Dead horse at Aintree today

bonny said:
You maybe don’t care but there is a serious problem in the racing world with young jockeys committing suicide. It’s a hard job for lots of reasons but the constant scrutiny and social media are certainly adding to the pressure. It’s outrageous to post comments like this whatever you think of the Grand National.
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I'm with you completely.

Though I'm not directly involved with racing, I'm very close to Epsom, and so know a lot of people in that world. Someone I used to be on a yard with lost his son - a young, promising jockey - to suicide a few years back. It nearly broke my friend.

And he's not the only one round here. It's a close-knit community, and it hurts.
 
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tristars said:
They are under pressure and many are not good riders, infact some are are very bad riders, putting themselves and horses at great risk which is contributing to the ongoing disaster that is horse racing
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Yes, that's true, they are under great pressure and only a few will get a ride...

In the NH, i worked in France, it was hard as they were competing between themselves for rides. Starving, going running to sweat and they would basically do
anything to please the big boss.

We had over 100 horses, some young horses and some bad and inexperienced jumpers, nearly dangerous but those young lads would jump them
and fall. Every days, we had loose horses running around.

Only the stables jockeys would jump the good ones, all the others were jumped by the apprentices.

When someone had a fall, they were considered weak if they stayed on the ground, the ambulance was rarely called and a lot of teasing would go on.

The young lads would bounce back and carry on. Only people how worked in racing can understand the pressure they feel.

The young girls apprentices would starved themselves and fainted when they got off the horse after the races....

It's was in 2015, so not so long ago.
 
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Racing is an exploitative industry, it chews up and spits out those that don’t make the grade whether they be human or equine.

The humans have a choice as to whether they sign up for it, though.

Sadly suicide in (mostly) young men who don’t make it as far as they wish in their chosen professional sport is far too common.

Can’t help notice how in the stewards enquiries how the jockeys are still referred to by their surname only. They are still expected to doff their caps to their lords and masters.
 
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Janique said:
Yes, that's true, they are under great pressure and only

The young lads would bounce back and carry on. Only people how worked in racing can understand the pressure they feel.
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Janique said:
The young girls apprentices would starved themselves and fainted when they got off the horse after the races....

It's was in 2015, so not so long ago.
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Which in itself , pressure, starvation contributes to brain fog, when riding, when riding any horse you need the brain in gear when blood sugar is low that is not possible

This puts the horses at risk, jockeys who don't eat enough to function sharply, inexperienced as riders, badly trained which can be seen in the approach to jumps, loops in reins, and the horses most of them are relatively young, poor bloody sods

Before ride i make sure I have eaten properly, done stretches and adopted a frame of mind that helps the horse to do what is asked so I am giving the horse full attention

I think it's jack Kennedy who has broken his keg 6 times ? Probably other bits too hes only a young fella! That's not right
 
In answer to a post above about syndicates - not everyone who watches racing bets. I don't - not even 10p on one of 'my' horses.

As regards the overuse of the whip and the suspensions imposed up thread - I think it is overdue for the whip rules between Irish racing and UK racing to be the same. There is even more crossing of the Irish Sea both ways by racehorses these days and harmonised whip rules would benefit the jockeys and the horses.

Time and time again at both Cheltenham and Aintree it is mainly the Irish jockeys that are caught out, along with the claiming jockeys like Toby M-M. I do think that trainers for whom the claiming jockeys ride should be somewhat responsible for reminding the young jockey of both whip rules and pulling up tired horses. These claiming jockeys are learning their trade and should be educated as well as punished for wrongdoing.

As has been mentioned in the CDJ thread - perhaps there ought to be more of a 're-education' punishment for the claiming jockeys alongside any bans for whip misuse of bad riding....
 
tristars said:
Which in itself , pressure, starvation contributes to brain fog, when riding, when riding any horse you need the brain in gear when blood sugar is low that is not possible

This puts the horses at risk, jockeys who don't eat enough to function sharply, inexperienced as riders, badly trained which can be seen in the approach to jumps, loops in reins, and the horses most of them are relatively young, poor bloody sods

Before ride i make sure I have eaten properly, done stretches and adopted a frame of mind that helps the horse to do what is asked so I am giving the horse full attention

I think it's jack Kennedy who has broken his keg 6 times ? Probably other bits too hes only a young fella! That's not right
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Lacking nutrition/starving yourself also contributes to low moods so if they are already suffering with depression it will make it so much worse.

Also to add onto your last point of the young lad breaking bones, well starving yourself can have bad effects on your body even years later. I’ve heard of people getting stress fractures in their 20’s just from running after starving themselves as teenagers. Imagine the damage falling off a horse galloping at full speed would have on an already compromised body.
 
tristars said:
Sadly one name would not cover it

Time and again I've turned off its so disgusting

Would you not be concerned about naming an individual in view of the suicides ?
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I’m up for a few names, not sure why you think I’d have oodles of time to watch oodles of races, hence asking the question as it seemed you might have a list handy 🤷‍♀️
 
ester said:
I’m up for a few names, not sure why you think I’d have oodles of time to watch oodles of races, hence asking the question as it seemed you might have a list han
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I only note good or remarkable riders, if something is good it sticks

When it's putting horses at risk I turn off, can't watch some of it, bad riding
 
tristars said:
Which in itself , pressure, starvation contributes to brain fog, when riding, when riding any horse you need the brain in gear when blood sugar is low that is not possible

This puts the horses at risk, jockeys who don't eat enough to function sharply, inexperienced as riders, badly trained which can be seen in the approach to jumps, loops in reins, and the horses most of them are relatively young, poor bloody sods

Before ride i make sure I have eaten properly, done stretches and adopted a frame of mind that helps the horse to do what is asked so I am giving the horse full attention

I think it's jack Kennedy who has broken his keg 6 times ? Probably other bits too hes only a young fella! That's not right
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Being undernourished isn't an excuse for abuse but racing is certainly a troubled industry in its treatment of people as much as animals. Though this will never make horse cruelty ok. None of it is ok.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
In eating disorder treatment protocols the cutoff for reduced brain function due to malnutrition is a BMI of 15 or lower.
No jockey is that underweight.
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Many jockeys have to stop all fluid intake, starve and sweat for many hours before a race so that they weigh in.

Dehydration and very low blood sugar are hardly the ideal preparation for feeling their best to ride a race, but if they don’t abuse their bodies in this way they don’t get the rides

Racing is abusive to so many on so many levels so that others can get their kicks/make their £££s..
 
Tiddlypom said:
Many jockeys have to stop all fluid intake, starve and sweat for many hours before a race so that they weigh in.

Dehydration and very low blood sugar are hardly the ideal preparation for feeling their best to ride a race, but if they don’t abuse their bodies in this way they don’t get the rides

Racing is abusive to so many on so many levels so that others can get their kicks/make their £££s..
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Sweat themselves? How
 
That's nuts? It's 2026 we have self driving cars and camel racing uses robots yet horse racing still requires people do to that?!!

The industry really is rotten to the core: this isn't a case of a few bad apples ruining the barrel, it's a case of the only fix to this blight is razing the orchard to the ground
 
FieldOrnaments said:
That's nuts? It's 2026 we have self driving cars and camel racing uses robots yet horse racing still requires people do to that?!!

The industry really is rotten to the core: this isn't a case of a few bad apples ruining the barrel, it's a case of the only fix to this blight is razing the orchard to the ground
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How do you propose we could run races without knowing what weight they are carrying and having different weights ?
 
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