When will this sport end?

Question

How many more horses have to die before they get it in there head. every year another horse is put down because of careless people.

Answer 1

There are a number of similar topics on the go right now because of what happened yesterday. Please take the time to read through the responses by a number of informed people.

Answer 2

1. You need to read up on other horse sports. Racing causes less injuries than several other horse sports.

2. Read up on anatomy and why the trainer put the animal down. It was good choice based on the health of the animal.

3. Check out the history.

4. Look up statistic from more informed souces, the media makes a big deal out of silly things.

I do know where you are coming from but please, please inform yourself before you become an advocate, that is all I ask. I understand your point but I think it is a little uninformed. Akoz is not as for off as you think.

The problem does not lie in the sport it lies in breeders breeding animals with fine bones and racing young underdeveloped animals before they may be ready. Focus there in your advocacy. This is a fixable issue. You have a passion use it, but inform yourself first.

Answer 3

Every year? I hate to say this but it is more like every day. A recent study showed that for every 1000 horses that start a race, 1.8 of those horses will sustain a fracture. It is likely that every day, somewhere in this country, a race horse is being put down on the track.

I blame the breeders who breed for speed at the expense of soundness and strong bones. I blame the breeding industry for retiring horses to stud at age 3 (like Hard Spun and Street Sense) after a handful of races instead of actually allowing the horse to have a career and demonstrate his durability over two or three racing seasons. I also blame the industry for allowing two years olds to race. I have said before that I think two years is too young to race horses but it seems that people want to rush their two year olds  into competition to earn back some of their investment on their yearling purchase. I also think horses with fracture histories should not be bred, end of story. Constantly, you hear of horses retired to stud because they had a hairline fracture. This is just passing on a predisposition to thin bones, IMO. The horse industry could take a lesson from the greyhound industry on this one. Greyhounds with any health issues are simply not bred. Hip dysplasia, which is rampant in many dog breeds is virtually non-existant in Greyhounds. Why? Because a Greyhound with hip dysplasia would never be bred.

Horse racing is an imperfect sport, for sure. However, horses are injured in other equestrian sports as well, showjumping, eventing, etc. Horses have broken legs in ther stall or running around a pasture. Racing is a high stress sport and you are going to have fractures. Supposedly, the move to artifical racing surfaces will reduce the number of leg fractures. I love racing and think the real burden falls on the breeders.

Answer 4

747 more horses have to die. Are you happy? You got your number, so now you can stop watching and wasting your time on a sport that you hate so much.

Answer 5

If you don't like it, don't watch it - no one is forcing you to.

Gave you taken into account the thousands of horses that will be destroyed if racing ends?  The Thoroughbred breed exists purely for racing, that is what it was bred for.  Without racing the breed will die out.

Horses break limbs all the time.  A friend of mine lost her horse when he broke a leg in the paddock while he was galloping around having fun.  I also know of plenty of horses that have broken limbs will simply being out on a hack (or trail ride).  It is not the fault of the rider, it is one of those things.  Do you want us to stop riding horses altogether?

Recent reseach shows that equine fatalities in racehorses are fewer than 1 in 1,500.  This is an extremely low figure, and the vast majority of these injuries occur in training, not on the racetrack.

Before you form an opinion like this, why not go and spend a day at a racing yard: see how well looked after these horses are and how mcuh those people caring for them love them.  People don't work in racing to make money - we do it because we love horses.

Answer 6

I hate to tell you the sport will never be ended not by even someone like you who doesn't even know what you are talking about.  Race horses are well taken care of even better than most people treat their house pets. So don't even begin to tell me race horse people are careless people.  I know first hand that most race horse on the track get top notch care as I work with race horses everyday.  Accidents happen regardless the reason.  Yes it is sad and trainers/owners do feel something when they have to put a horse down because of a injury.  Even a wild or domesticated horse can break a leg or substain an injury while out in pasture that requires them to have to be put down.  The only reason you don't hear about wild horses being put down is wild horses aren't going to be on national t.v.  Also race horses are bred to run it is in their blood so don't even say they don't want to run and that they are forced to do something they don't want to do.  Maybe we should end pro football, basketball, and baseball because of cruelty to the people who get paid to play them for our entertainment.  Race horse people are not careless people we are in it for the horses.  Even we have a right to make a living doing something we love to take care of our families.  So I am begging you please go find a PETA forum to pitch bull c**p too.  Cause frankly I don't want to hear it.

Answer 7

I love horse racing! I do not want to see it end. Yes, when horses break down it is sad. I would definitely choose surgery if I had a racehorse and it broke its leg to where it could be repaired. Now if it couldn't be repaired yes I think I would euthanize it. It's just like a dog. People don't want to see them suffer anymore from chronic illnesses so they put them down. Same with horse racing. Horses that break their leg severely basically have to be put down. I wouldn't want them to be in too much pain.

Answer 8

don't be ridiculous...  racing won't end until there's no more industry.  so long as there is money and some interest in the sport, it won't end.  and people like you won't change it.

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I love horse racing... I don't want to change it.

Ya know the reason that you don't see wild horses breaking their legs?  Because you don't see wild horses!  Horses can break their legs doing a lot of things.  Horses break their legs standing in their stalls, jumping, and running in their pastures or just by stepping in a hole.  Things get worse when they're moving faster...  you're more likely to be injured if you're running fast too.

I wish that we could ensure that horses won't break down in racing...  we're working on the problem.  a hundred years ago, if a horse was remotely injured, they'd shoot it immediately.  Science has provided us with advancements... we can now fix horses a lot better than we ever used to be able to...  and we're working on preventative measures now... we're trying to prevent horses from breaking down and we have seriously cut down the number.  There are a lot more precautions that are taken...  there's a lot more requirements that a horse is and is not allowed to have in a race... like you're not allowed to hide the pain to make them run on a fracture to do more damage to their legs.  But aside from that, we're beginning to make safer surfaces for horses to run on...  The new synthetic surfaces have helped a lot... we've dramatically reduced the number of injuries on those tracks that have installed synthetic tracks.  There's always going to be injuries and there's always more things we can do to make them safer... it's just that we have to keep experimenting to find safer things.  It's just like when they invented the starting gate... they have since found ways to keep horses and jockeys safe while they're inside.

I hate to see horses die on the track... if it were my horse and there was a realistic chance of saving it, I would certainly choose to have it undergo surgery.  I'm all for making the sport more safe, but I love the sport, so I'm certainly, most emphatically, opposed to abolishing it completely.  

You have to realize that your demand for the sport to end is just too unreasonable.

And if you demand for horse racing to end because of injuries, the same reasoning would result in abolishing ANY use of horses... horses break their legs in show jumping a lot too, and rodeos and barrel or pole racing.  And I'm certainly not going to give up riding my horse for you.

Answer 9

Same question is posted in the regular horses sections and I will just reiterate my answer from there .. It Won't and liek I said in it I personally hope it doesnt. Yeah there may be a few changes that nee dot be made, but as said before, when are they going to ban the NFL or MLB due to injuries? Wqon't happen. And like someone else said " how many more goldfish have to be flushed before they stop selling fish" I could not have come up with a better analogy.   And the 1st poster is right, you don't see wild horses with broken legs b/c how often do you actually see a wild horse in the wild???  I'm sure plenty of them break legs and I do recall a documentary I wartched years ago about the BLM and the sales and how they found one herd with a mare and her foal continuouslyfalling behind. Upon closer observation they realized the foal was literally dragging it's hind leg from the hock down behind it. It was flopping uselessly, the tranq'd the mare and foal, examine dit and saw just how bad the injury was and put it down, if they hadn't iot would have been dead in a week regardless. Accidents happen even with wild horses

hey what's with the thumbs down? I honestly don't care but good god, how stupid do you have to be to not understand that my answer along with everyone else's is just honest truth? it was an accident and it happened end of story quit your whining oh and asker i know you "report people" if they insult you and if I have sorry but with a question like that it's kind of deserving

Answer 10

I understand where you are coming from but come on!!!. How many more gold fish have to be flushed down the toilet before they stop selling fish??

Answer 11

My, my, my, don't WE have an ATTITUDE PROBLEM !!! If you hate this sport so much, WHY ARE YOU WATCHING OR PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO IT ?!!

The reason these animals die is not carelessness- far from it, in fact. They die because they are ridden and raced before they are physically mature, and their young, growing bones can't take the stress of the sport. George Washington was only 4 years old- barely full grown, when he died. He shouldn't have been racing to start with, but since he proved to be infertile and unable to breed, his owners decided to try to get a few more races out of him before he was sold on.  Considering that they had probably spent a fortune in buying and training the horse, they were entitled to a return on their investment.

As for when racing will end- get this through YOUR thick head- it won't !!! Not as long as there are huge sums of money to be made by breeding and racing these animals. The real fault with the sport lies with the way it is set up and run- not just here in the States, but worldwide. They could save the lives of millions of horses by simply raising the minimum racing age to 4 for the juvenile races and 5 for the major stakes, but no one wants to follow the example which has been set by the sport of steeplechasing. In that sport, the average age of a competitive horse is between 6 and 9 years, and these animals often continue to run and win when they are in their teens. Quite a contrast to flat racing, where most horses break down or die of injuries before they are even 4 years old. Steeplechasers live longer and are more competitive simply because unlike flat racers, they actually get a chance to grow up and become mature and strong before they are asked to race or do hard work at speed.

With flat racing, however, this sort of thing is impossible because of the enormous economic pressures on breeders and owners. When it costs a quarter, half, or three quarters of a million dollars to breed and raise a racehorse from conception to racing age, then the owners of such animals want to see returns on their investments as soon as possible. Hence, the pressure to start these babies under saddle as yearlings ( and some of them may not even BE a year old chronologically, when they are started) and have them start earning as 2 year olds. But the problem with this is that a young horse's bones are still soft and growing at this age- and most if not all of the babies can't take the stress of hard work, so they break down.This situation could be changed and prevented, if people wanted to do this badly enough. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I'm sorry you have such a burr up your butt about this.