Keywords: cruelty, horse racing, Thoroughbreds
Horse racing and cruelty charges
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January 24, 2009
Jan Hoadley
Horse racing and cruelty charges
This is a topic that is more misunderstood and with more focus than any other. There are bad actors in EVERY INDUSTRY. Cops. Teachers. Religious leaders. Politicians. Sports stars. Should we ban all of them because a minority of them do cruel and stupid things? That is the same thing animal rights activists want of horse racing. Scratch that. THOROUGHBRED racing. Yes it is targeted. There is very seldom mention of Paints, Appaloosas, Arabians, Standardbreds and others in comparison including mules. It is the most visible - Thoroughbreds that get the black eye. There is absolutely no way on earth to beat speed into a horse. No matter how much the whip is used a horse is only going as fast as his genetics, heart, body and talent will let him. Some relish in a challenge while others quit, and some are better one day than the next. However, the blatant misinformation often spread is wrong. The idea that race horses are weighted down unfairly - when the fact is you can SEE in the program how much weight each horse is carrying. The riders weigh in before saddling and mounting up and weigh out on leaving the track. Most horses run with 110-126 pounds and for a horse weighing over a thousand that, proportionately is nothing. Comparison - for a 150 pound person it's a 15 pound amount or less. This is not even close to the nearly 150 pounds carried by the forgotten champion Roseben in his day. This is not close to a futurity colt with a 45 pound saddle and 140-180 pound rider. What is inhumane is having a horse with a broken leg that has no hope of repair or a normal life and keeping it alive just for the sake of not euthanizing it. THAT is cruelty. Horses with injuries are not put down just to cast them off - they're put down because the very constitution of the horse does not allow for a recovery. Some years ago there was a beautiful bay three year old colt, not a top level horse but he always did his best. He suffered a fatal injury and every attempt was made to save him. A veterinarian administered oxygen, but could not get the bleeding stopped. When it started to clot he couldn't breathe. After almost two hours trying to save him it was clear he was suffering and the decision was made to euthanize him. His groom shed buckets of tears as he, despite his injury, trusted her to take that walk out to the side of the barn where his pain would be removed. I was that groom - and the injury DID NOT occur on the race track. It happened in a pasture. Horses support roughly 60% of their weight on their front end. The horse has no muscles below the knees and hocks - only a network of bones and tendons. If either of those is gone so is the support for a horse to be on his feet. Horses cannot lie down for six weeks of bed rest. Without standing the blood does not circulate properly. A sling is a poor substitute for short term use, but does not eliminate those two things. When too much stress is placed on those legs and it is not balanced on all four feet laminitis can develop - and it was laminitis that resulted in Barbaro's euthanasia. It was also the reason for the death of Secretariat and a long list of other champions and unknowns. The example in an article by Bernice Pritchard featured on Helium.com of Jeremy Rose hitting the horse in the eye so he "apparently was given the ok" to do it is not only bad reporting but outright slanderous. The fact is he got a six month suspension for that incident and a poor horsemanship mark from a good share of the racing community. Of course considering the source accuracy is not a major focus there. There is much said about drugs in racing - and it is a topic that is being addressed for the good of the horses. However, I don't recall NEARLY the uproar in the animal rights community for the four horses at the Olympics disqualified due to doping. Now I realize that isn't racing and doesn't fit the plan and maybe there's the view that it's ok to drug horses as long as it's not Thoroughbreds. There are horses with catastrophic breakdowns in other sports, in stables and in pastures. Given the same kind of injury there is the same result - the horse is euthanized. Catastrophic injury resulted in the loss of "Teddy O'Connor" earlier this year also. There is no human being that can force a horse to perform outside his capabilities. There'd be 17,000 nominations for the Kentucky Derby if that were the case! There is no human being that can physically hold a horse that does not want to stay. Horses are bigger, stronger and have a flight response of a prey animal. The fact that they overlook their instincts and allow us to sit on their backs, go along with our requests for speed or not most of the time taking our direction is amazing. They step into our world and we into theirs. Those into Thoroughbred racing solely to make money are bucking extreme odds. There is the occasional "cheap" horse does well. There are 'bargains' like Seattle Slew and there are many more million dollar horses that never pay their bills. Indeed few outside racing paid much attention toThe Green Monkey. He holds a world record for the highest price at $16million. He was second once, well up the track then retired and stands for a $5,000 fee. Genuine Risk, one of three fillies to ever win the Kentucky Derby, had serious infertility issues after her retirement. She was 16 before she had a foal that lived and in her lifetime she had only two. Neither did anything on the track - their claim to fame is their mother made history. Genuine Risk died recently at over 30 years old. She had not been bred in years. How many animal rights people in all the protests sent money to animal rights organizations rather than to a retirement center to care for those horses and allow more to come in? With expenses up they need funds in order to have places for these ex race horses. The fact is MANY horses after their racing - and many before when it is clear they simply do not have the heart and try to race - end up hunters, jumpers, dressage horses, trail and saddle horses, lesson horses, polo ponies. Many well bred horses retire to breeding farms and many are sent to retirement homes but rather than monetarily supporting that most withdraw support because they USED TO BE race horses. There are differences of opinions as to what is acceptable and what isn't. Putting Jeremy Rose, 5 other jockeys, 30 racing fans and 100 people off the street in a room with 30 animal rights supporters and there would be no agreement what is and is not cruel. Some things can be cruel in a given situation but not in another. The whip for example is a tool. It extends the reach, it encourages the horse to go, it serves as a means of correction, a way to get their attention and - in the wrong hands - a weapon. Getting their attention might be shaking it. Those who say they would never ever hit a horse then don't communicate in a horse's language. Horses can communicate VERY physically. They bite, kick and strike harder than we can with a whip and for longer in some cases. The halter horse industry never rides many of the horses - indeed some are never broken to ride. The abuses I've seen in that industry far outweigh those I've seen on the race track. It's not done with breakdowns that are euthanized. It's done mentally; it's done to win to have a pretty horse to look at. As someone with over 35 years working with horses there have always been and, unfortunately always will be, those who treat animals cruelly. These exist in the "rescue" and shelter and animal rights world too! It is far past time to stop the judgments and think of the animals first. There are those who win because they have that something special to give every ounce of effort they can. A classic example of this was in the 1988 Breeders Cup Distaff. Personal Ensign was in her last race before retirement, undefeated at top level. Winning Colors, who won the Kentucky Derby, led and seemed to have an easy win. She was ahead by daylight with Personal Ensign 8 lengths out of it on the backside. She threaded horses and coming out of the turn and at the sixteenth pole Personal Ensign appeared to face her last defeat. The announcer called "HERE COMES PERSONAL ENSIGN..." and in the end she got up to win by a nose in a photo finish. A champion, undefeated filly who exudes class even now as an old mare. She was relentless in her last race and takes nothing away from the brilliance of Winning Colors. There were several outstanding fillies in that field that day, but these two were supreme as two of the greatest race fillies in history. Winning Colors sadly was euthanized earlier this year due to colic. At this writing Personal Ensign is retired both from racing and breeding and spends her days with other older mares. There are a great many classy old horses that activists aren't even aware of. There are many who get the time to heal and because their nature is such they can try another career they have a career off the track. There are people involved who love the horses and ARE emotionally involved with them. Perhaps the biggest cruelty is that they are accused, judged and convicted with the same brush as those who see any animal as disposable. Nothing could be further from the truth but sometimes there is not a choice. On the track, in a field, in the show ring and in pastures around the world there are catastrophic breakdowns that cost horses their lives. It's not a racing exclusive.
Posted by Jan Hoadley
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