UCalgary researchers look to reduce risk of broken legs to chuckwagon horses

Broken legs are a devastating injury for chuckwagon horses and a team of researchers at the University of Calgary is exploring ways of minimizing the risk.

Dr. Renaud Léguillette, a professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, is examining how track conditions, depth and dirt compaction affects the hooves and bones of a galloping horse. His team is working with the Calgary Stampede and chuckwagon drivers.

“The track footing is a real science depending on the type of sand you use, the granularity of the sand, the moisture in the track, all of these have an effect on how that affects the legs," said Léguillette.

“So we test the horses in those different conditions and look at how the track is creating an impact on the hoof versus higher on the leg of the horse. Basically, the goal is to try to find a good compromise between tracks that are faster, and a heavy track that is slower but also harder on the tendons.”

Prior to this year's Calgary Stampede and the first heats of the Rangeland Derby — the world's premier chuckwagon event — the team collected data from sensors affixed to the hooves, cannon bones and radiuses of chuckwagon horses as they ran on tracks of varying footing depths and firmness over distances of 100 and 200 metres.

"I'm not saying we'll immediately find the perfect track condition, but we are measuring and documenting and will be publishing our results," said 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."

Chuckwagon driver Jordie Fike, who is a 15-year veteran of the sport and is competing at this year’s Calgary Stampede, is encouraged by the research.

He says horses competing in chuckwagon races are trained for months to strengthen their bones, similar to how humans train for a long-distance marathon.

"Preparation starts about four months out from the actual competition, so you start getting horses in shape and making sure that their bodies are equipped for the work you're gonna put them into, just making sure nobody is sore or has anything underlying," said Fike.

"Like anything, your sport has to evolve and the more research and information you have behind your sport, the more useful it is doing it all the time to make it better because we can't fall behind."

Kristina Barnes, manager of agriculture and western events at the Calgary Stampede, says team members with the chuckwagon event have been collaborating with scientists and researchers for several years.

She mentioned the importance of adapting to Calgary's ever-changing weather not just during the chuckwagon races, but for all rodeo events to ensure track conditions are ideal and safe for competitors.”

"We’ve done ground penetrating radar tests over the last couple of years, we have tunnels going under the tracks, so we looked to see if those areas of the track are different than other areas," Barnes said.

"So if it rains, for example, our team will do something called 'sealing the track' so they smooth it out so the water runs off and then as it stops raining at a certain point in time they'll start to start to mix up that track a little bit more so we can get an opportunity to dry things out."

VANCOUVER HUMANE SOCIETY CONDEMNS CHUCKWAGON RACES

The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) has long been calling for an end to chuckwagon racing, referring to it a "dangerous event" for horses and people.

Over the last two decades, the society has counted only three years in which the event at the Calgary Stampede did not result in horse fatalities: 2003, 2004 and 2016.

In 2019, the last time the races were held at the Calgary Stampede, six horses died.

Emily Pickett, the campaign director with VHS, says she thought the COVID-19 pandemic would inspire the Stampede to reflect and cancel the event, but she's disappointed by the response.

"These tweaks to the races so far haven't addressed what we see as an inherently dangerous structure of the chuckwagon races given that they are run at high speed with wagons taking tight turns and in close proximity to the other horses into the other wagons," Pickett said.

"We really see this as a high-risk event and there's a reason that it's been dubbed the 'half mile of hell' and has contributed to more than 70 horse deaths in recent years."

Pickett adds that the use of thoroughbred horses is also a major concern, because she says they are overbred for speed rather than skeletal strength and it continues to put them at a higher risk of injury or death.

"It is deeply shameful to see organizers regressing toward this archaic, deadly event," Pickett said.