Cross Breeds

Do you know the horror behind the glamor?

The horror behind the glamour They race around the track, kicking dust clouds in the air. They run neck to neck, each one trying to overtake the other. The crowd goes wild. But suddenly, just as they reach the finish line, one stumbles and falls. A hush falls over the crowd. The race is now finished, along with the fallen horses life. This happens to be a daily battle. Many people believe that the owners of racehorses treat their horses like ‘gold’ and never abuse them, and the reason why horses race are because they ‘are born to run’. I can tell you that those three statements are false, in almost all the cases, especially the later one. Racehorses are not born to run, they are born for money. Racehorses are not treated like gold and ARE abused. Their owners work them more then twice as hard as your everyday horse. Racehorses are abused with crops to force them to run faster. Researches have found, that At LEAST one horse from each race suffers physically. In almost all the cases that the horse suffers in, whereas the horse cannot be raced anymore, the good racehorses are sold for stud, but the others are euthanized. Many have heard of the ‘all famous’ racehorse Sea biscuit. But one less known fact about him, is that he was raced 89 times, and only lived to be 15. Most horses can live to be 25. Barbero’s last race ended with a broken leg. Commando, 1990 & 1991 horse of the year, died at age 8. Ruffin was raced after she broke and fractured her leg, broke her leg again in another race, and was euthanized at 3 years old. Black Gold, raced 35 times in 7 years. He suffered a quarter crack in his hoof as a four year old, but was still raced. He finished his last race on three legs, and then was put down at age seven. April 28, 2006. Miss Pretty Promise’s collapsed near the finish line and struggled to rise on her shattered forelegs. Dr. Stewart Marsh had taken one look at the grotesquely twisted legs and saw there was no hope of recovery. "Both front legs were broken," Marsh said minutes later, shaking his head as he walked off the track. These are not the only ones.

Public Comments

1. First of all not all race horses are abused and die young. You have cited accidents and they happen in many other sports as well as in racing. There are many fine people in the racing industry who do in fact treat their horses like gold. I worked for one such farm. When our horses were retired from racing if they were geldings we found a new home for them where they were re-trained and had second careers. If they were mares many went on to be brood mares if not they went to new homes also. We had one until he was about 34 years old. He lived out his life on the farm and had excellent care and handling. Not all live that long but not all die young. Most owners will try to place their horses in new homes after retireing them, Owners are caring people and most do not want their horses to go to slaughter. There are now lots of great organizations who are taking these horses off the track and finding them new homes. Try giving your suppot to the local CANTER group, they could use it.
2. That is not true. Horses love to run. They are trained to do it and thats all thats on there mind. The most owners and trainer don't abuse there horses. Just a few do. It just makes it sound like a lot do. All the trainers that don't abuse the horses don't get talked about. Because it's not as interesting. You have to be a little mean to studs that are racing because if you don't they get out of control. And not that many horses go lame every year. There are just so many race horses so there are more accidents. If a horse is badly hurt it is in its best interest to put them down. If you don't they suffer for the rest of there lives. And seabiscet died because his heart was too large. He was born like that.
3. Horse racing is also a big contributor to the horse slaughter industry. Sure, not all breeders are like this, but when you're in it for money you aren't going to be wasting it on an animal that isn't making your bank account bigger.
4. I did know that and it's a really sad reality. I wouldn't consider going to a horse race.