| Someone can correct me if I am wrong, as I'm not exactly a horse expert. But I remember from the whole Barbaro thing that if a horse isn't able to put weight on one leg, they overbear on their other leg, causing laminitis to set in (kind of like an infection). With Barbaro, he couldn't put any weight on his broken ankle, so that forced too much weight onto his other leg and it is actually the laminitis and eventual pain that caused them to put him down. With Eight Belles, she broke both front ankles. They were compound fractures, meaning she would not be able to put weight on either leg, meaning she would suffer and eventually have to be put down anyways. It all boils down to a very large animal with farily skinny ankle joints and a weird circulation system. Maybe someone with more animal knowledge than me can elaborate on that. |