2 more horses die at cheltenham today :( :(

Seems featherbed lane also broke a leg but it just says abergavenny died after the race? Does anyone have anymore info? RIP poor horses.
 
Lets face it horses die and not always at the races, it's a shame that these things happen at the races,but having read some posts about the abuse,starvation and cruelty to ordinary horses and ponies. I for one are not going down the road of this shouldn't happen and racing is bad etc:-
 
I heard unconfirmed reports that Abergavenny broke an elbow and was being seen by the course vets. I don't know if that was true but if it was I can only guess that they decided it was too bad to repair :( :( One way or the other he didn't make it :( :( Lets hope the next 2 days are better.
 
There is a difference between a fractured leg and a broken leg. A fractured leg is one where the bone has cracked but hasn't moved - this is fixable. A broken leg is when the bone has split and moved out of place - these generally can't be fixed because they have been done at speed and it won't have been just one break to the bone, it will have been several.

ETA - The broken bone is the one most often seen in racing because you can't stop the second the bone breaks. It generally takes between 4 & 10 strides to safely stop the horse if it is still trying to gallop. Hence fractures are rare in racing.
 
That is now five horses dead in two days, and no mention of them in any of Horse and Hound's news articles - sickening! As is this wretched 'festival'! :mad:

Rest peacefully Featherbed Lane and Abergavenny.

:( :( :(
 
Please put it into perspective. Horses breaking legs is commonplace all the time, you only have to read about it on here; it happens a lot in fields when they're relaxing let alone when they are participating in sport. They are freak accidents, most times horses tumble and get away with it but if they do happen to land badly, sometimes sh**te happens. It's unfortunate but a fact of life. The fact that some of these happened on the flat should bare out the fact that the course itself is not to blame. This is proved by the fact that the majority of the runners get around safely and what happens to those that don't is purely accidental; sad but an accident.
Racecourses do their utmost in the safety aspect, they can't do more and the safety fanatics are a lot to blame in some parts by forcing through the lowering and softening of fences which equals more speed equals more risk. I'll be very surprised if the National doesn't have a higher ratio of injuries this time due to the moderations they have been forced to carry out.
 
We understand that the death of any horse is not good regardless of the reason. We all ride our horses knowing that there is a risk, what ever we do.

We just have to look at the deaths of humans in Eventing, should Eventing be stopped.

I am always concerned about what happens on the Race Course (Work in the Jockey Hospital at Newbury Race Course) in respect of the horses, as the jockeys are easier to mend than the horses.

There will always be those for and those against Racing as there is for Hunting or Eventing or any other discipline.

Cruelty of any animal is also high on the list BUT what do some of the so called caring society's do NOTHING.

I too hope that there are no more deaths at Cheltenham.
 
I dint think it can be dismissed maesfen because 'horses breaking legs is commonplace all the tIme'. I am not a fluffy bunny type, but I do think 5 horses deaths (4 due to leg breaks) is not common. I appreciate racecourses do try hard, but with these statistics something is going wrong. I am more inclined to blame the industry rather than the racecourses, perhaps these horses are pushed too hard at a young age thus making them predisposed to injuries and weaker bones? There is no one reason. There's no doubt the amount of training a racehorse goes through is immense. Who knows, maybe it was just bad luck, hopefully today and tomorrow will pass casualty free although I doubt it.
 
Maesfen said:
Please put it into perspective. Horses breaking legs is commonplace all the time, you only have to read about it on here; it happens a lot in fields when they're relaxing let alone when they are participating in sport. They are freak accidents, most times horses tumble and get away with it but if they do happen to land badly, sometimes sh**te happens. It's unfortunate but a fact of life. The fact that some of these happened on the flat should bare out the fact that the course itself is not to blame. This is proved by the fact that the majority of the runners get around safely and what happens to those that don't is purely accidental; sad but an accident.
Racecourses do their utmost in the safety aspect, they can't do more and the safety fanatics are a lot to blame in some parts by forcing through the lowering and softening of fences which equals more speed equals more risk. I'll be very surprised if the National doesn't have a higher ratio of injuries this time due to the moderations they have been forced to carry out.
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APPLAUSE! The speed that is resulting from the modifications has a many fold impact, as the courses get faster the horses are bred more for speed, and are less your old fashioned chaser types.
 
Milanesa said:
I dint think it can be dismissed maesfen because 'horses breaking legs is commonplace all the tIme'. I am not a fluffy bunny type, but I do think 5 horses deaths (4 due to leg breaks) is not common. I appreciate racecourses do try hard, but with these statistics something is going wrong.
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But when only a couple of those were actually due to falls I think does make a difference and the most common reason for destruction on a racecourse is due to broken legs or other parts. I was told that one of the horses concerned did actually only break down, not broke a leg but so severely it needed destruction anyway and it would have been written up as the same.
There is a move now that vets will need to sedate any horse and remove it from the course for inspection before destruction even if it is patently obvious that that is what is needed immediately let alone the difficulty of getting a shot into a distressed, liable to be thrashing around horse which is unsafe for everyone involved. Needless to say the vets are up in arms about this as it increases the suffering for the horse which is totally unnecessary but this is what the animal activists want to happen; it shows how out of touch with reality they actually are.

I remember Princess Anne's eventer, Doublet broke a leg during a training gallop on a proper gallop on the flat and there are countless more that have done similarly; wasn't there someone on here this happened too recently as well? Pure sad accidents nothing more that could happen anywhere so yes, I would say they're a commonplace occurence.
 
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The deaths are high profile with the Festival being the biggest event in jump racing. We don't hear about the number of everyday leisure horses that get put down due to feed-induced laminitis but if we did, I'm sure we'd be shocked.

I'm of the opinion that these horses want for nothing, love what they do and receieve vet care that most normal horses can only dream of, even at the end of their lives. The deaths are sad, but then so is so much else that goes on in the world - our neighbour leaves for work at 7am each day and gets back at 7pm at night and his big dog is shut inside, alone, all day every day - it doesn't get walked. This saddens me every single day, and it's just one example. Knowing the love, care and attention the racehorses get is reassurance enough for me.
 
I do feel though that the dry weather we have had, for all the 4 million gallons or whatever it is of water that they've poured on the track, has contributed to the rather desperate tally so far this week. I fail to see exactly how impossible it is to water the xc course, when presumably they can get vehicles round it to maintain, cut and fertilise it.

I can only judge the going on what I see on television but there looked to be precious little cut in the ground and hardly any kick-back visible. More horses than usual were looking uncomfortable over their fences and landing badly.

And as for the stupifyingly crass stewarding yesterday ...... :mad::mad:

Whatever the reason I shall spend the next two days feeling very sick!
 
Maesfen said:
Racecourses do their utmost in the safety aspect, they can't do more and the safety fanatics are a lot to blame in some parts by forcing through the lowering and softening of fences which equals more speed equals more risk. I'll be very surprised if the National doesn't have a higher ratio of injuries this time due to the moderations they have been forced to carry out.
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Totally agree with this. Making fences smaller doesn't necessarily lower the risk, it just changes it.
Obviously, the changes to Beechers I believe are a good thing, but in general, with a large field, the increase in speed allowed by the smaller obstacles brings its' own problems.
I have to say though, that I no longer watch them jump the second last on the chase course at Cheltenham through my fiingers. That is a change that seems to have been very much for the better.
Also, with regard to the the outrage of the National last year. The general public who watch normally were outraged by the deaths of the horses. Sadly, as we have already done to death (pardon the pun), this is not unusual at this race/ meeting. What WAS unusual last year, was that due to the changes made to the course, and the ability to "bypass" the fences, they actually had to LOOK at the bodies.
 
The worst thing Aintree could possibly do last year they did - they left the horses on the track to prove that they could bypass fences. Every other year the bodies had been removed before the runners got to that fence again. They tried to look big and clever and instead looked like morons. Same as Cheltenham this year with the flag and dolling off fiasco!
 
Baggybreeches said:
APPLAUSE! The speed that is resulting from the modifications has a many fold impact, as the courses get faster the horses are bred more for speed, and are less your old fashioned chaser types.
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I thoroughly agree, the National/chases are safest when the going is soft, the horses are slow and the fences are huge but honest You still get falls but they are rarely fatal.

The lower the fences get, the faster they go and the more dangerous it becomes. I agree with amending some of the changes in level from takeoff to landing and with making the ground line much clearer in the fences but the height - no, I would like to see the height raised if anything (since the horses can go through the brush if they dont make the height), they need steadying up and slowing down.
 
@EKW, alliers and lachlan...thank you. I totally agree and made the same point in the GN thread last year!

Quoting myself from then...The fences are not too big. In fact , some of them have been modified to make them more forgiving to mistakes. Becher's had the slope on the landing side made less of a slope plus the "brook" on the landing side is covered up. Others have been shortened and the spruce covering them falls more easily than before, making it easier to slide through if you are too close or too low. I said back then that doing that would make the injuries worse rather than better and I was right.

I don't like seeing horses die but I still love the racing and don't want to see the animal rights group's protests overwhelm the common sense that most racing people have.
 
EKW said:
The worst thing Aintree could possibly do last year they did - they left the horses on the track to prove that they could bypass fences. Every other year the bodies had been removed before the runners got to that fence again. They tried to look big and clever and instead looked like morons. Same as Cheltenham this year with the flag and dolling off fiasco!
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Rubbish. It's because that is what the 'animal protectors' wanted and it back fired on them because people were actually able to see the bodies left in situ whereas before they would have been pulled off the course incredibly quickly out of sight.
I agree the dolling off was less than successful this week.
 
At the risk of getting told off like last time here is a useful link for those interested. http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/

It lists every horse killed on british racetracks over the last five or so years - the tally stands at 808 now. If you go to the drop down menu you can see the courses which are considered the most dangerous. Think from memory Southwell and Cheltenham are the most dangerous, someone said that Cheltenham's landings are lower than the take offs which cause lots of problems for horses with miss steps.
 
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