had a fair turn of speed but his legs verc bad and in addition his throat bad been operated on and a silver tube inserted in his windpipe windpipeOne One day the old sport entered Daniel B in a cheap selling race and Daniel B made a show of bis field As Is customary the winner was put up at auction Some one thought Daniel B was a bargain and bid him up Daniel B was sold to him The old sport had no idea any one would try to buy the cripple and apparently did not appreciate what was happen ¬ ing until the judge acting as auctioneer said Sold SoldWhen When the purchaser having paid the money led Daniel B away the old sport shouted Hold on there Yon bought the horse but the silver belongs to me Thereupon he took the silver tube out of the horses throat and marched off Without the silver tube Daniel B could not pump enough air iiito his lungs to gallop a block The new owner who up to that time did not know about the tube apologized sold Daniel B back for less than he paid for him and the silver tube went back into Daniel Bs windpipe windpipeSurgery Surgery as applied to the lower animals has ad ¬ vanced very much since the Daniel B affair but the obscure veterinarian who operated on Daniel B cer ¬ tainly was an artist The silver tube has been tried on many thoroughbred horses roarers particularly i iii ii Varlly can c callc1 a success Roaring is iiVio A a Partlal Palalysis of the left recurrent Iiorio r ce itrack is a Uusty nlace aml wnca i ns NntnCe 1 Uley lakc a lot f air I00 their li thnJi inV ° qVlps V0 uorse with a screen iu tlclLs of rti rtiV V nUKU W ch comparatively few nar the sIlvVtnhP sIlvVtnhPPP PP ThesurKcons have screens on borVcs tho8 SLput lnto H0 windpipes of race ii rMs but out me screens clog and restrict hrmtiiin Somehow the manmade screen does not ive such good service as the queer one nature provides One old result of the action of the New York LcgisaUire in suppressing letting on race tracks bo the chocking may temporarily of veterinary sur ¬ gery of tho most advanced kind upon thoroughbreds Raring in America had been developed along Abnor mal lines The richest prizes of the running tnr ¬ were for the twoyearolds the immature and grovYiii racers In forcing the youngsters through severe campaigns turfmen frequently called on nature to do too much To smash records tracks were made harder It is doubtful whether there was any real improvement in class through these methods methodsA A very great many perhaps a majority of thor ¬ oughbred horses in the United States are unsound Excessive racing of the twoyearold Is held re ¬ sponsible in the main for this condition The horse as a racing machine was sacrificed for the passing glory of a new record though breeders both public and private and sportsmeA owners were far from neglectful of the reason for racing which is that through It a standard of superiority might be deter ¬ mined on The Infirmities of aborse however grew into a large business for the skilful veterinary sur ¬ geon for so long as a horse cap be patched un ha may serve as a money getter And the vets In ubclioc the demands of turftneB bave made discov ¬ eries and performed operations undreamed of generation or two ago It agoIt is supposed that when a race horse breaks a bone an important bone he Is done for Generally he is but there have been some remarkable instances of recovery through the veterinarians skill James B Haggins mighty horse Watcrboy the greatest son of the great Watercress and one of the best horses the turf ever has had had a fall at Morris Park as a threeyearold breaking his hip bone The portion of bone broken was not large but the break was at a socket Few human beings ever were more delicately nursed than was Waterboy He was suspended in slings for a long time and re ¬ covered so completely that in the following year he was the champion of the turf What infinite care must hate been given to the case of this horse can be appreciated only by those who know the difficulty lu treating race horses Whatever there is of nerv ¬ ousness In a horse Is accentuated to the highest de ¬ gree in the race horse horseSensitive Sensitive imperious and Impatient he is far dif ¬ ferent from the colder blooded trotter or the ordi ¬ nary animal In fact operations that can be per ¬ formed with safety and certainty on the horse of cold blood are of doubtful result in the case of the thoroughbred Regardless of this condition some of the most remarkable operations known have been performed on the thoroughbred Probably that In which John A Drakes horse South Trimble was the subject ranks first firstIn In the Saratoga Handicap of 1903 South Trimble was thrown against the fence some other horses fell over him and the whole front of his head was crushed Mr Drake was for having him killed at once but a veterinarian who at that time was of no particular prominence asked for permission to take the horse in hand With rare patience and skill he went to work to mend that frightfully smashed head headWhen When South Trimble appeared in public again it was with a silver plated frontal piece Where bone had been broken or removed silver took its place and seemed to be just as serviceable for South Trimble was fully as good a race horse after the operation as before and carried Mr Drakes colors to victory many times timesMost Most of the surgical operations on thoroughbreds however are on the fore legs More than ninety per cent of the troubles that racers suffer from have their seat there There is where the splints the spavins the ringbones the bowed tendons and the breakdowns occur because on the running turf mosc of the strain on the horse is on the fore legs The average race horse weighs a little less than one thousand pounds and can run a mile in 140 or thereabouts That is at the rate of thirtysix miles an speedIn hour almost express train speed In his stride a race horse jumps about twentyfour feet He lands on one foot one of the fore feet There is only a very slight fraction of a second be ¬ tween the time of the fore feet striking the earth but the horse lands one foot at a time A race horses legs arc sinewy but they are much thinner than the legs of a man There is little there but bone muscle and skin When the horse is going at the rate of thirtysix miles an hour the strains on the fore legs as a result of the concussion of 1100 pounds of weight striking the earth 190 times in 100 seconds is great Indeed In figuring 1100 pounds the weight of the jockey is included The jockey sits well forward over the withers and all his weight as the horse gallops and lands on the earth is on the fore legs Trotting legsTrotting horses even if they were raced as much in their twoyearold form as thoroughbreds would last longer for the strain on them is less The average trotter travels at less than thirty miles an hour and whatever there is of weight in driver and sulky is equalized or distributed by the manner in which he is harnessed More important than weight or rate of speed however are the facts that he does not stride so far as the running horse the shock in racing is much less and there is little or no more strain on the fore legs than on the hind Formerly the trotting track was decidedly harder than the running track Now there is little difference be ¬ tween them themThe The ordinary reader or racegoer hears of thorough ¬ breds being nerved fired blistered or of their break ¬ ing down but has little knowledge of what has been done to the horse or what Is the real nature of the breakdown He has no conception of the difference between splints and spavins or ringbones In fact the difference is more of location than of character All three are morbid growths of bone from bone A spavin appears in the hock a splint in the shin and a ringbone above the coronet or hoof These morbid growths take place beneath the periosteum which is the coating or covering of the bone They come from shock or concussion or strain incident to hard training or racing Some horses have raced well even with ringbones John A Morris sold Civil Service to William C Daly because the horse had a ringbone Daly won a fortune with the horse and not infrequently de ¬ feated the crack sprinters of the Morris string with him but such an illustration is unusual It is as unusual as was the case of Castaway II whose hip bone was reset by a veterinarian after disloca ¬ tion and who subsequently won the Brooklyn Handi ¬ cap racing through mud that was deep and holding and winning l y nearly ni city block blockTo To treat a spavin splint or ringlwne the surgeon has recourse to the firing iron The horse is left scarred but the morbid growths are reduced and the coating of the bone which has been strained or in ¬ jured by the growth is toughened or made rigid The horse suiters but little pain when the firing iron is applied for the part treated is deadened by co ¬ caine caineA A trifle more than two years ago two of the great cst of our then race horses Colin and Celt bad to be laid up owing to bowed tendons The injury to these two horses meant a loss to James R Keenc their owner of 75000 or 100000 Colin had the firing iron applied but was unable to race raceA A breakdown is a rupture of the suspensory llgn mcnt or what is commonly known as the middle tendon Really the middle tendon is the front ten ¬ don There are three tendons in the leg two in the rear and one in front The rear ones may bow and mend but when the front one is ruptured there Is little hope So few men know the horse and his troubles that bowed tendons may be reported as a breakdown and a breakdown as bowed tendons tendonsExperienced Experienced as James Rowe is having handled thousands of race horses for the Dwycr brothers James It Koene and others and standing today as the leading trainer in the western world he oncu reported Colin broken down and yet the horse came out a few days later apparently as sound as a silver dollar and won a race The real trouble was that he had been bandaged with inelastic material about the legs to support his tendons The bandages had been too tight and when they were removed the muscles and tendons suddenly released swelled rapidly and the horse went lame so lame that he could hardly stand Then gradually and naturally the swelling subsided and the horse was well again But for a time Colin gave a first class imitation of u horse suffering from ruptured tendons tendonsThe The support of the bones of horses is the perios ¬ teum or membraneous coating The support of the tendons Is a sheath Generally an overstrain on the tendon is evidenced by a weakening of this sheath A light application of the firing iron to stiffen tbis sheath a letup in training and permanent and in ¬ elastic bandages repair the damage and prevent more serious injury injuryFiring Firing is nothing more than cauterizing and with the race horse it is practised more than on any other of the lower animals There might not be so much of it necessary if horses were not subjected to gruelling campaigns before they are fully developed developedBut But ruptured tendons splints ringbones spavine and the like while making up the majority of the ailments of the race horse do not cover them all Occasionally a horse is nerved that is a nerve is removed A kick a blow sin accidental injury may ruin a horse if the animal is left to the care of one who does not know what to do doThere There are few horses in American history that rank higher than Hanover He had to be nerved Dr William Shephard one of the foremost veter ¬ inarians of today removed an inch of the meta carpal nerve Iu the human the metacarpal nerve extends from the wrist to the fingers Without it the hand and the fingers would not be of much use to us In the horse the metacarpal nerve is the principal one leading into the hoof Hanover was a horse of magnificent courage Philip J Dwyer says no horse he ever owned bar Hindoo and Hindoo was the sire of Hanover was so stout of heart or so glorious a racer If the removal of the meta ¬ carpal nerve affected Hanover adversely he did not show it for the operation was performed at the close of his threeyearold form and he was as good if not better later on than he showed when a three threeTrephining Trephining as radical as was resorted to In the case of South Trimble is rare but the operation is not uncommon when there is serious trouble with the molar teeth of a race horse horseThe The man who makes a specialty of treating race horses must be far broader in his knowledge and range than is the average physician who treats hu ¬ mans alone or he cannot hope to get the rewards that go to the advanced veterinary surgeon That these rewards are big there is no doubt The men who engage the skilled veterinarian believe In paying well for good service and not money alone but sentiment plays a part with them in their racing ventures A J Cassatt once sent for a great vet ¬ erinarian and asked him to do all in his power to save The Bard There never was another horse Mr Cassatt owned that he had w much affection for as ii Alul M0 fiver owned a better one cither e told i the veterinarian lie would rather lose every iPfc Tc 1C OWId A fair estimate of The ooo Im7a Im7ai1 i1 ° hat 1 erloa I w bably would be 30 seilTin nOt haVC temtcd Mr c satt to tciaxfCtrlnaan examined the horse and prom promhono TlS d ° S bGSt but h ° l le hono hope fnr for The Bard had lacerated one of his intes ¬ tines a desperate Injury in the case of a man and worse in tue case ot a horse Nof only did he s yi The Bard but the following spring The Bard beat Hanover in the Brooklyn Handicap and earned his place in the Valhalla of the American turf Chuctanunda turfChuctanunda the pride of General Sanfords heart and probably the best horse that fine old sportsman ever owned broke his leg at Saratoga Chucta ¬ nunda was not destroyed A great veterinarian put Chuc in slings encased tbe broken leg in plaster of pans and Chnctanunda as soon as the broken bone knitted went to General Sanfords farm Hurricana to be the lord of the broodmares The broodmaresThe principal veterinarians have their own private hospitals or infirmaries near the race tracks Most of the operations they perform are standing ones that is the term used when the horse Is operated on just as he stands Very few thoroughbreds arrfput on the operating table Owners of thoroughbreds have a prejudice to the operating table and to chloroforming a horse This prejudice apparently Is not so general with owners of trotters The owner of the thoroughbred Is content to have his horse treated or operated on with cocaine applied so the animal will not suffer very much further than that he is inclined to balk at The atThe operation of tracheotomy probably would be performed more often to cure malignant troubles In the throat were Is not for the peculiar sensitiveness of thoroughbredOne the thoroughbred One of the most valuable horses on the turf was in a desperate way from throat trouble some years ago A trotter suffering from the same disease probably would have been operated on at once There was no thought of operating on the thorough ¬ bred but the animal recovered much to the surprise of owner and trainer and possibly the veterinarian but it took two years for the horse to become cured curedTo To the lay mind the Idea of cutting a horsas throat or a humans throat to cure disease or eradi ¬ cate trouble is uncanny but the surgeon can go far with safety In the opinion of a highly accom ¬ plished veterinarian the most remarkable operation of this kind ever performed was that on Lillian Wilkcs a trotting marc owned by J H Shults of Brooklyn Generally speaking the thoroughbred Is not so likely to require the operations of tracheo ¬ tomy as the trotter Thoroughbreds hare fewer throat troubles than trotters but what they lack in that field they more than make up In another not ¬ withstanding they are watched over with greater care than perhaps any other possession of man VJA In VJAIn every well regulated stable the temperature s9 every horse Is taken at least once a day Without the thermometer the trainer would be handicapped seriously In an establishment like that which James R Kcene bad in this country the tempera ¬ ture was taken twice first thing in the morning and at dark The food of every horse was examined cleansed measured and watched At the first sign of rise in temperature or of failure of a horse to eat heartily an examination was made If the trouble was not trifling the veterinarian was sum ¬ moned Mr Kecne got detailed reports of the con ¬ dition of his big string twice a day He is author ¬ ity for the statement that he cave as close atten ¬ tion to his horses day in and day out year in and year out as he did to his most Important stock market operations upon which millions of dollars depended That was one reason why he headed the list of winning owners nearly every year New York Herald
