.. to hate the Grand National?

No, don't "toughen up" tiffaney. I am the same as you and personally I think the world could do with more caring and sensitive people like us.

Hate and detest it too. It's cruel and unnecessary. There's reports that many racehorses are pumped up with drugs to cover the pain of injury. You don't get to see the ones that are put down after. All in the name of entertainment

There are some welfare questions around horse racing but the use of drugs and medication is strictly controlled.
Anyone who rides horses knows how they love to race given the chance. At least racehorses get the chance to carry out their natural behaviour, their life is a lot better than many pet ponies kept bored in a small paddock.
It's also worth remembering that racing is an industry employing around 85,000 people and generating an income of £200m per annum. The racing and breeding industries are worth around £1.1bn to the UK economy, this rises to £3.4bn if all the additional activities are taken into account. Worth considering in these uncertain economic times.

notentirelyallthere- totally agree with your post.

At our yard we have had some of those little fat ponies left out in summer and boxed all winter when “Mummy and Pandora” got bored...........fortunately we have an excellent yard owner/manager who steps in and gets others to exercise groom etc.

There is far more to racing stables than big event races.

Absolutely disgraceful, those poor creatures. I saw a pic on FB of the one who fell at the first fence in the Grand National and he was hideously injured. Such a waste of a beautiful horse. Shame on everyone who supports this race.

Horses are flight, not prey animals - I may have misunderstood your comment nightowl

Not sure what you mean by this Iam - horses are definitely prey animals, and their response to predators is flight.

Do people really think horses are ‘bored’ out in a paddock? They are not equipped to live in stables, but to live outside. In their wild state they would cover miles in a day, which means most paddocks are definitely too small for them, and the grass too rich (hence the fat ponies) but living out is infinitely better for them than confinement indoors. Racehorses are subject to very high levels of stress from confinement, unnatural diets, intensive training and travelling schedules. This is not rocket science and can be easily researched by anyone who is interested.

There is a lot of anthropomorphism going on about the needs of horses on this thread.

I can't bear it either and don't understand how anyone finds it entertaining.

The number of horses killed or destroyed because of injury during races is enormous www.horsedeathwatch.com/. Saying that horses naturally enjoy running and jumping may be true but racing with a saddle and a jockey on its back and a bit in its mouth isn't a natural state of affairs is it. It's rather like the people who used to say dog fighting/cock fighting is OK because it is the natural instinct of male animals to fight - setting aside the fact that they have been "primed" to do so.

The motivation for all these activities is, of course, money - money that isn't spent on treating horses whose injuries could be treated. They, like horses who don't "make the grade"/aren't thought suitable for stud are nearly always destroyed.

(I think it's possible to be against the horse racing/Grand National and against boxing. )

Yes, horses get bored in paddocks. I've spent a lot of my life with horses. Especially those tiny paddocks divided off into little sections so that the horses are further deprived of contact with their own kind and pleasures such as mutual grooming.
Possibly people imagine glorious fields full of nice grass? The trouble is that horses, thoroughbreds who race aside, have evolved to live on sparse pasture and to walk many miles a day to eat enough to fill their frames.
There is a major problem of obesity in kept horses. Horses who are confined in small spaces become neurotic and ill, they can suffer an incredibly painful condition called laminitis which makes their hooves so painful that they can't walk. They can also suffer colic, a digestive condition from which they can die a painful death. Hence the notices you often see on field gates asking 'kind' people not to feed grass cuttings or other items to horses.
There ARE problems with the horse racing industry but horses are not cuddly dogs, they have complex requirements and most people don't understand that. Racehorses are loved by the people who look after them and receive the highest level of care. Sadly they don't always have a happy end.

P. S. Horses have lived with people since the dawn of time and their domestication was a major factor in human history and development.

Completely agree Eloethan. Racehorses have a far from natural life and are seen as expendable. As Ruby Walsh said after Our Connor died at Cheltenham, ‘you can replace a horse’. That’s how they’re seen unfortunately.

The grisly truth
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/01/horseracing.sport

Horses who are confined in small spaces become neurotic and ill, they can suffer an incredibly painful condition called laminitis which makes their hooves so painful that they can't walk.

Confining a horse (or more likely a pony) to a small space actually prevents laminitis as they have to be stopped from eating lush grass which is what causes it.

Yes, Merlotgran, I agree but it's not a great solution to the larger problem of horse welfare. In a starvation paddock, as these little spaces are correctly called, they become miserable and frustrated unless given more exercise and stimulus including attention from owners and the opportunity to mix with other horses.

I hope those who enjoy racing and have protested that the majority of horse owners love and cherish their horses, read the link nightowl posted (thanks nightowl). The article states (amongst many other disturbing facts) that the numbers being bred for racing are far higher now than ever before and that,out of a possible life span of 30 years, the average racing horse lives 5 years.

This happens in a country that was up in arms about processed foods like beefburgers being "contaminated" with horse meat (though, of course, it is wrong for processed foods to contain ingredients that are not listed). To them, it just didn't feel right to eat a horse and there was a lot of superior sniffiness about those foreigners that did. And yet this article demonstrates that huge numbers of horses are destroyed in this country for export elsewhere. It makes no difference to the horse where it is eaten.

As with hunting, people try to justify their actions by saying that these animals wouldn't exist if they were not killed - that it is necessary to control numbers. I'm fairly sure - if there was a will, and large sums of money were not involved - it would not be an impossible exercise to control animal populations by other means.

I've never understood why it is acceptable to eat beef and lamb but not horse. It's one of the mysteries of the British lifestyle. The descriptions of the slaughter houses in the article would be the same for any dealing with any animal, why the fact that they are dealing in horse flesh makes it worse I don't understand. As for the horses entered into races I wonder what the definition of a race has been. There are a number of events which wouldn't be recognised as racing- like point to points which might increase the number.
That's not to say that I don't think the racing industry shouldn't provide more support and fund retired horses, but they should also support injured and retired jockeys and stable workers who often suffer financial hardship. The richest involved (like HMQ) could well afford to.

I agree trisher that there’s no difference between eating cows and eating horses, and the conditions in slaughterhouses are equally repugnant for any animal. What I find hypocritical is that the racing industry pretends to be about one thing (love of horses?) whilst supplying the food industry at the other end. (Not just the racing industry if you read the article). And the description of the owner allowing his child to ‘have a ride on the horse before turning it into meat’ I think is truly repugnant and worthy of a psychopath. These are animals that have been bred to be handled by and to trust humans from their birth, and this is the ultimate betrayal.

HM The Queen rather enjoys everything to do with horse racing.

Urmstongran

trisher on mainland Europe there are specific breeds of horses bred solely for their meat.

Racing has done a lot to improve horse welfare by lowering jumps and severely restricting use of the whip. At the end of the day, horses raise emotions, they are beautiful and sensitive animals but racing is an industry which is important to the economy and over production of horses has an unavoidable outcome. As it says in that article, many ex racehorses are unsuited to a different life because they are so finely bred and highly strung.
It's not so very different from the dairy and livestock industries, animals suffer in the service of people, few of whom stop to consider how these animals are kept or slaughtered when their viable lives are over. Dairy cows are slaughtered after a short life of endless pregnancy after their calves are removed at birth, etc, etc.

I disagree with the idea that a product or service's importance to the economy should override almost every other consideration. When animals (including human beings) and the wonders of the natural world are seen as valuable only in respect of their often short term usefulness to the economy, that is, in my view, a recipe for long term problems.

It's the same attitude that various groups, including trades unions, have with regard to the arms trade.

Although I raised the point about the economic value of the racing industry Eloethan, I wasn't saying I supported that as a reason for horse racing to exist.
I was trying to draw attention to the sentimentality of people worrying about horses while knowing little about them in reality and contrasting that with the cold, hard facts that underlie the commodification of animals! In plain English, it's capitalism init?! Lots of distracting, muddled, split values contained in a system and way of life that undervalue people, nature and animals. I've seen enough unhappy, abused horses to know that racehorses don't get a bad deal.

Apples and pears notentirelyallthere! I think they all get a bad deal! Cruelty comes in many guises, sometimes it comes disguised as love, sometimes as a life of luxury.

The horse is such a graceful animal...I love watching them in action ?

I wonder if people are as concerned about chickens? After all they are the most commonly abused and mistreated animal. How many people ensure that the eggs they buy and the chickens they eat are reared in proper and completely suitable environments? I suspect racehorses have a much better life than many chickens.

Well, I expect vegetarians and vegans are concerned about chickens. To not eat them at all is probably the only way to show absolute concern but at least caring about the conditions in which they live is better than nothing.

About 40 years ago, in West Sussex, I had a friend who had worked as a secretary at the Head Office of a national animal charity. She told me that one day a group of women came to the office asking the charity to mount a campaign about the way chickens were treated. My friend said the senior officers there thought it was ridiculous and refused to take the issue seriously. Nowadays more people are, if not vegetarian, then at least trying to behave more ethically.

I don't think there's much point in downplaying one kind of cruelty by saying other animals are treated worse. Both are wrong. I do agree, though, that there seems to be a list of animals that elicit more respect and affection than those which have no material, aesthetic or emotional impact on human beings.