TCM and race horses

[Guest guest]

This last Saturday, the favorite horse Barbaro

running in the Preakness Stakes (and who had

already won the Kentucky Derby), shattered his

ankle out of the gate. The incident, witnessed

live by a large TV and radio audience, has

remained a headline news item over the last 3

days. In the past, such accidents have usually

led to " putting the horse down. " An in-depth

article in the New York Times (23 May, page C17)

reports how advances in veterinarian medicine are

greatly improving Barbaro's chances of surviving,

and along the way a couple of curious statements to a TCM reader.

 

For instance, in the days post surgery, the vets

watch for " signs of infection at the surgical

site or in the lungs or intestines. " The danger

of local infection is self-evident, a curious choice of other organs at risk.

 

Further on: " One of the basic problems … it is

dangerous for [horses] to lie down for any length

of time. " (The classical taxation (lao) of

excessive lying down damages the lungs.) " Because

of their weight … they also get congestion that

makes them prone to pneumonia and can develop

intestinal troubles. " Interestingly, Again, the

metal organs. In some correspondence schemes, the

horse is associated with metal. E.g. in Felix

Mann's book on acupuncture, p. 94, the

" beneficial meat " for metal is horse. (Hopefully,

Barbaro won't have to go this route.)

 

" Horses are surprisingly fragile… bred for

winning at the expense of soundness. " I.e.

distortion of jing. " They're very perfectly tuned

racing machines… just like a grand prix racer,

they don't have a lot of redundancy designed into

them. " 'Redundancy' I read as flexibility and

resilience, richness of yin and yang, surplus of

qi and blood. Like a lot of patients seen in our

fast-paced societies, living too competitively,

too close to the edge of their resources (jing).