Thanks for the update, Ron!

Not being a horse person, I am wondering how a horse can get bruised fetlocks. Is it simply accidental or is there a predisposition based on anatomy..or possibly some other factor? Of course, I am really wondering just how serious this is...can it have any future racing implications for our boy, Nicanor?

I look forward to learning about fetlock bruising, from all of the horse people (I hope that term is not offensive to anyone) who seem to always jump in and provide the facts. :-)))...thanks!

OMG!!!!...I hope u get better Nicanor...take it easy and don't worry about the track...it'll wait for u

I do so hope that the bruises are not serious or long-lasting. How we do dote on the Barbaro clan! They are like family to me.

Could someone explain to us what a bone bruise actually is? I've read Smarty Jones had a similar problem with all 4 legs at one time or another. Is this where the horse actually hits the leg with another leg? And what do they do to treat it. Will they walk Nicanor around for awhile or will this include light exercise after a week or two?

I hope you are feeling better soon Nicanor.

Good to hear that they are going to be patient and let this heal up correctly.  No reason to rush him back. He will prove himself.  Just give him time.

Thanks for the update - we have all been wondering about the injury.

Give Nicanor a hug,tell we all still love him!

Nicky get well on your own time OK?  We love you and we just want you well.  One thing I know for sure is that you do have the best humans on the planet taking care of you.  :)

Lots of carrots and apples and peppermints from the west coast.  ♥

Thanks for the update on Nicanor, how is Lentenor?

I AM GLAD TO HEAR THEY ARE TAKING IT EASY WITH NICANOR. IT SOUNDS VERY CAUTIOUS AND I HOPE ALL IS WELL WITH HIM. HOW DOES A BONE BRUISE OCCUR? DOES IT JUST TAKE TIME OR CAN IT BE MORE SERIOUS LIKE A CAREER ENDING INJURY? IN ANY EVENT, I JUST HOPE AND PRAY ALL IS WELL WITH HIM. I AM SO GRATEFUL MICHEAL FOUND THE INJURY BEFORE HE RACED ON SATURDAY. I THINK WE NEED TO HEAR MORE STORIES ABOUT TRAINERS MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS ABOUT NOT RUNNING HORSES. IT COULD DEFINITELY HELP RACING'S IMAGE BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THERE ARE JUST AS MANY POSITIVE STORIES WHERE THE HORSES COME FIRST AND CLEARLY NIC'S BEST INTEREST IS FIRST AND FOREMOST. A BIG HOORAY FOR NIC'S CONNECTIONS!!!

hope he get's better soon

Thanks for the Update Ron...

    Hope Nicanor Heals Safe and Sound, There is no rush, I would have to estimate, If and when he is completely healed, Maybe 3-4 Months until he is back in a Race?, Others would know better then me, I am just going by what I have read regarding this type of injury, Without knowing the specifics of the Bruised Fetlocks(Bone Bruising), I am guessing maybe a couple of months off, Then two more months to get back into Race Condition?

"JAJ" would know better then me...

Get Well Nicanor...

Glad to hear he's doing o.k. and they are taking their time with him.

Thanks Ron for the update, we were wondering where you were. Glad you'r back.

Sweet Nicanor, lots of prayers and love going out to you for a speedy and full recovery.  Can't wait to see you back on the track, romping and loving the wind in your mane.

glad to hear its not very serious. Thank Goodness. Maybe be bck to training in a couple days.

Thanks Ron for the update.  Just a couple of questions to anyone who would like to answer them.  How does a horse bruise his bones (don't mean to sound stupid; also, is rest the only way to let it heal by itself?  Do they still exercise him to keep him from getting stiff?  Any information would be greatly appreciated.  I just want to know how they treat it.  And I'm sure MM is not going to get Nicanor into any training before he knows Nicanor has healed.

God speed your healing Nicanor.  I'm certainly praying for you.

Were praying thats everything is OK Nicanor cant wait to see you out doing what you love again!

Thanks for the update on Nicanor. I completely trust Micheal Matz to do what is best for him.

good update about nicanor and i hope he will be able to race again soon

Is he interfering with himself?  Can he run with boots like sport horses do to prevent whacking one leg with another?

Gotta admit I'm a bit surprised that those of us with $5,000 hobby horses use them but they're rare on the "way out of my price range" race horses ;-)

Aww poor Nicky. Take it easy and get better soon with no trouble. Can this injury ruin his career? I'm just wondering cause I don't really know what these bone bruises are. Are they bad?

Nicky has been in a lot of people's prayers. Hopefully, he will be well very, very soon, but don't rush him!

Barbaro is watching after him...

Glad to hear its nothing too serious hope he's ok. Glad to know the team is looking out for his well being and not just trying to make money with.

Ouch! Sounds very painful! It would be interesting for a vet to comment on how serious an injury this is for a horse. I would guess it takes quite a while to heal, but at least it's sounds better than a fracture.

thank for the update. . .

wishing Nicanor the best.

we all applaude Michael and the

rest of the team for taking care of our boys.

a bone bruise is similiar to what big drama had when he kicked himself earlier in the yr and was off for about two months or so after being operated on. but his was a internal bone bruise. but the injury that nicanor has i think it's when they brusie the outside of the bone which probably resulted from him stomping at flies or trying to kick off flies from his hindleg and accidently hitting the bone against the wall. since it occured on a hind limb thats the only cause that i think that it resulted from.

look under www.horsemanshop.com/legailments.html,look at "capped knee" a very simple explaination of whats going on with our belove Nicanor....or just look up "Capped Knee Horse" and it will pull it up....

Beautiful Nicanor get well soon....

   Hi to FOB:)  Here's hoping our good friend Nicanor gets better quickly, heals quickly. I am just glad he is with us, wherever his career goes from here.

  I agree that it is important to point out when owners, trainers handle these wonderful horses with care and respect that is deserved.

Much acknowledgment to MMatz, for as usual, putting the horse first. I will never tire of hearing praise of trainers like him. I think it is for the good of horseracing to acknowledge this.

I'm guessing the bone bruising around the fetlocks could be interference from the other legs. I don't know why they don't train in boots (bell boots, etc.) but I can see why they don't race in anything other than wraps (as far as I've seen). I would think the less "stuff" around their legs is actually safer than one horse getting tangled up in another's boots. Sporthorses don't go head to head with another horse on course, thus the interaction that would be on the track is not there. But I would like to hear a professional opinion on the do's and don'ts of boots in training/racing.

young horses do it a lot when running, they clip themselves with thier own hooves, I do believe he has done this once before?

Hope Nicaanor will be ok, thanks to the connections for putting nicanor first he is in good hands. darlene.

FYI,

    Part of Nicanor's Treatment includes Electromagnetic P3 Treatment(An effective, non-invasive therapy that restores missing electrical charges to damaged cells, allowing cells to re-attain their natural electrical charge. The deep stimulation opens the lymphatic system and allows the body to transport waste products out of the tissues thus relieving soreness. It is a very deep massage that helps increase blood circulation to the areas being treated.)

     Here is a Video explaining the P3 Treatments(Thanks Jim C.):

www.fairhilletc.com/p3.html

Here is some information I Googled on Bone Bruises, in PEOPLE. Caveat please, I do not intend for any of this as directly referring to Nicanor, only as a start in understanding what is going on:

www.thedisabledlist.com/treatment-bone-bruise

www.netwellness.org/.../38627.htm

www.nlm.nih.gov/.../19649.htm

www.nba.com/.../TT_bone_bruises_040712.html

Anatomy:

www.theequinest.com/anatomy-of-a-horse

www.allabouthorses.com/.../horse-anatomy.html

I don't have a lot of time to look right now but I cannot believe how hard I'm finding it to get a good picture of the bones in the lower leg.  Most farriers will take out the real thing or a copy to show you the fundamentals of the feet and shoeing, etc.

The seriousness of a bone bruise depends on where it is and how deep the bruising is.... It can happen as a result of any kind of a whack or from concussion. I've never seen boots used on a race horse but you certainly see LOTS of leg wraps used, both for support and protection.

Bone bruises are funny things, and can happen in all athletes, whether humans or horses.  There's a human diagram here:

www.nlm.nih.gov/.../19649.htm

It's a compression injury, so maybe he kicked himself, or maybe he's just running too hard for his bones at this stage of his life.

While not breaks in the bone, bruises still require the bone to heal itself, and that can take a very long time if the bruise is big enough.

Swimming is sometimes good for these injuries as they keep the muscle mass up and the cardiovascular system running well while taking the weight off the injury.

We all know Nicanor is in good hands, so we'll hope for the best and he'll be back on the trail come fall.

Poor guy...

Bone bruises are basically just that. It is an injury to the bone caused by some sort of trauma which harms the bone, but does not fracture it.  Depending on the severity of the injury... he could be out for awhile.

Bone bruising is just what it sounds like. Could comes with wear and tear on the track day by day. Or did something like a mis step.

That is what ended Smarty Jones career (they said). It has ended Musket Man's year. So can be very serious as far as length of time to recover.

Will have to wait and see.

get well soon, Nicanor!

I have been googling half the day trying to find our the how and why of a bruised fetlock but the more I read the more confused I get. Sure wish there was an easier way of finding out the why so if someone knows please enlighten me.  I see good things when I read and bad things and not quite sure which our Nicky has.  Geeze Louise it seems that nothing is that easy to understand about horses.  All I can say is we wait and watch and hope that he will race again in the near future after he heals.  Seems that is what Smarty had only in all four legs, no wonder they retired him to stud, would have done the same thing for the good of the horse.

I don't usually post on this particular blog, but bone bruises are basically the same in humans or horse.

Usually caused by impact, they are compression injuries, not a fracture, but bone bruising.

Bone bruising is technically, bleeding that occurs under the tough fibrous covering of the bone called the periosteum. Definitively detected by MRI ONLY,

bone bruises went undetected, misdiagnosed and undiagnosed in humans until the advent of the MRI.

Like I said on another blog it’s a  pretty commonplace injury in humans or equines, Musket Man etc?

This colt? Could be from any number of things, from impact/concussion of feet hitting the track, to him kicking the stall (Matz said initially it was the hind legs).

Depending on the severity of the bruise it can take weeks for the mild bruises, up to months to heal for the most severe.

(talking about humans here but relative to equines as well).

The immediacy of treatment (icing usually in humans), a lot of things will determine how quickly he can return. But the Matz comment of day to day? Sounds like it’s not one of the more severe cases.

Hi All, My horse Bellagio has a bone bruise and is under the care of Dr. Richardson.  It's not serious or career ending.  All it requires is R & R.  Bellagio has been out since the beginning of the year.  He seems fine now but after having an MRI done last week the doc stated that he is about 85% to 90% healed and we should wait another two months.  So it may be a while before Nicky runs again depending on the how bad the bruise is but he'll be okay and he will be back.  

We missed you Ron, getting a little worried about you.  Glad to hear Nicanor is healing.  I wonder also what exactly is a bone bruise and how does it happen?  How long does it take to heal?  

hope he gets well soon. good luck to all at fair hill.

Our prayers have been answered -- Nicanor will be just fine.  Take it slow, big guy.  No rush getting back into shape.  We love you and want you to be happy and healthy.

Sometimes the bone bruise comes from inteference, sometimes it's called a bruise when it's really a sprain....

I suspect what Nicanor has is a concussion injury.

A bone bruise, as far as I understand it, is when the cancellous bone (the lattice-like center that contains most of the bone's blood vessels) is damaged.  There might be some collapse and bleeding/edema inside the bone.

Depending on the severity, it could take a long time, possibly even a year, to heal.  My guess is he is off for months.

I would think that he will be hand walked only.

We'll just have to wait.

I forgot to mention that Matz' description,"He has some bruised fetlocks -- bone bruising..." is very ambiguous.

A fetlock is a joint, comprising of the first pasturn bone (P1), the cannon bone, and two sesamoid bones, plus the ligaments and tendons to hold it all together.

I find it incongruous for a bone bruise to be in the fetlock joint, since the joint is really just cartilage.

He must have bruised one (or more) of those four bones.  It is likely to take a long time for him to recover.

Bone bruises are actually a common athletic injury in all athletes, humans included....they are in essence a sub-periosteal hemotoma (periosteum is the covering on the bone for those who don't know)...they can come from hitting a leg hard on something, or from twisting a joint (ie. twisting ones ankle)...they can take 2 weeks or longer to heal, and depending on the cause (which isn;t always evedient) can cause arthritis and have been known to end race horse careers (mainly becaise they can take a while to heal, and timing for planned races, versus stud potentual)...here's a link to some general info about bone bruises: www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/.../bone-bruises

Thanks for the update.  I like others would love to learn what type of injury this is, what causes it and how it gets treated.

Thanks for getting back to us on Nicanor. We appreciate any and all infomation that we can get. Day to day sounds better than the announcement that Musket Man was thru for the year due to a bone bruise. Hope Nicanors' bruise is not that serious.

Get better Nicanor and come back bigger and stronger than before. Love you.

Thank you so for the update.  I too would like to hear more about what a bone bruise is and how a horse gets one.

Bruised fetlocks can occur in several different ways.  Overreaching with the hind feet is one - the horse "raps" himself, so to speak. Most likely the bone bruises Matz refers to are bruises of the periosteum - the membrane covering the bone - and can come from hard ground or excessive concussion. This time of year, it could conceivably result from the horse constantly stamping his feet due to flies.

The periosteum has a lot of nerve endings, so no wonder it's painful.

WHAT IS A BRUISED FEDLOCK IS THAT SERIOUS??? CAN A BRUISE MESS HIS CAREER UP???  OH NICANOR I WILL PRAY FOR YOU EVERY NIGHT I KNOW GOD AND BARBARO WILL WATCH OVER YOU. LOVE YOU BIG BOY

You guys need to be "horse people"! The fetlocks are the back of the ankle bones on a horse. Shaggy hair grows there. They can sometimes hit the front ones with their back feet while running, causing bruising. Healing usually just takes time and lots of cold water.

I feel so sorry Nicanor got hurt.I don't know how a horse gets a bone bruise, but recovering from a bone bruise myself after falling...I know the pain of that in my Tibia bone. And being a horse I can just imagine supporting all that weight on injured bones that he might be looking at a lengthy healing time. I myself was told I could take up to a yr before the bone bruising which the Drs compared to like getting a hematoma in your flesh only on the bone. God speed Nicky and may you recover sooner than I will. Hoping it does not end his racing career. These are the first details we are seeing now about what he injured. I will have to talk to my friend later today and call her and ask her what excactly happens with bone bruising. Her Brother in law used to own a stable of standredbreds and raced them till his death. She will tell me for sure.

To Penny in TX and all:

Thanks for your concerns about my whereabouts. 12-hour days at the sales are exhausting and only leave time for sleep and food when not at the sale. I love the sales though and it's a big part of my job. I had delegated oversight of the blog during that time (including posting of your comments), especially in light of the injury, but it didn't get done. My apologies.

Nicanor, take it easy and rest up. We love you ane even if you never, ever race again, we will love you. My family is taking a trip next year and want to visit Nicanor....whether that's at a racetrack or at a farm or other place where he will stay.    

Suzanne,

    This blog is about Friends of Barbaro, it is not about dedicated horsemen.  Many of the people are both, it is out duty to educate those that are not.  By being patient and explaining things to those that do not understand we can possibly indoctrinate them into the fraternity of true horsepeople.

The information provided by those on here about 'bone bruises' is correct for the most part.

The fact that Mike said it was originally the left hind, then the fetlocks indicates it is the hind fetlocks.

Like I said it's a 'compression injury'. Whether human or horse, the physiology of it is basically the same.

Impact or force are what cause compression injuries. Injuries with impact severe enough to cause damage, yet not result in a fracture can and do cause bone bruises.

As with any bruise, it involves bleeding. Whether a soft tissue bruise which results from capillaries breaking under the skin, leaving small layers of blood to build up under the skin or the bone bruise which is (as I previously stated)bleeding that occurs under the tough fibrous covering of the bone called the periosteum. Both bruises can have some complications but are relatively straightforward in treatment and it depends on the severity of the bruise, how long recovery time will be.

As I told Ragsy on another blog, look up Capped Knees. Not that it is the fetlock, but that it gives a good description to lay people as to what a bone bruise is, just disregard the bursal enlargement, look at the 'bruise' description.

I'm speaking on human terms, that is my specialty, but a bone bruise is a bone bruise.

For the person who said we need to be thinking in terms of the horse, I have numerous horses but this is applicable because a bone is a bone and a bruise is a bruise.

Ron, the sale was about as brutal as expected. Although a few went pretty decent. But it never fails, the ones I WANT always go big...LOL

No problem, Ron.  Only 24 hours in a day - human or equine.  I will continue to look for updates.  Sounds like Nic is out of training for 2 months MINIMUM so lets hope for a 4 year old campaign.

Tim G,

I'm not sure that bleeding under the periosteum  is called a bone bruise, but you might be right.

I know for sure that damage to the inner core of the bone causing bleeding/edema is called a bone bruise.

Based on Matz' comment linking fetlock to a bone bruise--I have no idea what is really going on.  As far as I know, a joint (the fetlock) doesn't get a bone bruise since it is cartilage.  The bones above and below the joint might be bruised though.

But, really, it is pointless to argue back and forth what type of injury Nicanor has because the information Matz has given doesn't say a lot other than suggest he is in for a long layoff.

Ron:

It's good to hear you're okay - just a little sleep deprived.  Thank you for the update - you know how we all wait to hear any news about what's going on.

To everyone else who has provided information - thank you for you time, knowledge, resources and concern.  I am not as educated in this area so I require a little patience, but I do plan on continuing my education concerning horses.

Thanks again.

Sorry to hear Nicanor will be out for awhile.  I think he can be even better at four.  And I'm wondering again about the soundness of the Dynaformer - La Ville Rouge progeny.  Others have made far more informed comments than I could, but it is troubling to me that here's another brother with hind leg injury.  I know horses hurt themselves all the time, and that the connections are taking the best care of Nicanor, I don't mean any criticism; but it does make me stop and think.  Maybe these horses need to take it extra slow and even racing at age three is a risk.    

Tim G, many thanks to you for comming over here and helping with the fear we people had about the injury to Nicanor...it really is benificial to us...in understanding exactly what happened....

A speedy recovery to our Nicky.  He's in the best of hands. Mr. Matz is one of the best trainers there is and puts the welfare of his horses first.  There will be many  races in the future for Nicky to race in.  Dynaformers are late bloomers and Nicky has a long career ahead of him.  His health and soundness is of priority.  

Nicky Nocks.  Just coming over to say hey.  Hope you are doing OK and taking care of those feet.  Thanks Ron for the updates.  Lots of love here for Nicanor and we just all want him to be safe and sound.  

Kisses in your soft nose Nicky and peppermints too.  ♥  Get well sweet colt.  

Springsmom83, well said.  It has been 30 years since I owned a horse, so any information I get from this site is greatly appreciated.

JAJ, Tim G, hrsahle, thank you for being so informative. You have explained a lot.

Hmm, can't find my short blog I wrote yesterday afternoon concerning Nicanor's future.  I had said I hoped this wasn't spelling "retirement."  

It also seems like we have a lot of vets on this blog.  Everyone knows what might have gone wrong.  Does anybody REALLY know what happened?

Thanks to Tim G and JAJ for their informative posts.  If anything, people are learning a few things, as am I.  Dealt with quite a few things with horses but never a bone bruise.

Lobieb said:

"Geeze Louise it seems that nothing is that easy to understand about horses."

Amen!

Lameness, especially.  Had a horse who presented some swelling and heat in a front leg.  Treating the leg was necessary but was only treating a SYMPTOM.  Good vet found it was compensatory strain on that front leg for the OPPOSITE hind leg.  Some arthritic issues in that leg.  Upshot was I quit trying to teach horse to jump and horse was fine for other endeavors plus we treated the hind leg and managed it.

In another instance, filly stepped in hole in a new pasture. (That we had walked 5 times to check) Minor issue (She was catty and caught herself very fast) resolved in the leg quickly but chiropractor found soreness in the back, opposite again, the leg with the issue.  Explanation: horse caught itself but in so doing caused some compensatory stuff to happen elsewhere.

So yes, sometimes it's not the obvious and sometimes there is more going on than meets the eye.  Bit of detective work since they can't tell you where the problem really is, sometimes.

On July 22,'09,Ragsy wrote that"she read somewhere that

the Jacksons had said that they do not want to give any

additional information of their horses or themselves due to the over exposure of

Nicanor...to the public".

Is this true?  Are we to blame

because we are so interested

(ok,in love with)in Barbaro's

family,both human and horse?

I am so sorry if they feel that too much attention has

been paid to Nicanor,but I am

puzzled how any race horse

can escape attention and any

member of this family is going

to receive a lot.  I don't post

often but I read this blog

every day so I guess I'm one

of the guilty.  So sorry if it's

true..........

Zia, I stated what I read on,

" OMG, Nicanor scratched due to a leg injury" and when I read a statement I lost it because I love even the unborn horses that will be future foals and brothers and sisters of Barbaro....if its true I too am just sick.....

Dear Sweet Prince, My thoughts and Prayers go to you.  May your Wellness be restored to you in Full!

LOL,

Carol (Friend of Barbaro and co.)

Nicanor!!! Get well soon!!! We all wish you a quick, and HEALTHY, SAFE recovery!!! <3

horse skeleton:

www.kersur.net/.../skeletalsystem.html

picture of lower leg skeleton:

en.wikipedia.org/.../File:Equine-dist-forelimb-bones.png

and accompanying Wiki:

en.wikipedia.org/.../Equine_forelimb_anatomy

Basically, where you see the leg top being straight down, is where the fetlock joint is, area where third metacarpal and proximal phalanx meet- of course this picture does not show all the cartilage and stuff between bones.

I sure do learn a lot from this blog. Instead of thinking soundness of Nicanor, visually picture Nicanor as he is racing down the track. Nicanor has long legs. As those legs move back and forth, they are coming into contact with a quarter back in January and now a fetlock. It is conformation issue as opposed to a soundness issue. Now this may sound totally wacko as I am certainly no horse or bone expert, but why don't you place one of those industrial strength sponges inside of those bandages that you usually have wrapped around all four of Nicanor legs and try a different pair of shoes, preferably ones with softer soles. And maybe those shoes soles should extend in back and in front of the hoof a bit.

And I mean no disrespect M.M, with this suggestion. I believe Nicanor will be back, but I as I think Nicanor liberally uses those limbs of his on the track, he will have issues again. And I would like to see Nicanor show the doubters of this world that siblings of superstar-greats like Barbaro can also do outstanding jobs on the track. I guess I like Nicanor as much as I do because, he always tries his best for everyone and like Rodney Dangerfield, he really doesn't get "any respect."

BloodHorse was kind enough to obtain a video of Nicanor and Lentenor. We have a host of conformation experts on this blog, How does Lentenor's conformation compare to Nicanor's and Barbaro's? No one has really approach this subject yet.

And by respect, I don't mean what the legions of fans say about Nicanor, but comments like when the announcers at the track say here comes the sentimental favorite on the track or people are placing a bet for sentimental reasons at a track. The only reason someone should be placing a bet a track is to win money. If you want to do something for sentimental sake, i.e. for Barbaro, send some money to an equestrian rescue program.

In my previous entry, I may have said something profoundly stupid or profoundly helpful to the Jacksons. I will probably never know. But at least I got it off of my chest.

Nicanor, I have you in equibase, so even if Michael Matz and the Jackson's never, ever talk about you again, I will know when you are feeling better.

JAJ, Really? Hmm, that's my specific field so odd that I don't know what it is.

If you'd like it from another source, here is from the laymans source, the medical encyclopedia:

"There are three types of bruises:

Subcutaneous -- beneath the skin

Intramuscular -- within the belly of the underlying muscle

PERIOSTEAL -- bone bruise"

Technically it's referred to as  sub-periosteal hematomas’

I didn't want to get too technical about it did add a bit on another blog, but, here goes:

The damaged area occurs in the medullary portion of the bone.

How does it get to that inner area? A compression injury and bleeding UNDER the tough fibrous covering of the bone called the periosteum.

The subcortical epiphyseal marrow cavity consists of cancellous bone that usually demonstrates fatty marrow at all ages. The normal marrow signal on MRI parallels that of subcutaneous fat, being high on conventional T1-weighted and intermediate on T2-weighted spin echo sequences. A typical bone bruise appears as an area of signal loss within the marrow on T1 images and high signal intensity on T2 images, as a result of the water content of the injured marrow. With advancing MRI techniques, further information can be gained with Short T1 Inversion Recovery ("STIR") imaging in which the signal from normal medullary fat is markedly suppressed and hence bone bruises are highlighted with increased intensity.

That is how you determine a particular bone bruise via MRI.

Whoa...a couple things to get straight..

When Nicanor grabbed a quarter on his front hoof, he did that with his hind foot.  It is not that uncommon to have some interference occur this way, especially if the horse stumbles or the ground is less than good.  You want a long striding horse but the converse is that you might get a clip sometimes of the front hoof by the back.  If the interfering continues, then you might try to address it with shoeing but my experience with that is with saddle horses, not race horses.

Grabbing a quarter, unless it happens over and over, is not a conformation issue.  It is a matter of the front leg not being able to clear the ground ahead of the back leg.  Usually, that is an issue of balance, as when a horse stumbles or is bumped, or the ground gives way.

We will probably never know what incident caused the bone bruises in Nicanor's back legs, whether from work on hard surfaces to kicking stall walls.  

Nicanor's hind leg issue is not the same as the front quarter grab. Nor is it the same as what happened to Barbaro.  If you look at videos of horses, you will  often see that there is only one leg on the ground.  If the horse is bumped, stumbles out of the gate, or hits a bad spot in the track, the ability of that limb to handle the weight of the horse plus the forces added due to speed can result in an injury. If a horse has to quickly alter stride to keep from falling, and they will do whatever they can not to, they might not be able to place that foot normally.

If a horse strikes a front leg with a back while running, I suppose that could bruise the bone but it is far more likely to cause tendon problems because that is what would be hit first.

As for bell boots (protective boots over the feet) and leg wraps- my understanding is that they are far more likely to cause trouble at speed than anything else they might do.  A horse grabbing a boot at speed might result in a wreck if the boot did not give way immediately- and if it did that, it would not provide protection.  Wraps or leg boots coming loose at speed...oye...

At this point, there is simply not enough information to make an educated guess, which is all we are really doing on the blog.

There is also not enough information to infer that it is a hereditary issue.  What happened to Barbaro could happen to any race horse.  Nicanor's issues are simply not the same.  

Young horses are quirky, sometimes clumsy, young kids.  For all we know, he might have just had an "enthusiastic" moment and landed wrong.

So sorry that Nicanor has been injured.  I haven't really seen anyone say that they know for sure how it happened, though. Having seen the video of Nicanor kicking out in annoyance over having his blinkers put on -- isn't it possible that he may have done something similar in a place where his kicking foot / feet encountered something even harder (or by some similar accident that went unnoticed when it happened)? That type of injury could happen to a horse with any sort of conformation.  

If, on the other hand, this injury happened through interference -- hind feet hitting opposite side leg -- if this is confirmed, a farrier can trim the hooves differently so that the fetlocks are discouraged from any tendency to bend inward (picture something similar to the idea of "knock knees") and fetlocks and feet will then take a different line when moving and so stay farther apart -- the trimming and shoeing of the feet can affect the way feet and legs function just as much as conformation.  Also, the shoes can be set so that they are back a bit from the inside edges of the hooves to reduce the chance they will strike the other foot or limb.  Or, (although in US thoroughbred racing the states have varying rules about this), the shoes could be dispensed with altogether - it has been done in UK, see YouTube video: "Saucy Night has made Barefoot history". Saucy Night is a steeplechaser who never won anything until trained and raced barefoot instead of shod, and it's quite a lovely story, with before / after pictures showing the improvement of his feet, also.  

I don't normally post on this blog, but follow Nicanor and Lentenor's progress here.

Sorry to hear thata Nicanor is injured right now.

For those of you that are more visual in your learning, maybe this will help you in visualizing what a bone bruise is.

Picture one of those styrofoam "boards."  Take your hand and press it into the styrofoam very hard.  Notice that the styrofoam stays compressed.  That is what a bone bruise is like and this is what the other people above mean by a compression injury.  The lining of the bone and the bone itself while not fractured is still damaged.  Because of the high amount of blood supply to the bone and its lining, there is bleeding which is what causes the swelling. The bone will have to repair itself which takes time depending on the severity of the injury.

Hope this helps.

AGrimm

Tim G,

That is my point.  A bone bruise, as far as I understand it (having had a NASTY one in my hip that took over a year to heal), is in the bone marrow.  Your technical writing backs me up.

The cancellerous bone is the matrix on the inside of the bone.  By layers, the outside of the bone is covered with the periosteum, a thin tough membrane.

The cortex is the outer layer of very dense bone.  That is what gives the bone its strength.

Inside is the cancellous bone, which is a loose arrangement of bone that does absorb some concussion.

Ron-Thank you so much for the update on Nicanor. I look forward to future updates on Nicanor's recovery.

Many thanks to Bloodhorse for this blog on my favorite equine family.

JAJ, I am not even going to ask how you bruised your hip, but hopefully it is feeling better. And hopefully we will get word on Nicanor's condition sooner than later.

HorseFirst, sometimes I throw stuff out to the horse people just to get a reaction. It does liven up the conversation a bit.

It does raise an interesting point though. As I recall, Nicanor cut himself last January grabbing a quarter. If there was contact from another hoof or foot, how come no one mentioned a cut or bruise to the outside of the front leg?

I just hope and pray that as Nicanor is still a relatively young horse that his bruise heals up quicker than JAJ's bruise did.

Aftet all the explanations of a bone bruse, it sounds like Nicanor will be out for some time. Since our big boy is resting and healing, maybe we can get an update on Babynor. Haven't heard anything since the adorable video of him was released. I bet he has grown a lot since then. Would love an update and maybe a picture or two. Ron??? Can you make that happen?

In the meantime, I wish Nicanor well wishes and plenty of peppermints. We'll all be waiting for your retun. Take your time getting back to being ready to run again. We all want you healthy and happy.

Ron thanks for the update, hope it will be something he can heal quickly from, but time is not the important thing here.

Hope you can post something about Lentenor soon.

a bone bruise is common in atheletes. they can comen from the impact of the legs hitting the ground hard. They are as it indicates a bruise to the bone. They can be very painfull. I had one on the tibia of my right leg a couple years ago from a fall. They can act like a fracture and can take awhile to heal.can't be seen with xrays bur by an MRI.

FYI.  See they have posted some new pictures of Babynor on the Mill Ridge website if anyone is interested.

Kathy-

"HorseFirst, sometimes I throw stuff out to the horse people just to get a reaction. It does liven up the conversation a bit.

It does raise an interesting point though. As I recall, Nicanor cut himself last January grabbing a quarter. If there was contact from another hoof or foot, how come no one mentioned a cut or bruise to the outside of the front leg?"

I am most concerned that people learn about horses here and that they get the right information.

As for Nicanor grabbing or cutting a quarter and there being no cut or bruise to the outside of the front leg- it is not at all uncommon.  Nor was it ever mentioned in anything that I read that he ever hit more than just the heel of his front foot.

First, the horse only interfered to the extent of hitting the quarter of his hoof.  That's on the backside of either side of the foot, including the heel, and is very low to the ground.  It would be uncommon to hit anything else on the front leg with a back foot.  If he had hit his leg vs. his foot, we'd have been hearing more about it.  That would have meant a probable almost-fall.  Horses just don't interfere that high up within stride.  If they did, you'd really notice a funny, awkward way of running and you'd probably not have EVER seen Nicanor in training much less on the track.  It is most likely to happen, if it does, when horses are coming out of the gate, trying to accelerate fast and they are not "in stride" yet.

That said, hitting a tendon with a back foot can happen, not trying to say it doesn't.  In that case the back foot contacts the area between the knee and fetlock on the back of the leg.  The front leg tendon runs down the back of the cannon bone.  This is NOT what happened to Nicanor.  However, Man O' War apparently had it happen twice.  Read Dorothy Ours book on Man O' War for a very well researched look at this horse.  MOW had a very long stride and little known to the public at the time, had twice hit the same tendon with a back foot.  However, if I recall correctly, both times he had lost hind shoes and in the first one, at Harve de Grace track, should never had been entered at all with the track as deep and heavy as it was with the weight he was carrying. Feustal did not want him to run but Riddle decided he would.  Here is a case where you have conditions that keep those front feet on or in this case probably in the track too long, slowing them down and allowing the back feet to get too close to the front.  Additionally, at least in non-race horses, the weight of the shoe behind might slow that foot a little.  MOW had lost the back shoe or shoes so I'm SPECULATING that allowed the back feet to "speed up" a little. Plus the weight bearing is pretty much up front so the back feet might have not had so much to overcome to get out of the deep going.  That is just SPECULATION on my part and others with more race horse experience can correct me here.

Conversely, a lot of horses do just fine with shoes up front and bare feet in the back.  It has just been my experience with three riding horses that you can with shoeing, very modestly:  speed up the front feet and slow down the back.

Rode one horse with a very short back that had quite an over-stride.  But, never an issue or so much as a clip.  Horse did pull a front shoe off when being silly- IN A STALL.  

If you look at slow-motion of horses moving, they are a marvel of coordination.

Horses can interfere with themselves, especially in the front, if they are not straight in the front legs or do not travel straight.  It is more likely to have a front leg hit the other front leg in that case.

Nicanor, in what I have read, DID NOT hit is leg.  He clipped the quarter on his FOOT in that first race.

No matter where Nicanor's career takes him now,he is still loved and treasured as a very special horse,that is guaranteed.

Poor Nicanor. I`m glad it`s not seriouse, horses will be horses though. I swear, you could stick one in a padded room, leg wraps, nose guard, helmit, boots, and a muzzle, and it`d still find a way to hurt itself, it`s their tallent.lol! Their great creatures, but so delicate.

I`m sure Nicanor will be back on the track eventually though. As long as he isn`t retired.

Lou in TX, for updated pictures  on Babynor go to millridgefarm.com for some recent picturs.

Thank you for your insight and knowledge HorseFirst.

I misread a comment awhile back and I am glad you clarified that it is an injury to the hoof.

Penny in TX....thanks soooo much for the tip on the pics. I kept checking there at Mill Ridge and there were no pics even after the video of Babynor came out. Glad to see they got caught up. He looks about like the same age as the video of him but any pics are better than none. Thanks Mill Ridge for sharing them with us.

one week since last news...i hate to be a downer but its probably serious since not much info is being disclosed :(

get better and be strong like your big bro

ps while your taking the time off get all that growing out of the way

Fetlocks bruised....this happens when the horse's fetlocks touch the ground due to longer pasterns when galloping or racing.It's no big deal, it's not an injury to worry about it.Mr. Matz is taking the right road being patience.Horses with this type of conformation do it often.You can take the fast road and inject the horse with some analgesic and go on or you can let it heal with time....Mr. Matz is taking the save and right road to recovery through time.Mr Matz is a HORSEMAN and  he is doing the right thing .... He does things for the love of the horse.

Hi!

The information regarding Nicanor's injury(ies) is inadequate whereby it leaves many of us with many more questions than answers.

Furthermore, why not give us, the fans, an explanation of certain terms used in the blog, for example, what is a fetlock, and how does one get it?

Some of us are not horse persons; we have never owned a horse nor taken care of a horse nor fed a horse, etc. We are fans!

So how about being more forthcoming with information regarding Nicanor's injury(ies), etc?

Nicanor does have a lot of fans who are overly eager to hear news of him whether it is good or bad.

Keep the information coming, please.

Why doesn't Mr. Matz have a website pertaining to activities going on in his barn, training areas, photos, etc? Fans for the most part love to read news of their favorite horse(s) and see some photos of them.

Lots of love to Nicanor and Lentenor.

Thank you!

Hi!

I just read that Nicanor was sent to the New Bolton Center, the same place that Barbaro went after his injury.

I pray that Nicanor's injury is not too serious.

Could someone let us, the fans, know how Nicanor is doing by providing specific information on his injury and recovery?

Many of us on this blog are very concerned about Nicanor and are very eager to hear news of his injury and recovery.

Thank you!

God love you, Nicanor!

Lise from Maine,

I think many of us horsepeople on the blog do try to write with the non-horseperson in minde.  If you don't understand a term, just ask.  A Google search can answer a lot of your questions.  I do try to keep racetrack jargon to a minimum, but it does creep in.

A fetlock is a joint.  It is also called the ankle in horses, although a horse's ankle/fetlock are not the same joint as a human ankle (which would correspond to a horse's hock joint).  Do a Google search for a picture.  From the top of the leg down, you have the elbow, the knee and then the fetlock.  The knee on a horse corresponds to a human wrist.

You complained that the connections to this family have not been forth coming, but I think it is unreasonable to ask for the kind of information you want.  Horse racing is a business that demands keeping that sort of information private and confidential.  We should be thankful that the Jacksons and Matz give us ANY information.

Lise from Maine

The Jackson's are the greatest people I know in the horse world. They know of our interest in their horses and try to keep us informed as need be. They always put their horses first. Ron is doing a great job in trying to keep us up on the latest about Nicanor, Lentenor, Babynor and the new filly that is coming. We the public are only that, the public. We are informed on as a need to know basis which is the way it should be. Believe me, I crave info on our boys & filly  daily but do realize that isn't going to happen. We have to be patienet and be glad with what we do hear. It's far more than other fans of other horses get to know. We need to be greatful. So calm dowm and just enjoy the news we do get. Glad you are a fan and please stay with the FOB's. Maybe you can help us come up with a new name (Band of Barbaro's Brothers) since we need to include a filly now. We need suggestions from all.

I hope Nicanor gets better. I mean I kind of new that the Virginia was to big but I was kind of thinking maybe you need to let Nicanor have a brake. I mean two injuries as for as I know and right now he is just lucky he didn't break his cannonbone or sesamoid bones. I am worried about him.I mean I want to see the full brother to Barbaro do great in his career.Im just saying how I look at this and I hate it he got injured and I hope he gets better really quick and get on the track with maybe a little rest before he does get on the track.GO NICANOR!!!!