Toe Grab Finale

Quite a race Saturday, but this snap shot really got my attention. Take a look at the position of the right front leg of Street Sense in the photo.You'll see the leg near the end phase of the stride with the fetlock sinking to the track surface. The next motion on that leg is straight backward at maximum speed with the whole weight of the horse at 12,000 lbs/square inch, and then forward again to the beginning phase of the stride. This shot shows the perplexity as to fetlock integrity in this vulnerable position. When you consider Notional and Ravel and how those injuries can happen, focus on this photo.

Adding a significant toe grab to the end of the hoof in the picture, and you'll understand the sort of thing we were trying to figure at Eureka Downs in 2000 with our own toe grab experiment.

Multiple questions: would a grab in the position shown in the photo slow down the stride, speed up the stride, put more pressure on the fetlock-suspensory apparatus in this position, less pressure? There are multiple possibilities and so you may answer these questions yourself differently than we did. The process of visualization is to think what occurs as the foot first strikes the ground heel first, and then follow that motion of the hoof on through the stride from the top of the fluff of the sand on down to the base and and on back. You consider the force applied by the toe grab in all stages of the stride. And then you consider also the other types of shoes available in the same sequence.

What to conclude then as to the injury effect of a regular grab in the position shown in the photo? The answers on close analysis may surprise.

Note first that the fetlock sinks regardless of shoe. And, does the fetlock sink to this degree with every stride, or is this sort of sinking action reserved to the latter stages of racing when the suspensory apparatus fatigues, or, perhaps this sort of sinking merely is an awkward step or optical illusion? I rarely see this degree of sinking in real time and conclude that sinking to this degree is occasional. Hence, the concern vis a vis adding a grab to the photo is minimized somewhat IF the leg is in the postion only on occasion. I've never watched extended slow motion photography, so this represents merely my speculation. Logically I'm unable to think fetlocks would hold together if the above photo were an "every stride" thing.

Secondly, as you imagine the stride continuing from the point shown, there will be a forceful action of the hoof backward to finish the stride, then forward again. Would a longer grab impede this motion and put more force on the fetlock than a Queens Plate without toes? Yes is the simple answer, BUT the degree of impedence depends on the composition of the surface and particular resistance of the surface. If the surface is deep sand, would even a long grab at speed really impede all that much, or by the same token apply all the much more pressure to the fetlock? And, if the said effect of the grab in deep sand is fairly minimal, would the injury effect then be all that much greater than a toeless Queens plate sliding around on ground contact?

A justifiable conclusion is that the grab would seem to have "some" negative effect with the degree being unknown even if some of the toe grab studies attempted measurement. Statistically horses race in grabs all the time, and in any given race the injury rate is small. Such stats would seem to provide some significant evidence of safety and point to other injury causing factors. If Street Sense was wearing front grabs, which he probably was for Nafzger, he was out trotting a mile Sunday morning.

Grabs have to be considered as a training-injury variable. My own answer fearing the unknown as illustrated in this post is to use the lowest grab that is competitive. Significantly, after much thought, Level Grips rather than Regular Grabs are my shoe of choice. On a deep surface, as I noted last post, the answer is other than conclusive against regular grabs, and so I'd personally go to them to compete. I would do so, however, with some apprehension.