Shouldn't they kill the jockey too?

Question

I mean, if the animal is just a piece of property that they can destroy anytime they feel like it, then it wasn't the horse's fault and the jockey should have to pay the price.

That's the way it goes in the "Sport."

Time to end this ridiculous waste of time.

Answer 1

no they should not kill the jockey i am in favour of it and i love mi riding but dont worry i am a sj ( showjumper)

Answer 2

very interesting, never thought of that.

....sure, why not.

Answer 3

Don't be mean,he was put down because they had no other choice.They could not let him suffer.It is unfortunately a part of the sport.If you don't like horse racing,go post somewhere else.

Answer 4

Rediculous....you would have us throw out the baby with the bath water.

Answer 5

This question is foolish and not worthy of the time you guys have spent on it.  He obviously wants to go back to the days of the Coliseum and in the arena for my preference!

Answer 6

In the sport of horse racing they treat the horses and jockeys separately, but basically the same.  If a horse is injured and not the jockey, there is no need to do anything with the jockey.  If the jockey is injured and not the horse (and this happens more often than you would think), there is no need to do anything to the horse.  The problem lies in the difference between the way the horse responds to the ambulance and the way the jockey responds.  When you ask a horse if he thinks he needs to be put down after an accident, they usually just stare blankly at you.  I believe Mr. Ed was the only horse to ever say he didn't want to be put down after an accident.  Most all jockeys will tell the ambulance crew that they don't want put down and would rather go to the hospital.  Blame it on the horse and thier inability to communicate and don't take things out on the jockey.

Answer 7

You mean that you would kill a HUMAN BEING because the horse he or she was riding broke down and had to be put down because of an injury? Man, what planet do YOU live on?!! Murder is ILLEGAL here, last I checked- and so is euthanasia for people, in every state except Oregon. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY, PAL- SLAVERY WAS OUTLAWED OVER A CENTURY AGO, IN CASE YOU HADN'T HEARD yet. No one has the right to OWN any other person- and your arguement for blaming the jockey when a horse breaks down makes no sense at all !!  Or maybe you believe that jockeys and other people who ride horses for a living aren't people ?!!! Murder is murder, pal- there is no getting around that one. To kill a jockey because a horse broke down is not going to solve anything. Enough said.

Answer 8

Race horses are euthanized because they have a serious injury. If you are referring to the incident with George Washington in the Classic on Saturday he was put down because he fractured his leg. It was a bad break -  a condylar fracture with a sesamoid. It was an open wound with dirt in it. These kinds of fractures are very hard, almost impossible to treat. The open wound with dirt practically guarantees an infection. Also, the track vet said the dislocation of the ankle had completely cut off the blood supply to the foot - very bad, serious tissue damage from no circulation. Look, people have tried -  look at Barbaro's owners who probably spent hundreds of thousands trying to save him. Often, even with the best of intentions and tons of money, they can't save these horses. It isn't anyone's fault except maybe the breeders who maybe aren't breeding for soundness  the way they should. Often times, it is the only ethical thing that can be done - to end the horses' suffering with euthanasia.

Answer 9

Ok, people you need to get a grip and put things in perpesctive.

A horse is destroyed when "breaking down" because there is no hope of him healing suficiently to lead a normal life again.  It is NOT for the money.  Come on, Coolmore (George Washington's owners) are one of the richest racing groups in the world, if any amount of money could have saved GW they would have spent it.

Anyone who saw the reaction from Aidan O'Brian and his wife would know how much that horse meant to them and how hard it was to take the decision to out him down.  Aidan is a man that rarley shows emotion in public, but he was crying, as was his wife and many others.

Do you really think that we people who work in racing enjoy seeing our horses destroyed or that we just say "oh well, that's life"?!  Of course we don't, they are like our families, we bond and build relationships with them and it devastates us if anything happens to them.  Racing is not a game to work in if you want to get rich - that only happens for the lucky few.  The rest of us get paid near minimum wage and work long hours and perform thankless tasks just because we love the horses and want to be near them.

Answer 10

OK, you make no sense.  

I would gather to say that you are not an active participant in the world of Horse Racing or you would see what an idiotic question this is.

Please grow up a bit and learn when to keep your mean little opions to yourself.

Having worked in the racing industry, I could make all kind of explanations to the points you brought up, but we both know I'd be wasting my time.

Answer 11

Ok so if we are going to put down a jockey due to a freak accident then h**l let's put down all the NFL managers, coaches and waterboys whenever a guy gets turf toe. This si the most rediculous question I have seen about horse racing to date! Do yourself a favor and read up on the sport, how a horse supports it's weight and the whole horse industry in general. It is obvious from your question you have NO IDEA about horses and any sport involving them. Newmarket hit it right on the head.  These horses live and get treated better than I do!!! Come on put down the jock b/c his mount had a freak accident?????? If a jock knowingly causes his horse harm then yes he should be fined or suspended but don't put him down Jesus that's just stupid. As I have said in many other posts regarding George Washington's break down IT WAS A FREAK ACCIDENT let it go and educate yourself before posting a stupid question that will in turn make you look liek the idiot you apparently are.

As an added thouyght , the next time you are in a car wreck and it is considered YOUR fault, maybe we should just have them cart you away and put you down too..... same basis you didn't intend to cause the wreck, but you did so therefore you shoudl be punished by something other than guilt at having wrecked your car and that of someone elses and have your insurance go up.... make sense?

Answer 12

Well ,Well, Well, someone FINALLY asked this question. So the horse is just property according to you people so if he is not fast enough it is OK to send him to the slaughter house? What if there was a track runner who wasn't "fast enough'' what do they do, say he is worthless and kill him? No they don't because he can speak for himself and has a choice! What he does do is get to do something else or stay in it for FUN. Isn't that what horse racing is about? Fun and the love of the sport is what it should be about! Why can't they let the horse who couldn't run fast do something else or stay in and take it easy and not be pushed and pushed at such a young age to try harder and harder until , oops! that horse fractured his cannon bone and if lame so the owner sells him to the slaughter house or puts him down because he doesn't care about the animal, he cares about the money. So you want to know why the horse fractured his cannonbone? Because his owners pushed him and pushed him to try harder until he had nothing left to be pushed. His mistake for trying I guess isn't it? Fair or not?NOT! Now, not ALL jockey's and race horse owners are bad, just most of them are and that is what happens to the most sweet, innocent, and YOUNG horses. That is another problem. They are too young to be racing, there bones haven't developed yet! It is like making a 5 year old run a mile with a monkey on his back! You wouldn't put that much strain on a young child like that not would you? And don't DON'T say that you don't know what happens to racehorses or I am wrong because you ALL know what happens, if you cared. Yes, some horses aare pampered and are not pushed, SOME. So to answer your question, why not! ( Not saying I am a cannibal/human murderer!)

Answer 13

I sympathize with how devastating it is to see horses euthanized, but I don't agree that a horses' connections usually put down a horse just because "they feel like it"  nor that the jockey should be punished except in those rare cases where the horses' injury was caused by a jockey's mistake.

First, there are owners who are willing to spend enormous sums of money to try to save their injured horses even though they will never be able to race again, and possibly have no breeding value.  The most obvious example of this was Barbaro.  Two other examples are Smarty Jones and Teuflesberg.  Smarty Jones fractured his skull in a starting gate accident.  His owners decided to spend the money to have him treated and the result was as happy as it could have been.  Tueflesberg, who recently broke two ankles at Keenland, recently underwent surgery to save his life even though he will never be able to race again.

Unfortunately, sometimes putting a horse down is the only ethhical thing to do.  Unlike people, horses can not lay down for very long periods of time. They need to be standing up for a large part of the day.   This makes treating broken legs very difficult (although, treatment for injured horses has improved enormously in the recent past.)  If a horse is unable to stand up for long periods of time  without being in pain (possibly, with the use of a sling to take some weight off the horses' legs), at least in my opinion, it would be unethical to make the horse suffer through a long recovery period.  Although we can't know ths for sure, it is unlikely that horses can understand the concept of the distant future.  The only thing that an injured horse whose pain cannot be controlled knows is that he is suffering.  He cannot understand that his pain will end and that it is necessary for him to be in pain in the moment so that he can have a good pain-free life once he recovers.

I'm sorry but I don't think that jockeys should be killed because their mount is injured during a race.  It is rarely the fault of the jockey that a horse is injured.  Because horses weigh a lot and all that weight has to be supported on very thin legs, horses are extremely fragile.  Additionally, race horses are bred for speed.  So, if horse racing continues in its current form, horses are going to be injured frequently.  I think that the synthetic tracks may eventually make racing safer for horses, although we are not there yet.  I do believe that in time we will be able to create a much safer racing surface than dirt. The other change that could make racing safer would be to create longer turf races that reward endurance more than speed as is done in many European countries.

When a horse is injured in a race, the jockey is usually the first person to come to the horses aid.  Mistakes are sometimes made where a jockey does not stop a horse in time to not cause further injury because he doesn't realize that the horse has been injured.  Remember, horses are traveling at about 40 mph in a race.  If a jockey feels something wrong under him, he has to quickly decide whether the horse just tripped, switched leads or injured himself.  He then has to try to stop the horse so that the injury is not worsened.  Not easy.  Thus, even when a mistake is made it is hard to blame the jockey.  For example, in a recent race, Russell Baze's horse injured himself  and Baze hit him with the crop not realizing the horse was hurt.  Baze was disciplined and accepted full responsibility.  However, it certainly wasn't Baze's intention to cause further injury to the horse and I'm sure he used his best judgment in concluding that the horse was not hurt and it was O.K. to encourage the horse to work a little harder by using the crop.

Remember that jockeys risk their lives every time they get on a horse (even just to exercise the horse).  Horse racing is the only sport where an ambulance follows the riders.  And I truly believe that the majority of jockeys care more about the well-being of the horses they are riding than winning a race.  So, disciplining a jockey for making a mistake (a decision that has to be made in seconds while moving at 40 mph) like  in Baze's case is harsh enough.  I'm sure that the guilt that Baxe feels is far worse than the official discipline he received.

Think of it this way, if a jockey is injured or killed because a horse spooks, should the horse be killed since the fact that he spooked caused the jockey's injury or death. I think NOT!

Answer 14

You need to learn the facts about this and not be so indignant.  Fatal injuries are indeed the horrible part of the sport, but animals are not put down on a whim.  Serious leg injuries are very hard, often impossible, to treat.  When that happens, euthanasia is the humane option.