Keeping any horse sound can be a tall order. Keeping a Thoroughbred racehorse sound is nearly impossible. That doesn’t stop Wes Champagne from trying, though. “No horseshoer can keep a horse perfectly sound,” says the Arcadia, Calif., farrier. “They all get injured eventually, but farriers can try to prolong their longevity.”

The ball has dropped. Toasts have been made. Another year has passed. Father Time has relinquished his mantle to Baby New Year. But before running headlong into 2017, it’s a good time to reflect upon 2016. After all, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The life of one of the most promising racehorses of our time was cut short in 2006 after a long struggle to recover from a shattered fetlock. Barbaro’s injury at the Preakness Stakes and the heroic attempts to save him by the New Bolton Center at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine drew a lot of attention to the question of why so many young performance horses suffer from broken bones and ruptured tendons. Are these kinds of injuries inevitable? Should we give up trying to solve this problem?