Racehorse a Winner? The Answer May Be in the Neck

Thoroughbred racehorses have long been measured in hands, but a veterinarian says fingers may be a good way to evaluate a young steed’s future prospects on the track.

Dr. W. Robert Cook of the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine said he has developed techniques that appear highly effective for evaluating whether a thoroughbred horse was born a winner.

“You just need one index finger on each hand,” Cook said.

Cook uses his fingers to measure two parts of a horse--the muscles on the horse’s voice box and the width of the horse’s jaw. Both, Cook said, determine a horse’s ability get sufficient oxygen to give it an edge in a race.

Cook has been studying an inherited disease among horses known as recurrent laryngeal neuropathy, which he said affects up to 95% of thoroughbred horses to varying degrees.

Horses that have the disease experience a progressive deterioration of a 6 1/2-foot-long nerve known as the recurrent laryngeal, which travels from the brain to the chest and back to the muscles of the larynx, or voice box, in the neck.

Although the voice box of a horse is used to make naying sounds, its primary importance is to act as a valve--opening to allow air into the lungs when the horse breathes and closing when the horse swallows, Cook said.

As the nerve that controls the muscles on the larynx deteriorates in horses with this disease, the muscles on the larynx atrophy and become smaller and the function of the larynx deteriorates.

By placing one finger on each side of a horse’s neck and comparing the size of the muscles on either side of the larynx, Cook said he has learned to gauge the extent of disease in an individual horse, even among very young horses.

In addition to measuring the voice box muscles, Cook said he has also found that horses with wide jaws also appear to do better in races. A wide jaw, Cook said, provides more oxygen for the horses.