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The amount of times I have walked past their office and wished to burn it down with them inside is endless.
And people frequently describe THEM as nutters.
I had a brief discussion with someone at work on this subject today and I’ve had the same discussion over and over many times through the years.
Quite simply, I appreciate the risks that we ask the horses to take on our behalf for our pleasure. However, I consider the pleasure that horse racing brings to millions, day in, day out to outweigh the cost of that pleasure (the loss of horses in action and the injuries they inevitably sustain).
That is a moral judgement on my part. I have total respect of the views of those who do not think the cost is outweighed by the pleasure and I respect their right to say so. I was/am anti-foxhunting and respect both my right to say so and the right of those to argue against my view.
Those, such as Animal Aid, who campaign strongly against racing would, in my opinion, be better served concentrating on some of the more urgent animal welfare issues. Racehorses are very well looked after and given the best of care and medical attention. I think it (attacking racing) suits their cause as it is high profile, gives them a much better opportunity for media attention and is an ‘easy’ target in many ways.
I support all that is done to make racing safer and fairer for horses but here is a limit to how safe it can be made and there will always be risks. You either accept the cost is worth it or you don’t. I do.
Yes, I agree with you. Animal Aid should concentrate on factory farming and the practices in slaughter houses, especially the barbaric practices of killing animals in the halal and kosher manner. This to me is barbaric and not acceptable in 2010.
I agree with cormack above, and feel he has put his point across very well. I have to admit to feeling more and more uneasy as time has gone by, however.
Remember in Red Marauder’s year most of the field fell, but I am almost certain there were no fatalities as the race was run so slowly & the going soft.
Every horse came home safely, though I think Alistair Down’s notorious front-page
Post
piece on the race the day after (entitled "Gutless" or similar, wasn’t it?) inferred this was more to do with dumb luck than anything else.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Reraise the fences and fatalities will almost surely be more rare. Even in plain old showjumping, the lower-level classes tend to be more dangerous because the horses just fly over them.
Last year someone sent me a link to a campaign by Peta about the fur trade in China. Sign the petition, I was advised, but don’t watch the video. I did watch it. Creatures called raccoon dogs were skinned alive and thrown on a heap to die. Now, it breaks my heart to see horses die in races, but it doesn’t haunt me the way that this video did. People cause unbearable suffering to animals throughout the world; I wish these organisations would just get their priorites right.
What happened to those 3 horses today and the mare yesterday was awful and very upsetting. It could have been much worse as several horses took horrendous falls and were amazingly OK – probably stiff and sore but they will recover. The falls at Valentines were weird viewed from the BBC’s bird’s eye view camera and gave a different picture to that of the more conventional Racing UK footage. The sight though of the likes of Monet’s Garden and Frankie Figg in particularly soaring over most of the fences today was fantastic. I love horses and often people who aren’t horsey (and also some who are horsey) say how can you enjoy jump racing? Well I obviously don’t enjoy horses getting hurt but I do enjoy seeing them gallop and jump with that enthusiasm – they are beautiful athletic creatures – bred to do this. I was at Aintree yesterday and the horses all looked truely magnificent – their coats gleaming in the sunshine and muscles rippling – in the peak of condition. While they are in training they have the very best – especially those who get out for a daily breather in a paddock – and should anything happen to them on the course they have almost immediate vet attention. I have seen some programmes on Animal Planet where in the USA (Houston actually) their equivalent of the RSPCA go out daily to rescue equines who are hat-racks – starved in front of their owners eyes – wounds and injuries (including broken legs) left untreated. Those are the sort of cases which concern me more … and horses out of training can easily become welfare cases – not all owners can/do offer their racehorses a good life after racing.
I’m kinda torn with Animal Aid as they do some good work infiltrating and filming some appalling conditions for animals in slaughterhouses and factory farms. Some of their footage, for example, of sows in stalls unable to reach and comfort dying piglets or petrified half dead animals being kicked and roughly handled in abbatoirs is incredibly powerful and very moving. I do think they take some of their ideals too far though – expecting everyone to become a vegetarian is wholly unrealistic. I for one like my meat but want the animal to have had as good a life and quick humane death as possible. If that makes it more expensive and means I can have it less often, then that’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make – never ever would I buy "2 chickens for a fiver" or eggs from battery hens. I think AA totally miss the point with racehorses – those in racing usually have a great life and those fatally injured on the track are dealt with as quickly as possible. Despite many recent increased opportunites for ex-racehorses I think the welfare of horses whose careers are over is where further improvement is needed.
Mentioning ex-racehorses – David Pipe has a lovely section on his website of horses that used to be in training at Pond House – it’s nice to know he’s bothered to do this and that so many of his ex-racers have gone on to live happy (and succesful) lives after racing.
I couldn’t agree with Cormack more.
I would add two things, to do with horses not having a choice.. firstly, parents put their young, helpless children into cars and drive them around. They make sure they are safely belted up and taken care of and as safe as possible for the journey. However occasionally, tragically, the car might crash.
Secondly, my friends horse is an ex racer (not a very good one at that!) – he is 22 now and going strong, and he loves nothing more than to gallop and to jump. He detests being shut in a stable. Thoroughbreds are beautiful creatures bred and made to run fast, and we should love them and appreciate them and care for them as best we can, never take them forgranted. But you can’t wrap them up in cotton wool.
Yep – I read David’s website every day (love Chester’s posts!) and have often looked at the retired horses pages. There are lots of good owners out there – someone I know who has a show jumping yard also has several retired racehorses in her care. The elderly man who owns them had set aside money for their retirement. He doesn’t visit them but has made sure they’ll be well cared for. With the odd exception, like Hello Dandy, I’m sure most top horses do okay. It’s the more mediocre horses, like the one I have, who are more likely to be neglected.
Reraise the fences and fatalities will almost surely be more rare. Even in plain old showjumping, the lower-level classes tend to be more dangerous because the horses just fly over them.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. The National fences are nothing compared to what they were, and most recent fatalities are caused by 25+ runners travelling at speed over a naturally fast track, on drying ground. Today’s two fatalities at Valentines would not have happened had the fences not been so slimmed down. They are packed so bloody loose now that you can almost fly them, take the top out of them and not even feel it. Beechers is a joke compared to the days when Red Rum sauntered around.
They need to be slowed down a little, by a more testing fence that should be approached with a little less devil may care.
I was more upset by the fact that they re-run the carnage in the post-race recap. Shocking stuff.- Total Posts 17716
I make that four deaths in two days after Valentines – it’s very hard to defend the sport when you see something like that.
But Bosranic, you don’t
need
to "defend" it.
By doing so you are playing the Animal Aid game, feeling "guilty" and "sickened" – all those negative and destructive emotions the puritan fringe want you to feel. They want you to feel so bad that you’ll join in the call to ban it.
Please snap out of it! Don’t
defend
it, proudly
celebrate
what you love, in all its glories and miseries! And may these evil Animal Aid demons go to – the place where they belong!!
I look forward to the Grand National every year, way too much probably, but it’s massivley important to me, and has been since I was a nipper. After watching racing at Aintree for years, I have seen some horrible falls, and lost some very old faves. I also put, I think, in "the Greatest Tragedy thread" that I felt kinda cursed, being an animal lover, and also being a NH racing fan. It can be difficult, and is a strange situation to be in. I’ve been on this Forum a very short time, but have really enjoyed it since I joined, but since todays Topham, I have stayed away, I just didn’t want to read posts about todays race. It was a sickening sight, and I’ve not been in such a lull the Night before the national, since One Man died in 98. I’m sure it pales into insignificance, though compared to what connections are going throught tonight!
Today was horrific, that incident will not go out of my mind any time soon, but can I ask one question? Would there be the same outrage if the traditional camera angle at Valentines had been used, and those poor animals demise had not been caught so vividly? I for one, think not! Any horse that dies be it on the Gallops, Flat, or over hurdles is tragic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like todays incident before, and I hope I don’t again.
I wouldn’t say i’m outraged with the live coverage on the BBC, VTC, but the replay of the falls was not necessary. It showed insensitivity, maybe even lack of concern, on the part of the producers to reprise the death of the two horses on primetime TV. Live is forgiveable, a replay five mins after the event is downright unforgivable.
I watch the Aintree coverage hoping not to, but nonetheless expecting to, see horses die in action. I think the Aintree management team have got it the wrong way around. They should make the National fences less forgiving, prompting more care and a slower pace, and the Mildmay coursemore
forgiving. Those uprights are like brick walls.
RD…I totally agree with you, I’ve obviously not explained my point too well (nothing new there). The point I was making was that I’ve never see reaction to fatalities quite like that of yesterday, and I think that was down to the uniqueness of the images captured yesterday. Basically, if they had been killed hunting round the back, out of sight, there would not have been the same reaction, and what I feel is that any horse dying is a tragedy, wherever it is.
I’d love to see someone from the BBC explaining why it was not OK to show Schindlers Hunt fall in the highlights, but prefectly alright to show Plaisir D’Estruval, or Prudent Honour in the Topham. Baffling!
As for the fences, I totally agree with you, been saying it for years!
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