home  > Latest News Items > March 2003, Item 30.

Main News Desk 

Back

Yutaka Mizuno Ph.D, director of the racehorse hospital at Japan’s Miho Training Centre, posed the question: Humans look after our own feet with quality running shoes, so why not treat horses the same way? Thoroughbrednews.co.nz reported Mizuno told the Conference: “Running shoes are known to reduce the shock of ground contact & also maintain the active force peak during the stance phase, as well as having adequate grip feature to avoid slipping or from tripping over.

Our Polytrack woodchip track has resulted in a remarkable decrease in the numbers & incidence-rate of fractures in horses, which may be credited to the high shock-absorbing character of the surface. From this point of track characteristics, the implementation of the woodchip track resulted in a great success in preventing accidents during training.” The Miho Training Centre is home to approximately 2300 racehorses, mainly trained on the woodchip track & a sand track.

The Polytrack is composed of a mixture of disposal electric wire tube, polyester fibre & silican sand, whose every particle is coated with wax. The track was put into use in 1993 & statistical data shows occurrences of bone fractures in horses started to decrease at a remarkable rate in 1994 & after 1997 it levelled off.

TBA Latest News Items

Thoroughbred Breeders Australia News Headlines