Eight Belles...?

Question

I am just wondering what everyone thinks of the eight belles situation. personally i think that what happened was a tragedy, but it doesn't make the sport evil like everyone says.(Which I am so sick of hearing!) People need to realize that thoroughbreds are bred to race and they love it! Owners take good care of their horses (yes, there are few bad owners, but don't put them in with the 1000's of good ones!) Also, i would like to say that they did the right thing by euthanising 8 belles. she was in so much pain it would have been cruel not to! And to those that think the owners were cruel to race her, know this, they didn't know anything was wrong! And not all race horse owners are in it for the money! so, that's what i think, let me hear your thoughts. and for those who wonder what kind of experience i have to say these things.i worked with an equine vet for 3 yrs, i worked at breeding farm for 6 and i now work at a training facility for racehorses where they are treated amazingly!!

Answer 1

you said it girl

most that put racing down don't know much about it

But you can talk till your blue in the face they will NOT Listen !

Answer 2

feel bad for the horse

Answer 3

I appreciate that someone sees this for what it was a tragic accident. The owners, trainer, and the jockey are not to blame this could have happened to any horse, at any time, under the same or different circumstances unfortunately it happened during the Derby and that's why it is getting so much attention. I commented on another question that has been since been resolved (whatever that means) so I hope you don't mind if I take a few liberties here to clear up some misunderstandings that seem to be floating around in these questions about Eight Belles.

      First, Eight Belles did not run the day before the Derby in the Kentucky Oaks. They had originally planned to put her in that race and then changed to the Derby. Proud Spell won the Kentucky Oaks she was Eight Belles stablemate and hence was also trained by Larry Jones--so that's what people are confused about. Let me assure them EIGHT BELLES DID NOT RUN BACK TO BACK RACES! To even insinuate such a thing is ludicrous and those who have like L. Katzenmeier (who commented on another question) are just plain wrong and should check their facts better before going off on tangents about it. The other subject L. Katzenmeier brought up was the use of Lasix in horse racing. First of all Lasix is not a coagulant it is a diuretic. A coagulant causes blood clots, if you want a horse to run at all you do not want its blood clotting in anyway whatsoever. Lasix is used to prevent EIPH (Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage). The causes of EIPH are based on two different theories. The first is that during strenuous exercise excessive pressure in the pulmonary blood vessels relative to the pressure in the alveoli (or gas exchange air spaces in the lungs) increases the blood pressure through these thin walled vessels of the lungs causing some to burst and blood to be released into the airway. The other is that concussion against the rib cage during strenuous exercise causes a pressure wave that suppresses the lungs and causes many micro-injuries within the bronchiole which release blood into the airway. Regardless, Lasix works by removing excess fluid from the blood, thinning it, so the high blood pressure produced from strenuous exercise will not exceed the capacity of the small blood vessels of the alveoli. If you gave any horse a coagulant before a race, especially one introduced into the blood stream, the blood would clot in the blood stream and you would kill the horse. Sorry L. Katzenmeier but you are "dead" wrong.

    Kmnmiami-- thank you for your comment I'm glad that someone was paying attention and was capable of rational thought. To answer your question: I grew up on cutting and roping horses, started showing at the age of four, at fifteen I started riding racing Thoroughbreds as an exercise rider and ended taking over and managing 130 head operation. We stood two studs, cared for ~50 broodmares/babies every year, I kept an averageof 12 gallopers at any given time and from the ground up trained ~6 head continuously. So for ten years I galloped 50 miles every morning, rode out trainees for  another 3 to six hours, kept two stud books and took care of a lot of mares with foals, horses that were laid up for one reason or the other, etc. We raced primarily on the West Coast Washington, Oregon, and California, but also sent horses to Kentucky, Florida, New York, Ohio, Arizona, Maryland, and Texas. I rode on the track off and on over that ten years but the powers that be found me very handy at the ranch so I spent the majority of my time training at the farm and making baby racehorses. It was a wonderful experience but it is also a very dangerous profession for both horse and rider and I think that is what many people do not understand. I do and I think you do and I think the little gal who posted this does--tragedies happen and I know the last thing anyone wanted was to lose Eight Belles. I'm positive that if they could have looked into a magic glass ball that day and seen the future they would not have run her, I know I wouldn't have. But unfortunately there are no magic glass balls in horse racing or anywhere else for that matter and unfortunate accidents happen all the time as a result/fact of life....God Bless Eight Belles!

Answer 4

I loved Eight Belles. It was such a tragedy that she had to lose her life in the Kentucky Derby. She was a wonderful filly and she definitely proved it in the Derby. I personally don't think that just because she died that it makes horse racing evil. Yes, she had to be euthanized because she could not stand up on a front leg. Yes, most horse owners treat their horses great. I will always be a fan of horse racing.

Answer 5

i think it is very very sad and tragic when an amazing athlete like Eight Belles has to be destroyed. i'm starting to believe the story on TV that says we have started to breed fratility into Thoroughbreds. these kinds of tragedies happen way too often. these horses have loving families too! they're not just "money makers" to the people who own and train them!

i agree with you, it was a tragedy, but the sport goes on and there's nothing wrong with that.

Answer 6

WOW, where to begin.  I don't agree with everything that is being said about the incident... that we agree on.  I don't think that she shouldn't have been racing because of gender - A horse's genitals having anything to do with speed is as silly as not letting women play full court basketball due to fears of her uterus falling out.  

As far as the INDUSTRY - you speak of the good horse owners, I challenge you to show them to me.  I have worked for some of the owners and though the horses are treated well, they are a business.  They are used and disposed of at a rate that made it possible for me to go to a dogfood butcher and find horses with race plates still on their feet (if you aren't keeping up that means Flicka didn't win so he went straight onto a slaughter trailer from the track)  I'll bet the owner didn't sleep that night.  The horses are disposable to the owners and if they don't win they are as good as European steak, Alpo, or Elmer's.  If you want me to have a better opinion of a Thoroughbred racehorse breeder, show me one that still owns the losers, someone that finds quality homes for all of their horses, someone who doesn't breed the snot right out of the winning fillies, and someone who doesn't keep foundered mares alive in agony to see if he can't get a foal out of her.  Good for you all to see the red carpet at the race, but wouldn't you want a good image to keep butts in the seats?  Is it a good life if a slower horse is sold for food at the age of three when yard ornament horses can live into their twenties?  The human contact and TLC ends once the training is over - once a mare hits the breeding facility she is either injected, palpated, bred, or monitored while foaling.  The red carpets get stowed away after they're done racing.

Sure you can rescue a couple - and I can tell you haven't done that either or you would have experienced the permanent physical and mental scarring racing inflicts.  

I am not against equine sports, but the US racing industry is rediculous.  I agree that the broken legs can and will happen.  My problem is that the epiphyseal growth plates don't fuse until 36 months in a horse's leg and a horse's skeleton doesn't fully mature until 6 years of age, and their brains take varying times to develop to where they are mature enough to safely handle the rigors of competition.  Racing a horse from the age of two enrages me, and I have boycotted the races.  How old was the Thoroughbred that fell while you were taking a lesson??? I am sure you didn't take him all out everyday when he was two.  Until things change and horses are not allowed to run in a race until five years or older (putting them in the Derby at six) we are going to continue to see more of the same.  Or should I say seeing the farriers trimming the horses' feet until they bleed to get a quicker break over or the icing of legs immediately before a race to make a lame horse run or the use of pain killers to make a lame horse run.  Do your compassionate loving owners want to talk about keeping a horse six years before getting a Derby payout?? I think not.

Answer 7

Thank you for your question.  For the last few days, the only people here are people with a narrow mindset with an opinion that horse racing is evil, and no matter how many facts you give them, they're unreasonable and unwilling to consider another viewpoint.

What happened to Eight Belles was a horrible accident.  It was really tragic.  It is exactly the kind of thing that can happen to any horse at any time, not just racehorses.  She was slowing her gallop when it happened... a horse would be going that speed in a field or in the show ring at the canter... any horse anywhere could have taken that bad step and fallen down.  Actually, that happened to me last year on a thoroughbred lesson horse... she just fell down... luckily she was ok but it's a scary thing because horses aren't supposed to fall.  The way it happened to Eight Belles was so bizarre... usually when these things happen, we know about it before the race is over.  Like when Chelokee broke his leg the day before or even when Barbaro broke down in the Preakness... we know that a horse is hurt, so we never start truly celebrating regardless of whether the horse we bet on won.  What was particularly sad about the Derby was seeing Eight Belles juxtaposed against Big Brown's group of happy people.  And Churchill did a really poor job of handling the situation... they could have announced what happened but they didn't and a lot of people didn't find out until they got home and watched the news.

It's a sad sad thing to happen to any horse.  Euthanizing her immediately was the best thing that could have been done.  I just watched an interview with Larry Jones where he explained what happened.  He was in the paddock waiting for Gabriel to come back in with Eight Belles, then he heard that a horse broke down and assumed it was one of the horses that didn't run so well in the race.  But then Gabriel Saez shows up on a horse with an outrider and he runs up and hugs Larry and tells him that they're putting Eight Belles down.  Larry said that Gabriel said it as if he wanted Larry to do something about it.  And Larry was upset because they usually at least try to save the horses.  But when he made it over to Eight Belles, he saw that it had to be done and he appreciated their decision because any extra minute that they had waited trying to contact him, it would have been an extra minute of suffering for the horse.

I too have seen where racehorses are trained and bred and all I can say is that we can only hope to live in such nice conditions.  And seeing Curlin led to the paddock on Derby day where they rolled out the red carpet for him... if you can watch the way that horse is treated and still say that racehorses are treated poorly, there's nothing that any of us can do to convince you...  Curlin was treated like absolute royalty... I'm pretty sure that he was treated better than the queen was when she was here last year.

Answer 8

its a barbaric sport for the entertainment of selfish humans.

Answer 9

It's pathetic, these people who have nothing to do with it and know nothing about it just blow this hot smoke about the tragedy.  It's a shame, and I think it's kind of sad that they are diminishing her heroic performance by suggesting that the jockey abused her when he clearly didn't.  She came through the race fine and was never asked to do something she couldn't, she just had an accident after the race.  If she had finished last or in the middle of the pack, half of this discussion wouldn't be happening.  Barbaro, the way he broke down early in the race, it was tragic but no one blamed Edgar.  Here they see her win and they think it must have been because she was pushed too hard and not because she was an amazingly gifted filly.  The haters don't know, though, and their opinion is as meaningless as it is ignorant and loud.

Answer 10

I agree with you marisol7426, on your points about 8 Belles.  I'm really sick of being preached at by the animals rights people, especially because they so often exaggerate or just plain make stuff up.

On that note, I challenge autonomous to show us the slaughterhouses where these racehorses are being "sold for food".  I live in Illinois, unfortunately the home of the last of the US horse slaughter plants.  We therefore had numerous kill pens at auctions in my area before the plants were shut down.  My neighbor worked at Cavel, the horse slaughter plant in Dekalb.  The overwhelming majority of kill horses were discarded pleasure horses, not race horses.  I saw it in the kill pens and my neighbor saw it at the plant.

And autonomous asked "show me one that still owns the losers...." - check out Sackatoga Stables in  New York state.

On edit to May the Force be with you:  I don't know what they're going to do with the 60,000 horses a year now but assume that many will be horribly mistreated.  My comments were in response to the post that's 2 above me, which made it sound as if the slaughter houses are still in operation.

Answer 11

I agree with you.  I don't think anyone deserves punishment in this.  We have that problem where I live in Wyoming.  People say that our rodeos are inhumane to the animals.  Most the animals at rodeos are treated better than the cowboys who ride them.

Answer 12

It's not just that getting me.  It's PETA complaining, saying the jockey knew Eight Belles was injured and didn't stop her.  He didn't know she was injured until she fell!  If she was injured before, everyone would have known it.

Answer 13

It is sad that she died but at least she went out winning the oaks and coming in second at the derby. Most of these horses are treated good. I think it could of happened to any horse.

Answer 14

Yes, Eight Belles was a tragedy and there was no other choice but to euthanize her.  Some changes need to be made in the industry, but PETA and their ilk are exploiting Eight Belles.  Pardon my French, but they strike me as nothing more than attention whores.      

And I've heard some of the most ridiculous stuff the past few days - like people saying they should've put her in a wheelchair style contraption.  Never mind that it's not even logistically possible, I'm at a loss to understand how they could think that condemning a horse to a life like that is humane.