Great Hearts, Weak Bodies, Tragic Deaths; Shame on Some Horse Breeders
Crowd entertainment, betting, speed, and horses are a mixture for disaster: the death of more and more horses. The recent Kentucky Derby tragedy of Eight Belles' death has brought this sharply into focus.
An article by Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post exposes the uncomfortable and horrid truth.
"The camera cut away from her, but it should have stayed on her. Eight Belles had run herself half to death Saturday, and now the vets were finishing the job as she lay on her side, her beautiful figure a black hump on the track. Horses don't just fall down like that, you thought as NBC flitted away, cowardlike, from the sickening picture to the more appealing image of the Kentucky Derby victor, Big Brown.
"There is no turning away from this fact: Eight Belles killed herself finishing second. She ran with the heart of a locomotive, on champagne-glass ankles for the pleasure of the crowd, the sheiks, oilmen, entrepreneurs, old money from the thousand-acre farms, the handicappers, men in bad sport coats with crumpled sheets full of betting hieroglyphics, the julep-swillers and the ladies in hats the size of boats, and the rest of the people who make up thoroughbred racing.
"But thoroughbred racing is in a moral crisis, and everyone now knows it. Twice since 2006, magnificent animals have suffered catastrophic injuries on live television in Triple Crown races, and there is no explaining that away. Horses are being over-bred and over-raced, until their bodies cannot support their own ambitions, or those of the humans who race them.
"According to several estimates, there are 1.5 career-ending breakdowns for every 1,000 racing starts in the United States. That's an average of two per day.
"But the problem is more complex than just surface; it's pervasive in the sport. Modern thoroughbreds are bred for extreme speed -- maybe to the point of endangerment. Thoroughbreds are muscularly more powerful than ever, but their bone skeletons seem to be getting lighter and frail.
"They need to be given the bodies to accommodate their hearts."
As the Kentucky Herald-Leader reports, "...the sight of injured and dying horses traumatize fans...and hurt the image of Kentucky's signature industry.
" 'We are hearing from a very large number of people today saying that they can't watch it,' said Keith Dane, director of equine protection at the Humane Society of the United States. 'Everyone is concerned and everyone wants change.'
"Some of the problems experts point to include the overbreeding of thoroughbreds, the use of drugs and track surfaces in racing, and the difficulty of obstacles, excessive speed and proper training in eventing.
"In racing, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation had planned a Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit some time before Barbaro's accident, says foundation president Ed Bowen. They have separate committees looking at such issues as track surfaces, medication and the durability of the breed.
"The biggest change to come out of the summit so far is the collection of injury and medication data, which had never been done before, said Alex Waldrop, head of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
" 'We have a lot of anecdotal evidence about questions of durability of the breed, but there's no evidence to support it because we've never had the evidence,' he said. 'There's no question that people want horse racing to be as safe as possible for equine and human athletes. When accidents happen people get upset and we get upset.'
"Because racing is governed by state commissions, rather than one national board, change comes slowly.
"Jim Squires [horse breeder from Versailles, Kentucky] thinks the industry also needs to look at the overall obsession with speed, which affects everything from the use of whips to breeding. "Since horses naturally race against each other, what difference does it make if he raced in two minutes to two minutes and three seconds?" he said. "The image of a horse breaking down after it has been whipped to go faster is an image that we either have to clean up or suffer the consequences of, there's no question of that."
Thoroughbreds should be bred for stamina; a strong bone structure, especially leg and muscles that is compatible with with the great hearts and lungs of these magnificent animals and not for speed that kills. If not, countless horse lovers will no longer watch races because of these needless tragedies, like Eight Belles at Churchill Downs.
Until the horse racing industry comes to grips with these unnecessary equine deaths and makes positive changes, horse racing will suffer the consequences. There have been too many Barbaro and Eight Belles and the public is upset and demands change.
An article by Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post exposes the uncomfortable and horrid truth.
"The camera cut away from her, but it should have stayed on her. Eight Belles had run herself half to death Saturday, and now the vets were finishing the job as she lay on her side, her beautiful figure a black hump on the track. Horses don't just fall down like that, you thought as NBC flitted away, cowardlike, from the sickening picture to the more appealing image of the Kentucky Derby victor, Big Brown.
"There is no turning away from this fact: Eight Belles killed herself finishing second. She ran with the heart of a locomotive, on champagne-glass ankles for the pleasure of the crowd, the sheiks, oilmen, entrepreneurs, old money from the thousand-acre farms, the handicappers, men in bad sport coats with crumpled sheets full of betting hieroglyphics, the julep-swillers and the ladies in hats the size of boats, and the rest of the people who make up thoroughbred racing.
"But thoroughbred racing is in a moral crisis, and everyone now knows it. Twice since 2006, magnificent animals have suffered catastrophic injuries on live television in Triple Crown races, and there is no explaining that away. Horses are being over-bred and over-raced, until their bodies cannot support their own ambitions, or those of the humans who race them.
"According to several estimates, there are 1.5 career-ending breakdowns for every 1,000 racing starts in the United States. That's an average of two per day.
"But the problem is more complex than just surface; it's pervasive in the sport. Modern thoroughbreds are bred for extreme speed -- maybe to the point of endangerment. Thoroughbreds are muscularly more powerful than ever, but their bone skeletons seem to be getting lighter and frail.
"Part of the trouble is the makeup of thoroughbreds themselves: They are creatures physically at war with their own nature. The heart and lungs are oversize knots of tissue placed in a massive chest, and huge amounts of blood course through legs that are dainty. Anyone who has spent time around a barn understands that horses love to run. They do it for fun. A few years ago, I stood in a field of yearlings in Ocala, Fla., and watched them tear around in circles like children in a playground.
"They need to be given the bodies to accommodate their hearts."
As the Kentucky Herald-Leader reports, "...the sight of injured and dying horses traumatize fans...and hurt the image of Kentucky's signature industry.
" 'We are hearing from a very large number of people today saying that they can't watch it,' said Keith Dane, director of equine protection at the Humane Society of the United States. 'Everyone is concerned and everyone wants change.'
"Some of the problems experts point to include the overbreeding of thoroughbreds, the use of drugs and track surfaces in racing, and the difficulty of obstacles, excessive speed and proper training in eventing.
"In racing, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation had planned a Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit some time before Barbaro's accident, says foundation president Ed Bowen. They have separate committees looking at such issues as track surfaces, medication and the durability of the breed.
"The biggest change to come out of the summit so far is the collection of injury and medication data, which had never been done before, said Alex Waldrop, head of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
" 'We have a lot of anecdotal evidence about questions of durability of the breed, but there's no evidence to support it because we've never had the evidence,' he said. 'There's no question that people want horse racing to be as safe as possible for equine and human athletes. When accidents happen people get upset and we get upset.'
"Because racing is governed by state commissions, rather than one national board, change comes slowly.
"Accidents such as Eight Belles' highlight a host of complicated problems in racing, ranging from whether over-medicating leads to weaknesses in the breed to an industry that stresses speed over stamina.
"Jim Squires [horse breeder from Versailles, Kentucky] thinks the industry also needs to look at the overall obsession with speed, which affects everything from the use of whips to breeding. "Since horses naturally race against each other, what difference does it make if he raced in two minutes to two minutes and three seconds?" he said. "The image of a horse breaking down after it has been whipped to go faster is an image that we either have to clean up or suffer the consequences of, there's no question of that."
Thoroughbreds should be bred for stamina; a strong bone structure, especially leg and muscles that is compatible with with the great hearts and lungs of these magnificent animals and not for speed that kills. If not, countless horse lovers will no longer watch races because of these needless tragedies, like Eight Belles at Churchill Downs.
Until the horse racing industry comes to grips with these unnecessary equine deaths and makes positive changes, horse racing will suffer the consequences. There have been too many Barbaro and Eight Belles and the public is upset and demands change.
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