Horse Racing

[Greenday]

I'm curious as to what people's opinions on horse racing are. Personally, I enjoy watching horse races. Only when the weather is at its extremes do I feel bad for the horses. But there seems to be a few things people have against it.

Whips-A lot of people think it's cruel to whip the horses to get them to go faster. What I imagine those people AREN'T thinking about is how the horses are being hit at the top of their legs, which is a huge piece of muscle. This isn't extreme pain to the horses. It's a minor annoyance or discomfort if anything.

Putting the horses down-Probably one of the biggest arguments against horse racing. Horse gets injured enough in a race that it can't perform well again, it's put down. At the racetrack I work at, they give it a shot of adrenaline, then give it the lethal injection. Much more peaceful in my opinion. What a lot of people don't get though, is that these horses were bred to race. They've been training all their lives to race. This is what they know. They LOVE racing. To leave them out in a pasture and have them do nothing the rest of their lives is like torture.

I'm sure there are other arguments out there against it. So what are your opinions?

[AFPheonix]

I don't have a problem with racing per se, but I do have a problem with them starting the horses so young (they start them as yearlings so they're ready to run as 2 year olds). This is a high impact sport, a lot different than the riding I do. It ruins their legs for a bit of profit now, and then they end up all arthritic after they're retired and go off to other jobs and have to be put down sooner than they might have if their legs had been allowed to mature a little more before running them.

I start my babies as 2 year olds, but then all I'm doing at the most is pony loping around the arena. I don't rein, jump or race, I do western pleasure, and I have horses that stay sound for a long time.

[Puckishone]

Not to be pedantic, but it's a crop, not a whip. And as long as a jockey doesn't over-apply the crop, no, there is no lasting injury to the horse, but it's the frantic action as seen from the stands that bothers people.

As for the euthanasia...if it's done to prevent the animal from suffering further due to a painful, irreparable injury, I am in favor of it. If it's to get rid of a no-longer-profitable piece of property, I'd like to see it done away with. Just because a horse can no longer race doesn't mean it's useless. It can be donated to a charity camp for urban children, used for animal therapy, or simply enjoyed by someone as an addition to a farm menagerie. If it's truly "torture" for an ex-racehorse to be put to pasture, why aren't ALL racehorses euthanized once their careers are over? I don't buy that argument any more than the "greyhounds don't want to do anything but run" argument. Animals are incredibly adaptable, and being animals they don't "love" or "want" in the human sense, but react to harmful/pleasant situations accordingly. To be well-kept, fed, watered and protected from undue harm is doing right by animals.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Just a point; jockeys can't use their legs the way a regular rider does and the crop is a leg substitute, not a goad.

And if horses didn't want to race, they wouldn't. They enjoy running and competing against each other, it's natural.

[AFPheonix]

A few of those horses off the track are crazy, though. There was one at a dressage facility that I would handle occasionally, and he'd try to take my head off.
I've handled everything to newborn foals to stallions. This was one of the few that made me afraid to be around it.

Now and again, some horses just don't need to stay alive.

[Greenday]

And if horses didn't want to race, they wouldn't. They enjoy running and competing against each other, it's natural.

There's goes my next argument.

Edit: They had to put a horse down today. The track I work at seems lucky enough that doing that is a rare occurance. Horse broke its leg and kept trying to run anyway, making it severely worse. Some ex-jockey in the picnic areas hopped the fence and stopped it.

[Fuzzykitten99]

I love racing and try to get out to our local track when I can. I love to watch the horses galloping at full speed.

I am an avid rider myself, though I haven't been on a horse in 6 months for lack of money.

I think it isn't just to get rid of a piece of property so much as to avoid several thousand dollars of vet and therapy bills that the owner(s) likely can't afford and are never guaranteed to work. Any treatment done is never a guarantee that the animal won't be in constant pain or not even be lame.

Very rarely does a horse with a broken leg ever even walk the same again, let alone support a rider's weight.

[rahmota]

Well while I am not a majorr fan of horse racing (I much prefer my horses to be under the hood of a ethanol stock car) from what I have seen and heard if the person doing it is ethical and actually considerate of the horse then its not a problem. Like what most of the other folks have said these animals are chosen for their temperment and desire to race and run. Bred into them in many cases. This makes them difficult at best to deal with in non-racing ways.

Most of the horses I have dealt with are normal riding/work horses (amish) so they dont have the same temperments and I cannot talk about that. What I can say is that a horse who breaks its leg is not always able to be healed by even the most experienced and capable vet back to the same level of competitiveness much less ability. A horse cannot stand on three legs like a dog or cat can. So sometimes in the best interests of the animal and humane treatment putting them done is the only option. But a retired horse still retains a lot of its old attitudes and behavior. I used to work on a horse farm as a teen and they had one old stallion who had retired from pulling sleighs and wagons on the farm but if he heard the bells of the harness he'd come up and stand in the stocks ready to go. I dont know if old racehorses would still have the same drive and attitude though.

So all in all. As long as the animals are not actually beat or whipped (or spurred, much as I love westerns I'm not overly fond of spurs) then have at it.