Horse racing and cruelty

There’s a wonderfully poignant poem by Pam Ayres, about a racehorse making his will before a race.
Wish I could quote the whole thing, but it’s not in either of the books I have. IIRC he refers to his jockey as the ‘(something) little short-arsed bastard…’

Never watch it - ever. All this Grand National stuff is sickening.

There’s no easy way for a horse to die. Nature is totally against them. Their speed which leads to accidents even in a field: their digestive system which makes them prone to the worst death possible: colic. Even the grass they eat can result in grass sickness or laminitis. Several horses I’ve known have had heart attacks and they weren’t performance horses. Buy a horse with a leg, put it in a field for the rest of it’s life and the chances are it won’t die of old age. Put them in a field alone and they get lonely. Put them with other horses and they might get a broken leg from a kick. I do agree about overbreeding and also the fact that they seem to breed from well bred but unsound mares. I think in France they’re more strict about which mares can be used for breeding. Lessons do need to be learned from the programme but I still think it was meant to be sensationalist and didn’t give a balanced viewpoint.

*MayBee70 you are so right and tbh most decent owners will PTS before a horse dies of old age. My rule is if they can't lie down and get up again or if they can't live a normal life out in the paddock with the sun on their back free pain, then it's preferable to quietly and kindly PTS but I do it at home. I do, however, believe there should be well run abattoirs, they provide a service and there is nothing worse than an owner leaving an old horse, neglected in a field because they don't have the money to ask a vet to PTS. Yes, we over breed but it's the poorly bred, badly started horses that I worry about most. Nicely bred and started horses stand the best chance of finding a long term home. I feel it was wrong to focus on racing except there is clearly a vile scam going on, most owners will be appalled by last night's programme but to suggest this is the norm, is totally wrong.

There was an article in yesterday's Irish Times about this because at least three of the horses came from Ireland. I was just looking for it and found this update which might be of interest.

Aspects of BBC Panorama documentary reported to Gardaí (via @IrishTimes) www.irishtimes.com/sport/racing/aspects-of-bbc-panorama-documentary-reported-to-garda%C3%AD-1.4626065

The article I was looking for is linked at the foot of this one.

No matter how careful about choosing horses for breeding the progeny will always be good, bad and indifferent, its not just racehorses either. Native ponies, New Forest, Dartmoor and the others there are far too many foals born and only the best find a home, the rest go for meat at a very low price, sad but nobody wants them.
The welfare rules are strict, the vast majority of owners obey them and I will be the first to throw the book at anyone who does not.

When I lived down south ponies died on the moors from starvation.

I give in sometimes with the likes of Kali2.
What you say goes,in your world anyway.

I expect many of the people here would throw their hands up in horror at the excessive breeding and destruction of animals, for instance dogs, in other countries such as China.

Why are there so many apologists for what is an appalling business that makes lots of money out of horses and then discards them when they are no longer of use?

It is a bit pointless giving examples of personal conduct - and those who have connections with racing are not really neutral on this issue.

Despite the anecdotal claims made here, the film footage shown and the figures provided demonstrated that large numbers of horses - some of them very young and healthy - are mistreated and put to sleep simply because they are not making their owners enough money. As with greyhound racing, horse racing is a cruel industry where the animals are seen simply as dispensable business assets.

The suggestion that it's a bit of a nuisance that horses can live for 20 or more years and it's better to put them to sleep than neglect them is, in my opinion, a ludicrous one. Why keep breeding animals that are costly to maintain? It's not for the benefit of the individual horses or the species but for the benefit of the racing industry.