Maybe we will see the end of this barbaric sport. We managed to make rooster fighting illegal. Maybe horse beating is next.
Fortunately, "horse beating" isn't a sport at all.
Sure it is. It involves a horse whip and pushing a horse to its limits. It's also known as "horse racing."
Cock fighting was not a multi-billion dollar industry. Nor is horse racing comparable to strapping knives on two animals and enjoying watching the stab each other to death and call it entertainment. Horses injured and deaths are accidents and not part of anyone feeling good. No one wants to see them hurt...no one goes to races to watch the crashes...
Horses are injured and break legs on trail rides, in other sports, alone in pastures and stables every day too. A lot more abusive is all the horses starved to death and abused by people with no money to feed them properly or get vet care or from lack of knowledge about horse care. Race horses at least are well cared for and have excellent vets for treatable breaks and other injuries. Retired race horses are more likely to have poor lives.
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That said a lot can be done to make the sport safer. And it is way past time for it.
Besides what they are talking about actually doing, banning steroids, going from dirt to more artificial surface poly tracks (already mandatory in some states) and perhaps not carry whips (least of the problems) I say go farther.
Get rid of dirt tracks for thoroughbred races... do not just go to poly track surface...run all thoroughbred races on turf like the rest of the world. That is why we have more injuries and breed for lighter bones horses. It is slower and safer without having to eliminate the whips which are regulated...
Eliminate the low class claiming races. Horses not fit to race they make lower class races for. Too many racing that level are on a shoestring and may push horses not fit.
And what they will not consider that would be the biggest help...except for harness...
What are the current two year old races make them for 3 year olds, That waits until their knees have closed. Now they are riding them as yearlings to race them as 2 year olds.
Eliminate 2 year old racing totally and make the classic races and distances for 4 year olds instead of 3 year olds. 3 and up make 4 and up etc. This would be a huge cost to the industry especially the first year and break all tradition so I doubt it will happen, I have not even seen it suggested since this became news last month. Would take skipping a year or letting horses run the same set of races for two years.
The quarter horse people would hate it, almost all of their major money races are futurities for 2 year olds. But at a 300 yards to a quarter mile poly track is likely safer than turf in that style of race.
Not beating them... Hit them hard enough to really hurt much and they bunch their body and slow down or flat quit. The whips have a piece of flat leather that stings but it is more like smacking your leg with your palm. It you get into them with the stick park it can be really hurtful. In a race hit a horse to really hurt and a jockey gets suspended. But used properly a whip can be used without cruelty. An exercise rider putting a welt on a horse would have been fired after being really beaten with the whip for the trainer I knew... Whipless races would be fine with me because they may be pushing too hard, but I think pushing them too young is worse. And the rest of the world carry whips and do not have as many injuries so I think the turf has more to do with it too.
And sometimes you need a whip to keep a horse under control especially on the ground and when training...and out of control can really cause injuries... if he clears you then you have a scared loose horse tripping over their reins or running though a fence...
I suggest you handle some ' bred for speed not a pet pony temperament' hormone driven 1400 pound stallions before going too 'disney' about them...we had an Arab stallion when puberty hit him hard we used to flip a coin to see who had to get him out of his stall... You too would like a whip in hand when one aims to bite you with enough power to crush your arm. I had a friend walking hots at a track and some stud picked her up by her rib cage, broking several, as he tossed he ten feet...her whip saved the being stomped on part....
If someone makes big money with it, it'll be tough to abolish. Same reason why idle rich people can gamble on the price of oil.
When they basically abolished it before (no betting allowed) they just took all the lower class horses to mexico and canada to race. Now they would fly the better ones all over the world besides.
I've always been a big supported of horse racing living near Santa Anita and all, but what happened to Ferdinand sickens me.
Dimitri
Horse racing is still barbaric and unecessary. Thus it should be banned.
Does not make it okay.
No argument there. It should be illegal for many people to even own dogs. Chaining a dog to a poll in the ground should be illegal too.
Not if transporting them for money races were illegal.
Yes they would be bred elsewhere for the same reasons, but change starts with a step.
You know, that same 'they do it anyway, so why should we' fallacy is used with so many other political and social items.
No it is not.
Basket ball is unnecessary and they break players...
So we should do what to make sure no horses break legs? Do you rescue horses? I have. Are you going to volunteer to take in a few race horses for the next 30 years if they will ban it?
It is not the chain or kennel or even a living room... it is neglect and lack of attention or a job. Chains acutually provide more room for a dog than an average kennel. A sled dog on a 6 foot chain has more square feet while one in a 6 X16 kennel run. Hard to use a kennel in the alsaka winter when the snow is deeper than the fence is high... But I am sure you think all dog sports and working dogs should be banned too...
Reminds me of a PETA idiot that came to a sled dog race to protest us "beating the poor dogs to make them pull" The dogs are so eager they leap and bark until they get to run...we have one person to hold back eack pair in order to get them from the truck to the start line and standing on the break.... After he stood there with his little stupid sign watching these dogs being harnessed screaming to go though some races he started looking embarrassed...I can guess what he had been told...likely once read Call of the Wild....So we said hey here...and stuck him behind the wheeler pair holding the gangline as we were moving a
12 dog team up...and Charlie sort of 'forgot' to stand on the break when he pulled the hook....this guy ended up on his butt jerked off his feet by these poor abused forced to pull huskies...These things are not blood sports...abuse to a sled dog whose desire to run and work and see what is around the corner is to keep them fat and in a house unworked and be unhappy when they channel that energy out eating the furniture...
Some race start video with small teams. no whips here...
Horse racing accidents are accidents. We can reduce them. Childen die every day in cars...should we ban driving? Taking the kids? No we work to reduce accidents.
This one is not happening...we are all not turning into vegans either. Fight a 'sport' that is abusive like dog fighting.
Damn. Another liberal.
Charles the Curmudgeon.
Horses don't have free will. Human basketball players, like dogs and cats, do.
What about Rapp "artists"?
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')
Kids gets pushed into sports their bones are not ready for... raise the age on for horses to 3 and their frames are mature.
A big problem with race horses is how they've been bred for speed - predisposes them to breaks; the sturdiness is being bred out of them.
Cathy
Humans can and do decide what activities to participate in. Horses are not asked whether they'd like to race. As for cats and dogs....dogs seem to like to please humans (for a reward?) and cats like to be pleased by their staffs...their owners. As for getting a cat to do anything is like pushing a rope.
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Mostly. Look at gymnastics moms and football dads....A lot of HS kids are pushed to by parents or themselves past their desires to work at the sport or even enjoy it looking for a college ride. In some countries the government decides if you will be in what sport....
Sure they are. Turn the foals out and they invent races and the desire to be in front shows. Lots of horses are lazy in workouts but know when it is for real and give their all. ( "Practice? We are talking Practice?") Some you can not even fool with another horse in the morning...they want crowds and the real deal.
And if they do not have the will to race and win they show that early or in training and they get sold for other purposes. If horses do not want to race they can not be forced to run their best to win. Some can develop that will to win later see "Seabiscuit" but it is alot easier to work with the ones that have it.
Same goes for cutting horses, jumpers, polo ponies, sled dogs, retreivers, search dogs and even show dogs whose main job is begging for food and playing to a crowd. If they do not like their job they go be pets or whatever. One of my fastest sled dogs was afraid of the speed instead of loving it, afraid she slowed down and your team is only as fast as your slowest dog. Used to train puppies and later given to a recreational camping musher she loved it.
I have a champion border terrier that loved showing at the breed level but does not want to be a 'special'. After getting best of breed at the group level everyone is clapping and she does not care for the sound. She will do her begging and wag on command instead of from joy in it...but the spark is not there to win. So she does not have to be a show dog...Her grandmother loved to show but her great great grandsire was an absolute fanatic...if they were clapping in the next ring he thought it was for him.
It's a shame you people care about horses and dogs more than you care about babies getting put down.
You a re right....I am terrible.....How do you find time to post while changing diapers on all your special needs foster children while wife is pregnant with twins form those rescued frozen embrios?
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