Letters to the Editor
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"I've learned to accept injuries as a consequence of a sport..."
Well, isn't that special? He's learned to accept injuries! That's really great!
Now, if only the HORSES could learn to accept injuries! After all, they're the ones actually running the races (and occasionally dying) for Mr. McClelland's amusement.
Fuckwit.
You're a sorry excuse for a human being if you've "learned" to accept this inhumane, barbaric "sport".
Maybe someone should whip you into running and we'll see if you fall and break a leg or better yet, just have a heart attack. I think I could accept that.
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Cruel or not cruel, bad track or good track . . .
Horses' ankles are not supposed to break.
If a horse suffers such an injury, it means it was driven too hard.
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Don't blame physiology
Yes the legs of a thoroughbred are different from a Clydesdale's but this is the result of breeding and should not be stated as justification for the sport.
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It's a stupid sport...
and I am using the term sport here loosely.
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Start racing them when they are six
There oughta be a law. The last three races I have watched (on TV) a horse has been destroyed. They aren't fully matured until they are about six, a horse lover friend of mine has informed me. So train them gently on grass for five years..and gently on a a forgiving surface for one more and then when they are six (or better 7) let them race. These are teenagers...not fully grown.
The only way to fight this is through the corporate sponsors. Don't buy their stuff , and let them know that, if they are going to sponsor these cruel races. I'm not watching racing on TV again..or anywhere else either.
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Ashamed of you, Salon
Why, exactly, are you running this drivel?
I have a farm with a dozen horses, both mine and boarders, and some are CANTER retirees. The plight of the racing horse is a sad one, indeed. Racers are raced at a time when their bones haven't fused and when most equine athletes in other sports are either still maturing or being trained very gently so as not to compromise their growth and future performance. But the racing horse, already designed precariously, isn't mentally or physically mature, and it's being run hard. This alone would be pretty sad, because it is the root cause of the injuries.
Consider, however, the future of the racing horse. More or less all of them are retired by age 6, and they are neurotic wrecks, on average. The good news is that, physically, a horse that has raced successfully for 4 years is pretty sturdy. The bad news, however, is that almost none of them have been properly socialized or trained in a way that allows them to be directly repurposed by pleasure riders. So their chances for a second career are pretty remote, particularly when you consider that most 6 year-old horses who haven't raced are typically at their peak. So a lot of retired racers end up at slaughter.
Speaking of slaughter, a lot of horses are bred and don't ever make it to the race track at all. Those lack the right conformation, have the wrong temperament, or are merely not competitive enough, and they are sold as fillies and foals to slaughter to save their owners the cost of raising them or rehoming them responsibly.
The sport of horse racing comes at considerable cost to the animals, and most of the impacts can be addressed merely by not planning to raise disposable animals solely for spectacle. Meanwhile, this sport deserves no defense regarding the cost of doing business, which is the horses' lives.
Oh, and it's really classy to blame modern audiences for being shocked when an animal dies. I operate a farm, and I participate in a variety of equine sports, and I've never seen it myself. Which is because other equine sports aren't predicated on the deaths of their participants.
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It's past time to end horse racing.
No animal should die in the course of entertaining people. Eight Belles' is the latest horse racing fatality to get people wringing their hands...before they reach for that next mint julep.
For a so-called civilized race, we're pretty damn barbaric in the way we treat other animals. If we truly mean what we say about valuing compassion and mercy and, for some of us, a loving god, then we need to end immediately the following abusive practices of so-called "entertainment":
1. Horse racing
2. Dog racing
3. Rodeo (pure cruelty to animals)
4. The use of elephants and other wild animals in circuses.
That's just a beginning, but it's a good start. And for those horse racing fans who think I don't know what I'm taking about: tell it to Eight Belles.
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breeding will tell
surely the desire to breed faster, showier horses plays a part in injuries like Eight Bells' and Barbaro's. Since thoroughbreds have become a product, bred by commercial stables, the horses have become more efficient racers as adolescents. But they have also become less healthy (shorter life spans, much shorter span of general good health, much shorter time being able to carry a rider even when not racing), and more vulnerable.
We've about reached the limit of what "natural" horses can do: the current racers are too young, overbred and overmedicated (racers are routinely given painkillers *before the race* so they won't slow down in pain from a slight injury). (Just like we've perhaps reached the limit of what "natural" athletes can do without the assistance of drugs, steroids or nano tech). It is time for the racing industry to reconsider standards.
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Bullshit
In the first half of the 20th century, when racing was one of the most popular sports in America, most fans had ridden horses on farms, or seen them pulling carts and carriages down city streets. They understood the animals' weaknesses and were not as shocked by death on the racetrack. It's more difficult for modern audiences to bear.
In the first half of the 20th century, thoroughbreds had not yet been over-bred into the extreme spindliness of leg we see today.
And the horses people saw injured on their farms then, and still see today, are not fragile thoroughbreds but strong, healthy saddlebreds and quarterhorses.
I'm a Kentuckian, horse rider and race fan, but the industry is destroying itself by refusing to make necessary reforms.