RIP Mckelvey

I second that! I have no issue with horse sports, I have issues when McK was asked to run yesterday only 1 year after near fatal injuries! Ask any vet whether he could run again after those injuries let alone in the GN and im sure they would say the same.
 
 
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Incidentally, does anyone know why last year's winner didn't run again? If I remember rightly that was written off due to injury by Paul Nicholls(sp?), moved yards, bodged and ran to win. No heroics there IMO. Horses in that level of competition shouldn't just be sound and fit, they should be in ultimate physical condition. Once they have an injury like that of a tendon tear which will leave a permenant weakness its time to find them a new job or PTS.
 
Thanks, nice to hear he's not permenantly broken down and they're being careful and sensible. Shame they couldn't have done the same with McKelvey.
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I do not dispute the fact that Mckelvey was fit, but can anyone,vets included, really determine the level of fitness required for a horse to run and complete the GN.I believe the risk to Mckelvey to have been a calculated but obvious one.I personally don't believe Aldaniti should have been entered for 1981 GN because of his previous injury history.The GN is not just another horse race, it the most gruelling event in the calender.Any horse that completes the course,let alone gets placed,is very special animal.If a steeplechaser is fully fit with no previous injury history there is a risk, so why in the case of Mckelvey and Aldaniti was that risk compounded.Josh Gifford and co got lucky,Peter Bowen and co did not, but for either HORSE the risk was too great.
 
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I do not dispute the fact that Mckelvey was fit, but can anyone,vets included, really determine the level of fitness required for a horse to run the GN.I believe the risk to Mckelvey to have been a calculated but obvious one.I personally don't believe Aldaniti should have been entered for 1981 GN because of his previous injury history.The GN is not just another horse race, it the most gruelling event in the calender.Any horse that completes the course,let alone gets placed,is very special animal.If a steeplechaser is fully fit with no previous injury history there is a risk, so why in the case of Mckelvey and Aldaniti was that risk compounded.Josh Gifford and co got lucky,Peter Bowen and co did not, but for either HORSE the risk was too great.

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so are you suggesting that vets are wrong in passing event horses unfit to run as well??
 
But how is last years injury relevent??? The horse collided with a barrier while loose!!! He unseated his rider - didnt even fall himself just pecked and carried on completely fine, ears pricked and enjoying the sight!!!
He got injured last year yes, but his trainer must have felt he was ready for this, and his death was NOT AT ALL related to his injury, so why bring it up?
 
Has it been confirmed now that Mckelvey did collide with the rails? In the Independent it just says that he was humanely put to sleep due to a severe injury?
 
No i am not suggesting that vets are wrong in passing event horses unfit to run.In just about all cases that would be obvious on course. Mckelvey showed no VISIBLE signs that he was unfit.But i do believe the RISK was enough not to enter him in the GN.
 
Oh also who here actually knows what the exact injury McKelvey sustained in last years GN was? What was the severity(and not just what you've read in the papers - what did the VET say?), where in the tendon exactly was the injury and what treatment was he given? Without this information I think no one can honestly say he wasnt or couldnt have been fit to run. I agree that in many cases a year off wouldbe the absolute minimum, but Im sure he had plenty of scans and tests -not just a trot up to test his soundness.
The media publishes news stories - often in a manner of "sensationalism" especially tabloids, so if these are your sources o information, I suggest you abstain from commenting unless you REALLY know the whole story.
 
Silver Birch was sold from Paul Nicholls' in the May of the year before, having raced only a mon th before. Paul Nicholls states there was nothing wrong with the horse when he left his yard (which I would believe).
The horse then ran consistently from September that year until the National, which would indicate he was problem free - the media reports towards anything else were just hype.
Mckelvey visibly broke down on the run in during the National. I know, and most people know that could be one of 2 things. A serious tendon injury, or a knock to a nerve. The on-course vets wanted to 'put the horse down because the tendon was shattered'.
Whatever treatement was administered, any vet worth paying knows that it would be a year off minimum for the tendon to heal and strengthen.
'Electrodes' are stated as the course of treatment, and I know Peter Bowen has a spa - which he states as 'halving recovery time' (in the words of a professional - 'you'd be better off pi55ing on it').
Whatever the treatment was, I cannot respect anyones view that a year off is not the minimum for a serious (which we know for sure it was) tendon in jury.
We all know these new fads come along from time to time, but the Grand National is not the time to test them out.
The fact is the horse went there on the back of 2 poor runs, and must have had a maximum of 4 months rest after the injury. The death may have been an unfortunate coincedence, but doesn't change the fact the horse shouldn't have been running in the first place.
The majority of trainers would be just starting to think about bringing him in from the field abnd doing a months work, before a summer off and then being brought back for a tilt at next years National.
You can't hurry time.
 
If your pet dog was near fatally injured crossing the road,would you send him out again to have another go?
40 horses in yesterdays GN were at risk, for 1 horse that risk was greatly increased. That is my argument. The cold fact is that the 1 horse that was at greater risk is now dead and that death was avoidable.
 
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If your pet dog was near fatally injured crossing the road,would you send him out again to have another go?


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no point...it would be dead.
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For the record I did state that i AGREE that for a tendon injury of any seriousness year off is the minimum required.
 
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I hear what you are saying. I have always had the impression (and I may be wrong) that fewer event horses die in the sport or end up with significant injuries that may result in them being destroyed (whether the injury itself is acute or perhaps more chronic and career ending).
Perhaps I have the wrong impression, but it seems to me that race horses are put under strain at a very young age, before perhaps their bodies are ready for it. Some of the footage I have seen on TV about hundreds of ex-racers being sent to the knacler man and destroyed because they didn't make the grade also was tough to see.
I agree that horse deaths do occur in eventing, but the overall 'attitude' in the industry seems more caring towards the horse IMO. Also, I should think the number of deaths in eventing (horses) is far lower than the racing industry. If I am wrong, please correct me.

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I think you will find that it is the flat racing where horses are started so young - and where many end up being destroyed. NH horses have a different start. Why are people so much more against the GN than flat racing? I think that NH horses actually have a better quality of life than the flat race horses.

There are a high number of horse fatalities in eventing (of both horses and riders). Accidents that occur at lesser events do not always make the headlines.

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Just to backtrack a bit; In my post I never once suggested that the GN was worse than flat racing, or even the other was around. (Or that jump racing is worse than flat racing). I was commenting on how I personally see the racing industry as a whole.
 
Im not ignorant of the seriousness of tendon injuries, nor of the treatments involved and the prognosis. Im studying vet and have just finished the musculoskeletal module involving many hours in lameness clinics as well as tendon and orthopaedic surgeries with some on Europe's top equine surgeons. I jst believe that without 1st hand information about the extent of the injury and success of the tx then we shouldnt criticise the trainer/vet's opinion and decisions about running him.
 
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I knew this would happen, ever since the one show started following McKelvey it was obvious he was going to die

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Any chance you could tell me the lotto numbers this week? I'm moving soon and could do with a few quid!
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Much is now being said that last years injury to McKelvey did not contribute to his death.But I have three questions for the "powers that be".
(a)Why did McKelvey unseat Tom O'Brian at the 20th?
(b)Why did McKelvey jump the 21st awkwardly?
(c)Why did McKelvey run into the rails?
No one can categorically state that last years injury was not a contributory factor unless they could read the horses mind at the time.Was McKelvey trying to say "enough is enough"?
It's no wonder wild animals keep their distance from humans.
Why do we always ask animals we take into our care to "sing for their supper"?
 
I used to watch the race every year and I wanted to ride the course until I saw the fatal fall with the grey One man at Bechers, I appreciate they say they have made the course safer but every time its is run a horse dies this just isn't right. We are all entitled to out own opinions and mine would be happy to see it utterly stopped. These horses would burst their hearts to run for us and yet the winning jockey still used his stick at the end.
 
Don't want to get into another is the GN cruel debate, just wanted to say that about 30 years ago I found a friends youngster lying the wrong side of the hedge to the field we turned her out in. She had broken her neck and was pts, no one made her jump that hedge but sadly she did. Accidents happen!
 
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I used to watch the race every year and I wanted to ride the course until I saw the fatal fall with the grey One man at Bechers, I appreciate they say they have made the course safer but every time its is run a horse dies this just isn't right. We are all entitled to out own opinions and mine would be happy to see it utterly stopped. These horses would burst their hearts to run for us and yet the winning jockey still used his stick at the end.

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One Man never ran in the National.....
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although he did suffer a fatal fall at the meeting..it was in the Melling Chase.
 
That is so correct One Man never ran over the national fences. He did die as a result of a fall at Aintree in the Melling chase in the very same season connections had finally found his optimum trip at the Cheltenham Festival when he won the 1998 two-mile Champion Chase.
The only other high profile grey to run at Aintree in recent years was the gallant Suny Bay who ran 4 times in the Grand National finishing runner up in 97 and 98 carrying 10-3 and 12-0 respectively as well as filling 13th spot a year later and in 2000, with 11-13 and 11-12 on his back.
 
Ok so I'm getting old and losing my marbles howver it was definatly a grey horse who fell at Bechers as the papers very kindly printed pictures as he broke his neck, I am talking of a number of years ago but accept I got the name wrong.
 
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