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It is right that people do ask questions when we have incidents like we did on Saturday – I have often said the day I stop caring when a horse is "killed in action" will be the day I walk away from the sport for good.
I have to admit what I saw on Saturday has, once again, posed the "morality" question of me following the sport.
I have put my thoughts, in more detail, at http://bit.ly/oim3ak
What we will look back on is man’s inhumanity to man. Check the exacution by hang,drawn and quartered if you want to look back on history and forget about bear bating and fox hunting for goodness sake.There is enough of man’s inhumanity to man to keep us focused.Check what dog lovers have done to some breeds to understand the false love of animals exhibited by some animal lovers.
Paul , cheers for understanding the point of my post , it was not as stated to vilify etc , just merely asking the question
To those who have had a pop , knock yourselves out , it is of no consequence to me whatsoever
I have seen a good many horses die now , and frankly saturday was a hard thing to swallow , a messy race , a horrible end , a subdued day , perhaps it could be timely to walk away
Red Rum I think you have a point , there are folks who would have the Grand national banned tomorrow , but in fairness the tv coverage was horrible and hopefully we wont have a repeat
Ricky
I have seen a good many horses die now , and frankly saturday was a hard thing to swallow , a messy race , a horrible end , a subdued day , perhaps it could be timely to walk away
I also have to say I think 2011 seems to have been a very bad year, especially thinking back to the losses we had in January / February where we seemed to lose two or three good horses every Saturday.
I do wonder if I am getting more sensitive to these things as I approach my dotage.
Posted this on a previous thread, but it is still relevant.
From a Darwinian point of view horse racing is not only justifiable but essential for horses. Horses have developed a symbiosis with humans which has made them extremely successful. This success managed to supercede their loss of a niche when their use as farm animals and for transport became obsolete.
If horse racing was banned, these horses would not be running happily around a field somewhere; they simply wouldn’t exist in the first place. Which would an animal-lover prefer?Posted this on a previous thread, but it is still relevant.
From a Darwinian point of view horse racing is not only justifiable but essential for horses. Horses have developed a symbiosis with humans which has made them extremely successful. This success managed to supercede their loss of a niche when their use as farm animals and for transport became obsolete.
If horse racing was banned, these horses would not be running happily around a field somewhere; they simply wouldn’t exist in the first place. Which would an animal-lover prefer?But if they did not exist in the first place there would not be an issue surely?
It is right that people do ask questions when we have incidents like we did on Saturday – I have often said the day I stop caring when a horse is "killed in action" will be the day I walk away from the sport for good.
I have to admit what I saw on Saturday has, once again, posed the "morality" question of me following the sport.
I have put my thoughts, in more detail, at http://bit.ly/oim3ak
Good piece, Paul.
I’ve often wished a simple method of stopping a loose horse were available; as you say after an injury, and in NH when a horse falls early and follows the field round for the rest of the race, or before a race when a horse unseats and runs around getting distressed and delaying the race.
Not sure more staff will help; it takes a brave man to stand in the way of a galloping horse! Outriders work in the US but their tracks are generally more compact. I wonder if some sort of thick soft plastic barrier that can be quickly raised across the track would be feasible, something that deters the horse from carrying-on but will not hurt if it ploughs through it.
I do agree with Paul in that if i struggled not to be upset anytime a racehorse gets killed in a race then i would simply stop betting and spend my saturdays going to various football matches for sporting entertainment.
Racing does have its good and bad days in the limelight and while Saturday was very bad for the Godolphin connections it was also a pretty poor weekend for the Winehouse family and the many families in Norway.
You do need to be thick skinned in this sport and if i found myself not enjoying watching these wonderful animals then i would happily walk on to pastures new.
The title of this thread makes it seem like I’ve stumbled onto an Animal Aid forum. It’s emotive, sensationalist and unhelpful.
At the time of the Grand National I put in my two cents worth on this topic. Horses are the most magnificent creatures but thoroughbreds are bred to run and jump at speed and as others have pointed out in this thread, most of them relish it. Yes, a few horses ‘sour’ but then again, they make it known by refusing to race or jump or by running so poorly one has no option but to retire them.
Most of all, in a racing sense, Rewilding’s fate was entirely different to those fatalities in the Grand National. He was galloping on the flat and took a bad step. It can happen to horses running round a field (a horse I used to ride met her untimely end that way) or a horse running lose, or a horse not going very fast at all. It’s quite different to asking a horse, who isn’t the best jumper in the world, to jump Becher’s brook.
I agree, it looks bad to those who tune in to a big race on the off-chance, but more sensitive reporting by the BBC combined with informative interviews with knowledgeable trainers and jockeys can help add perspective. Rewilding’s death upset me greatly but I did not under any circumstance question the sport on Saturday in the way I perhaps did, very slightly, after the Grand National this year.
Good article, Paul, and pretty much sums up how I feel these days. One thing I will say in favour of racing, though, is that a lot of people think horses would be happier stood in a field munching grass. If there’s one thing that horses like it’s routine..on the gallops at a certain time, fed at a certain time etc etc. We just have to make sure that we learn from what happens and ask ourselves what could have been done to either prevent the accident from happening [other than not running the horse at all]or how the situation could have been made easier for all concerned, spectators and the horse concerned. I still maintain that the worst thing that can happen to a horse is to die of colic….
.Having said that I don’t seem to be approaching this years nh season with the same sense of anticipation that I used to.
To those who have rubbished this thread , this stat is for you , 103 horses have died in or as a result of races in the Uk since Jan 1
I can and will name and list them if required
103 , most over Jumps ….so I will ask again , is this really justifiable in the name of sport.and how many more will die when the NH season , gets going properly
Lets be hearing from you
Ricky
Roddy I have no idea , but Jump racing surely is a war of attrition on racehorses thats a fact
Ricky
Yet how many thousands would be destroyed if racing and other horse sports (because there can be deaths in all of them) are banned. Apart from people riding for pleasure (entertainment?) horses have no use in the modern world, at least in the so called civilized one so what would happen to them?
And why do we draw a line between entertainment and usefulness? Why should it be wrong to have horse racing for entertainment and yet it be perfectly alright to send dogs into war zones because they’re doing a "job" we humans don’t want to risk ourselves on.
I love NH racing and I’m always sad when a horse dies.
I was at Ascot and if you asked somebody that just backed Nathaniel they wouldn’t sound too sympathetic about Rewliding at all and these are probably people who don’t attend Ascot often. There are far worse things going on then the occasional racehorse being put down on the course. At least they aren’t healthy. I was reading that the blue cross are so overrun with abandoned cats that they’re putting down perfectly healthy ones to save space. If you are like this for racing how about boxing. People beat the sh*t out of each other for our amusement. And what about profesional fishing how’s that fair to having fish speared though there face only for the amusement of the fishers.
.so I will ask again , is this really justifiable in the name of sport.and how many more will die when the NH season , gets going properly
Lets be hearing from you
See:
https://theracingforum.co.uk/horse-r … cdfa0c729f
Why did you feel the need to start a new thread on the same subject?
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