"Flipped palate"?

M

mrussell

At the Start
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Bill Mott, talking of Ice Box said:
"Ice Box, we scoped him after the race and he was clean," said trainer Nick Zito, who also sent out Fly Down to run second in the Belmont behind Drosselmeyer, who he handily defeated in the Dwyer Stakes. "However, he did displace, he flipped his palette. He's an excitable horse - he's a Pulpit - out of a Tabasco Cat mare. It was very, very hot down here. We didn't catch a break that way. The last two days he was ready to explode; he was ready to do something and he probably left his race somewhere else other than the race track."


What's a flipped palate, anyone know?
 
Thanks, Rory.

Came acrosse this:
"[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Displacement of the soft palate is a common cause of upper respiratory noise and exercise intolerance (i.e., poor performance) in racehorses. Horses affected with this disease are described as "choking-down" or making a gurgling noise, and they seem to be running well until they "hit a wall." Palate displacement was first described in 1949 by Dr. Quinlan, a New Zealand veterinarian. What is especially surprising is that Dr. Quinlan was able to figure out that the palate obstructed the airway during exercise even though endoscopes were not available at the time. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]What is the soft palate? It is a structure that separates the food pathway from the airways (Figure 1, which shows a normal horse). Air flows in and out of the lungs through the voice box (larynx) above the soft palate. Palate displacement results in the palate moving up into and obstructing the airway when the horse exhales (Figure 2). Note that in the left view of Figure 2 you can clearly see the voice box from top to bottom (normal), while the bottom is partially obstructed in the right view of Figure 2 (displaced). The right view is what a displaced palate looks like when the horse inhales. When the horse exhales, airflow catches and lifts the palate so that half or more of the airway is blocked (Figure 3)."[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]No 'figures' available.[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]More at [/FONT]http://www.scef-inc.com/duchame.html
 
Quite a lot of horses flip their palates. Often it can be a nervy thing. Tajjree used to do it - you can usually sort it quite easily by running the horse in a noseband and/or a tongue tie. Sometimes they can do it at home yet it doesn't affect them in a race. One of the pointers I ride is quite vocal in flipping his palate yet it doesn't stop him in a race and no jockey had ever commented on it. Quite possibly he is more relaxed in a race - he can be a bollox at home to ride especially coming off the top of the gallops jumping around and bucking and its then that you hear it most.
Sometimes if a trainer thinks it it affecting them badly, they will get it operated on and I believe they use a laser to trim it. I would imagine though there are alot of horses out there who have this problem and it just isn't picked up just because the rider isn't listening out for it.
 
Nice to know it's easily looked after -- and a reason for a tongue-tie.
Do they wear tongue-ties also just to prevent swallowing it ... or is that just a daft idea?
 
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