They Don’t Shoot Horses
May 2nd, 2009
Unsettling article about euthanizing horses at a race track — a historical look back, set against the experience of a vet and a horse that “took a bad step.”
As she nears Heelbolt, he is facing away from her. He’s calm, but she can see he’s standing on only three legs. His left front ankle is dangling and shattered, attached only by skin. Two arteries are split. Blood is everywhere — on his leg, his hoof, the grass. Wow, this is a bad one. Canady has seen this type of injury before, and she’s seen how horses react to it. Some grunt and snort and thrash. Others, seemingly unbothered, try to run. But in her 12 years as a vet, she has never seen a critically injured horse do what Heelbolt is doing now. Eating grass.