UCalgary research aimed at improving chuckwagon horse safety

Calgary, AB – Horses are a marvel of physiological engineering. With powerful lungs, large hearts and legs that can bear a considerable amount of weight, they have the potential to be top athletes. But like their human counterparts in competitive sports, horses working at a high level of physical exertion have a risk of injury.

Dr. Renaud Léguillette, DVM, PhD, professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM), who has spent many years researching ways improve the health, safety and performance of horses at the Calgary Stampede, is now studying the surfaces chuckwagon horses run on with a look to reducing the risk of leg injuries.   

"We are looking at track conditions and how different footing, at varying depths and levels of hardness, can impact the legs. So the impact on the hoof and on the bones of the forelimbs in horses galloping at full speed on the Stampede track.”

Dr. Renaud Léguillette, professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Calgary Chair in Equine Sports Medicine

Léguillette has teamed up with an expert in exercise-related human tibial fractures, Dr. W. Brent Edwards, PhD, in the Faculty of Kinesiology, and with Dr. Thilo Pfau, PhD, who researches high performance equine biomechanics and is jointly appointed in the faculties of Kinesiology and Veterinary Medicine. The project aims to support the Calgary Stampede in efforts to optimize track conditions and continually  improve safety. 

Prior to the Stampede, the researchers ran chuckwagon horses on different levels of footing depth and firmness over distances of 100 and 200 metres. The horses galloped with a rider at full speed with sensors to measure acceleration and impact on the legs. 

“It’s a great collaboration, with the goal being to improve the safety or help prevent what we call catastrophic failure during racing, which is where the horse gallops hard and then suddenly there's a fractured bone. Which happens also in humans, by the way, not just horses,” says Léguillette.

In the prevention of leg bone fractures during racing, the track is one of the parameters that can be controlled. To collect data on different track conditions, sensors were placed on the horses’ hooves, cannon bones, and radiuses, using saddles fitted with a device measuring all the data.

“I'm not saying we'll immediately find the perfect track condition, but we are measuring and documenting and will be publishing our results,” says Léguillette. “It’s cool because it's a collaboration with human kinesiology, veterinary medicine, the Stampede, and the chuckwagon horse owners are absolutely behind this project and are really great to collaborate with. They just want to make it work,” says Leguillette. “This is a nice, nice project.”

Media inquiries

Kristen Anderson 
Manager, Communications & Media Relations, Calgary Stampede
403.470.7688
kanderson@calgarystampede.com

Collene Ferguson  
Manager, Marketing and Communications, University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
403.472.0206
collene.ferguson@ucalgary.ca

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