A necropsy could tell if the animal had any 'congenital' defects. Are they really congenital in the classic sense-when they are bred into a horse?

ESPN did a piece today on horse racing and I heard something in the piece (the program was Outside The Lines) that shocked me.

One of the experts said that horse owners have 'plastic' surgery done to horse to make them more presentable to possible purchasers. What I got out of the piece was that people will take a horse that does not fit the criteria of a racer and have whatever defect corrected.

The conversation went in another direction.

If a man marries a woman that has undergone surgery and expects their offspring to inherit some traits from her, he is in for a surprise.

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I think someone posted that all the horses in the race were descendants of one horse.
I think that a cover-up or shushing up a report would cause more problems.

How?

If a necropsy finds out that there is a defect in the ankle or lower leg of EB it would serve as an alarm to all the owners who have horse from this genetic line.

Any horse sold after that -and because lineage is a very special point in the sales and ownership of any competing equine - will be looked at as a risky investment. Will owners look at it as a deriment? Or, will they pooh pooh the news as part of the racing business?

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4 year olds with ringbone, navicular and arthritis that are quietly shuffled out the back door of Big Mister Pleasure Trainer's Barn and off to the auction they go without their papers.

This is a telling statement. I'd like to believe that most of the animals end up stuck inside a stall for six days, 23 hours a week and ridden by some rich twit that wants to own a horse to keep up with the Riches Next Door.

"My horse was a race horse and I saved it! Now it's safe in a stall where it only runs for a hour a week!"