Calgary Stampede officials say a horse was put down on Wednesday evening after it was injured during the chuckwagon races.
The outrider horse was part of Chad Harden’s rig and was transported by ambulance to the barns for assessment.
“In the ninth heat of the chuckwagon races last night we did have an outrider horse sustain an injury. It was assessed on the track by a veterinarian and then loaded into a horse ambulance and taken to the back of the barn, barn area,” said Jennifer Booth, Manager, Public Relations.
The horse suffered a fracture to its lower front leg and vets determined that it would need to be euthanized.
“The veterinarians determined it did have a lower, front leg fracture and it was subsequently euthanized,” said Booth. “It was determined that the injury was too severe for the horse to survive.”
Officials say the injury is common in racing horses and is not unique to chuckwagon racing.
“It’s an injury known to horse racing, not specific to thoroughbreds but horse racing. These things do happen, they’re extremely rare and we do everything here at the Stampede to ensure that they do not happen. As much as we can create safe conditions and make sure that the very healthiest horses are out on that track, we do that, and that’s as much as we can control,” Booth said.
Booth says the horse did finish the race and did not go down on the track.
The Stampede says that the outrider horses are owned by the chuckwagon drivers and the outriders are then hired to ride the horses for them.
