Cross Breeds

race horses.?

i am doing a report and i wanted to know when people start training race horses.also, what do u think about barbaro? some people think they should have put him to sleep right away, but i am glad they didnt. he didnt live for very long but when he was alive he wasnt in pain. and because they saved him for that long now they know more about what to do in that kind of case. they said most of the time they just put the horse to sleep when they are hurt that bad but now they can do more about it.

Public Comments

1. Very sad about Barbaro. :( But at least his owners/trainers loved him enough to try and help him. I would suggest try to contact some horse rescue groups. Go to: http://www.mypetnanny.info/PD/Rescues/AT/equine_rescues.htm You will find some horse rescue groups that specialize in rescuing horses from the racing industry. This is the after effects of racing, which would be good for your report as well. I am sure they are no different than greyhound racing. If the animal gets hurt during the race, yes they most often do put them down. There are many greyhound rescue groups as well.
2. Race horses are started in training as soon as they are weaned. From the time they leave their mother - they are taught to run, run, run. Barbaro most certainly WAS in pain and that was why he had to be put to sleep. Nothing new was used on Babraro that hadn't been done before. People who own and train race horses keep their animals in top shape, fed only the finest of feeds and are monitored from the instant training starts through their entire lives.
3. Depending on what type of racing you are doing, whether it be Quarter Horse, Thoroughbred or Standardbred, people start under saddle training at different ages. Thorough trainers start training as soon as they are born with daily handling and being taught manners. Standardbreds are started when they are yearlings because the most money to be made is in the two year old races. Thoroughbreds are started when they are about a year and half, raced lightly at the end of their two year old year and then seriously raced as three years olds. The same goes for the thoroughbred as it does for Quarter Horses but most of the money is made is Quarter horse racing as three year olds, then they usually come off the track because there are 4 year old futurities in barrel racing as well as five year old futurities. There are a lot of organizations out there now that help find retired and injured race horses new homes whether is it to be a companion or for them to start a new career in a different discipline. Phase II thoroughbreds is one in Ontario, Canada that is well known for retraining thoroughbreds off the track and finding them new homes. All of these horses have something to offer someone when they are done their racing career and deserve a second chance at a good life. Good luck with your report, good topic!
4. They generally start them early training them to race. They put Barbaro down too quickly. I think they should have given him two years to heal because laminitis is a long and slow healing process.
5. Most race horses start training at around one and half. They're not ridden at that point, they do something called ponying (riderless horse lead by a ridden horse) for conditioning. At about two they're ridden for short periods. They are then raced in the first spring of turning two. And the weights are kept light and the races are very short. The jockey is not allowed to carry a whip or hit the horse with his hands. I don't agree with this practice, but it's a fact of the sport. As for this being cruel, it can be if you keep them locked up for long periods of time with no interaction. We kept ours at home and they were turned out daily. On the tracks this a diffrent story. The tracks were built before we understood about horse phychology so most of them didn't put in turn out areas. And now most of them are land locked by urban development so even if they wanted to put in an area there's nowhere to put it . There's also a strong concern for spreading desease with so many horses sharing a small area. The horses are taken out every day for at least a hot walk of a half hour twice a day or a run on the track. They also are given access to see what's going on and have some limited contact with each other because the front of the stalls are open over the door or stall gaurds are used in the door way. As for the suppossed mistreatment I never saw any. A groom would kill anybody, including a trainer, if he saw them hurting his horse. There's also barn stewards who walk the back streach to make sure this does not happen. As well as ring stewards who check each horse befor and after a race. Nobody is going to risk his liscense by hurting a horse. That and a race horse is too much of an investment to hurt. You hurt it and it won't race and then you don't make any money. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, it's just beyond rare. As for how how cruel the running is. It's not. It's what they've been breed for 2,000 years to do. Belive me, you can't force a horse to do anything it doesn't want to. They do it because they love too. Our horses raced each other, the dog, the goat, and their pony when they were on turn out like they were going for The Roses. And what happened to Barbaro was a travisty. He should have been put down the day it happened. They didn't keep him alive because they loved him, it was for the money they could make breeding him. He was not only in so much pain they had to keep him drugged out of his mind, but the stress of being kept that way is incredable. That's why most are put down. And it's usally not complications with the leg that kills them.It's the infections and the pressure put on the chest cavity by the sling that causes them to go into heart failure or get pnomonia. The surgury alone was a risk to his life. It was the owners call and it was a bad one. Unfortunately the Jockey Club can't do anything about the treatment of a retired race horse.