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HEART DISEASE IN HORSES English Turf Writer Cites Example of Willonyx as Marking Advance in Veterinary Science. The London Sportsman publishes an article by the "Special Commissioner" in which he discusses the interesting subject of heart disease in horses, which has never been easy to diagnose. The disease was considered almost impossible to discover in a horse until the recent death of Willonyx, which confirmed the findings of E. H. Leach some eleven years before that the stallion was suffering from heart trouble. The "Special Commissioners" remarks on the subject follow : I write subject to correction, but I have always understood that heart disease in horses is almost impossible to diagnose, and the fact of Mr. Leach having discovered it in Willonyx eleven years before his death seems to mark a distinct advance in veterinary science. I have reason for what I write, because some fifteen years earlier I was instrumental in buying a Hanover horse name Hand Or for Maj. James Piatt. He was certified sound for racing by the best-known American veterinarian, and was insured for the voyage to this country and a year. This was done provisionally in the absence of instructions from Major Piatt, who, when he was advised of what had been done, said he did not want the years insurance, and that was accordingly canceled. The horse arrived safely and was sent to Foxhall for the late W. T. Robinson to train. After a few weeks he began to show brilliant promise, but was never the same two days running and finally, after about six weeks in England, he dropped dead at exercise, heart disease being the cause. "0 CAUSE FOR ACTION. Major Piatt contemplated taking action in the United States for the return of his money, but before doing so he consulted the ! then president of the Royal Veterinary College, who advised him that heart disease in I horses could not be diagnosed, and that no action could be maintained against a veterinary surgeon who had failed to discover it in the case of Hand Or. There must have been a great advance in knowledge since then, for it was in 1911 that E. H. Leach refused to pass Willonyx for insurance on the ground of heart trouble, and we now know that he was right, though the horse lived eleven years after that date. It seems strange to think of a record Cesarewltch winner having heart disease, but I am wondering whether in horses, as in men, the heart is not at times unduly tried. What is called an "athletic" heart has often compelled young athletes to go slow for a good many years, and it seems reasonable to , suppose that the series of long-distance races which Willonyx won as a four-year-old, the Chester Cup, Ascot Stakes, Ascot Cup. Cesarewitch and Jockey Club Cup, may have strained his heart and set up the trouble from which he ultimately died. To all outward seeming he never was so well as when he retired from the turf, and I know Sam Darling much regretted that he was not to be kept in training another season, for he fully expected a continuance of improvement in the late maturing son of William the Third. But it looks now as though the colt had done more than enough when he was turned out of training, and it is quite certain that his vitality had been so far sapped by his strenuous turf career that he failed to make good as a stallion in his early seasons, and after that he was no longer fashionable, so that his chances were few and far between.
