Is horse racing and being a horse jockey cruelty to animals? thats what my friend told me?

Question

Is horse racing and being a horse jockey cruelty to animals? thats what my friend told me?

Answer 1

No. Horses are born to run. Even retired race horses, long past their prime, race each other in their pastures. At Ky Horse Park, John Henry (age 32) and Cigar (age... um... 13 I think... gah, I'm blanking) race each other along the fence lines.

A jockey CAN be overzealous with their whips, but if they go overboard, they get fined by the stewards and suspended for a few days. That tends to curb that behavior rather quickly.

Answer 2

The fact is that Throughbreds are bred to run.  Without horseracing the breed would not even exist as it is a man-made breed that was bred specifically for the purpose of being the fastest.

Anyone that has ever ridden a horse knows that it is impossible to MAKE a horse do anything it doesn't want to do.  Racing just works with the horses natural instict, which is to run and stay with the herd.

Jockeys have strict rules to obey when raceriding.  Any jockey fallin  foul of these rules can look forward to a suspension, and therefore a loss of income.

Answer 3

YES, and a friend told me that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy were real

Answer 4

Not in my opinion! TB's were born to run, have you ever seen them in the pasture? Even at a very young age they play race.

Answer 5

no they watch the replays, and if they see any jockey going over the

top with his whip he will be suspended. r. baze the all-time leading

jockey just came off of a 3 week suspension, because a horse had

broke down on the track, and he then struck the horse with his whip.

sometimes the horse i wager on, the jockey hand rides the entire

1/4 mile of the stretch.

Answer 6

No, not in my opinion at least.  Throughbred horses love to run.

  Its a controled run,  yes, but they are only doing what comes natural to them.  They are trained to do what comes natural to them.  If a horse does  not take to the  race,  or the surface, or the jockey, you can't make them run. You can put a saddle on them, enter them in the race, but you can't make them run.

You need to read some books about jockeys and the horse they loved, and form your own opinions.

Also, you can bet that owners do not pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to see their animal be abused.

Look at the great care and expense that went into Barbaro, do you think they would spend all that money if they didn't care about their horse?

Answer 7

Some people believe that a human asking an animal to do any task for our entertainment is exploiting the animal and therefore cruel. The horses were bred to run and love to do it. The horses that don't like it don't do well and are retired. These horses are generally very valuable and treated with the best of care. The stewards monitor the races very carefully. If a jockey gets too heavy handed with the whip he will be fined, suspended, etc. If you watch the races closely you often see jockeys never use the whip or just wave it back and forth. When they do hit it is a few quick taps since anything more would subject the jockey to disciplinary action.