McKelvey Dies After National Race!

Here here, with all the 'I can't watch it because of the cruelty comments' I feel like saying I can't watch Dressage because of the cruelty. At the end of the day we chose to have horses to fulfil our own selfish desires so no one who owns a horse can really comment on whether competing in a particular sphere is cruel. Horses were not designed to be ridden by humans and it doesn't matter how much 'natural horsemanship' you practice, they still are meant to be wild. Apart from breeds like the Thoroughbred, which we created to for our own pleasure.
I love my horses and like to think that I give them the best life they can have as a riding horse, and the horses at work are very well cared for too for their situation. The day I stop caring about them will be the day I give up working or owning horses completely. I too hope that HHO doesn't go too extreme on the bunny hugging as it seems to at the mo, hence why I mainly hang about in Competition Riders and Soap box.
 
Of course the horse should have been allowed to race again. It shows the lack of racing knowledge of the posters that believe he died because he was injured last year. He unseated his rider and ran through a barrier when loose, and that was where he injured himself badly enough to be destroyed.
The winner also had been off with a tendon injury, and it didn't appear to do him any harm, did it? But then maybe you are just bandwagonning on stopping the big race?
Racehorses in the main love their job. Those that don't refuse to race.
Racing is the ONLY horse sport that has every race scrutinised, and all behaviour on the course monitored. It compares well to any other horse sport.
But then perhaps those that express an opinion on how 'cruel' it is have no actual experience of it?
 
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The winner also had been off with a tendon injury, and it didn't appear to do him any harm, did it?

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No, but that horse had 18 months off. More than adequate time for a tendon to heal.

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I know that, but whilst that would have been relevant if he was destroyed due the leg going again, he wasn't. In the context of those posters saying a horse with a leg injury should be retired, the time scale is irrelevant.
Although I don't personally believe he had been given enough time off, it wasn't that which killed him.
 
We will never know exactly what killed him, perhaps it was the leg which caused him to unseat in the first place.
My concern is the horse shouldn't have been there, hence should not have died.
This was a completely avoidable accident, although probably unconnected.
Fact is, the National is the one race every year where the BHA have complete control over who runs. They need a swift kick up the a55 before racing gets into an even more sorry state.
Trainers patch horses up to race every week, and this was a missed opportunity for the BHA to make an example that it is not acceptable.
Instead they have a PR disaster on their hands.
 
I have such mixed feelings about this. I cringed when they said that McKelvey was dead - knowing that he is 'The One Show' horse, it seems a cruel twist of Fate that he was the only casualty - the only horse that non-racing, non-horsy public have been given the chance to get up close to. And knowing how Animal Aid tried to 'warn' viewers of the One Show off betting in the National....the backlash is going to be interesting, for AA are now going to be able to fuel their claim that they have been proven 'right' about the race.
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As for whether I feel McKelvey should have run again this year....I don't know. Personally, if I was fortunate to own a racehorse, I could never enter it in the National, but I do not feel badly towards those who do. There is a part of me that felt that Hedgehunter should not have been run again; he has nothing left to prove, and I guess you could say the same about McKelvey - with his second place came serious injury, and perhaps it may have seemed kinder to leave it there. But who are we all to judge whether his recuperation period was long or adequate enough? No one would have known that horse better than his trainer, and I cannot imagine for a second he would have let the horse run if he wasnt up to it.
It was a racing accident, a tragic one at that, but at least McKelvey died doing what he did best. I would rather that than see him suffer a long, painful decline like Barbaro or Graphic Approach.
RIP McKelvey
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I do tend to agree with the people who say a horse has to earn its food and that they do love to race, i mean they wouldnt carry on with the field if they didn't, they're not dumb. Plus untill, or if, the release what acctually happened to him we wont know what acctually happened. There isn't much more they can do in racing for the horses welfare, did you read how much smaller the fences are now in H&h plus the best vetinary care is on site. Even pony club jumpers are doped now, spiked boots in eventers, covering up of vettings, horses dying in endurance prompting a complete rewrite if the rules. Its not a racing thing, its a equestrainism thing!
 
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We will never know exactly what killed him, perhaps it was the leg which caused him to unseat in the first place.
My concern is the horse shouldn't have been there, hence should not have died.
This was a completely avoidable accident, although probably unconnected.
Fact is, the National is the one race every year where the BHA have complete control over who runs. They need a swift kick up the a55 before racing gets into an even more sorry state.
Trainers patch horses up to race every week, and this was a missed opportunity for the BHA to make an example that it is not acceptable.
Instead they have a PR disaster on their hands.

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I can't quite understand why you are so down on the connections of the horse. I feel terribly sorry for them. But with what you're saying......there are several horses who ran that you could make a PR 'case' out of if you so chose to. Contraband for one (recent record), Idle Talk for another (ropey jumping record) and so on. However, if you started to nitpick the runners for whatever reason, where on earth do you draw the line?
Mckelvey had had two runs over hurdles at 3m 1f and 3m, and finished sound. As I said, I agree that he hadn't had what is considered long enough to recover, but by the same token, plenty horses have the time, Well Chief for one, and still don't fully recover. It is not as yet an exact science.

I admit to being worried when I heard the One show started to follow him, because I was of the opinion that he might well break down again. I don't believe he did, I've watched the rerun a couple of times, and he ran on sound for a long way after Tom O'B fell off him. I think it is very wrong to use the tendon injury as a reason for his demise, and it is certainly not a strong enough reason to bar him from running, and certainly not enough to 'make an example' of them. Don't you think losing their horse is enough?
I don't see how this was an avoidable accident when the previous tendon injury was irrelevant. He had the best credentials of any horse in the field, having finished second in 2007, and was carrying a winnable weight. He died because he crashed through a barrier and injured himself to the extent that he couldn't get up.

The PR disaster, if there is one, is that there are barriers that will hurt a horse if he cannons into them running loose.

If the BHA are to do anything, they should bring out regulations that stop the clowns like those that own Contraband from running him in Championship races at Chetenham.
 
Long story short, he should have been sent for sausages, because THAT would have kept the fluffy bunny brigade happy.
I didn't think so!
If a racehorse doesn't race, it goes for nothing. It goes to be slaughtered, or tortured to death by the Parelli machine supporting novices who think they can retrain a racehorse with an overpriced schooling whip. I have seen it in the flesh, and it made me cringe, but I'd much rather see a horse go down on the track then fall into hands that don't know them, don't care about them, and will probably end up killing them anyway.
 
having been there and having a horse i look after in the hunter chase over the big fences - every horse over the "big" fences get checked by the vets and trotted up before quite a few to see if they are fit to race! so he obviously passed that and i no of a few who didn't or shouldn't have.
 
I have to keep telling myself at least he had been wonderfully cared for, probably adored by his 'lad' and went out having a good old gallop with his own kind.

I don't bet on horses - or anything else, but especially not them.
 
I just hope the BBC explain what happened properly to the non equestrian educated public who will have followed him with interest following the One Show.

Otherwsie it will terrible PR for N Hunt racing; a sport i love, yet i hate the greed from many owners who want their horses to run in the national for the glamour when they really are not up to the job.

I always feel sorry for the poor horses who have tried their heart out in previous GN races, and really have nothing to prove, only to be sent back the following year. McKelvey was a superstar for coming second in '07- why on earth didn't they give him the happy retirement he deserved and let him recover from his injury naturally?

RIP McKelvey.....
 
The winner had also had a long time off the racecourse with injury.

All the runners in the Grand National have to be qualified to run, it isn't possible to run "no hoppers" any more (and a good thing too.)

Two of the placed horses have run before in the GN, they didn't seem to mind running in the race again.

Some horses hate it, some love it. A trainer can't know unless he sends a horse there.
 
I have read some of the posts here and the term "accident" is used far too often. There are a heck of a lot of "accidents" in racing. I also don't think comparing showjumping to racing is fair at all. They are completely different! In showjumping, horses of seven or eight-years-old are considered young. In racing, most horses are well into their retirement, have been killed in action/training or have been auctioned off as dog food. And since '97, almost forty horses have been killed at Aintree, eleven of those in the National itself. Please tell me of a jumping venue with a similar death toll. And at least the poles roll out easily in showjumping and horses aren't made to jump them at a flat out gallop. Does a hedge of hurdle collapse with the slightest touch? Additionally, you never see a showjumper ending his round dripping in sweat and not being able to get a breath of air. And remember HOYS back in the early nineties when Sir Arkay died as a result of that chute obstacle. Was that fence left in the competition so other horses could hurt or kill themselves? No, it was withdrawn immediately. And when it happened, most of the spectators were in tears and a state of shock. Can the same be said when a racehorse dies on track? But of course it has been proven that many people only attend jump meetings to see the carnage, the fallers, the ones that don't get up again. It was the exact same when people cheered and encouraged gladiators to fight to the death and weren't satisfied unless there was a pile-up during a chariot race. It is in some peoples nature to crave such a thing and please don't tell me otherwise. But how any "horse lover" enjoys seeing those fragile creatures flinging themselves over gigantic bushes at over 30mph is well beyond me. At the end of the day, all that racing stands for is money and glory. The horses' welfare goes right out the window. McKelvey is proof of that. He should NEVER have ran again. He should have gone into a less strenuous discipline or sold to someone as a riding horse. To make him jump those huge fences was cruel and totally unacceptable.

I would also like to know why loose horses passing the winning post first are never considered winners. They have proven it is possible for them to think independently and not need a human to negotiate the course. Surely they deserve some credit. Oh I forgot, the only winners are the humans. NOT the horses. They NEVER are!

R.I.P. McKelvey

The page below does not include the fatalities from the past couple of weeks which is at least half-a-dozen -

http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/
 
Why was McKelvey actually pts? I know he fell on the track after unseating his jockey but was it because he re-injured his tendon or was there another problem as a result of the fall?

I caught part of the coverage on the One Show and didn't realise it was McKelvey, real shame which can only be put down to a tragic accident
 
I would be rather surprised if the exact nature of McKelvey's fatal injury will be revealed on the One Show. Time will tell I guess.
 
Do some of you not read the threads you comment on?
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I put earlier in the thread that Mckelvey was injured by running into a barrier when loose. He couldn't get up again, and was euthanased.
A quote from the Independant below.....

The connections of the Grand National's one fatality, McKelvey, are distraught by implications by animal rights activists that his death was due to their negligence. The nine-year-old, running for the third time since sustaining a tendon strain close home when finishing second last year, suffered irreparable injuries when running loose after unseating Tom O'Brien at the 20th obstacle.


"He ran into a post," said a spokesperson for Peter Bowen's stable. "It could have happened at any course. It had nothing to do with the fences and certainly nothing to do with his previous injury. He was fit and well."

As for the ridiculous comparison of show jumping versus racing, I have seen some terrible things done to horses to make them jump higher and cleaner. They can have a dreadful life strapped into gadgets every time they are ridden, and there is no policing and scrutinisation in SJ, or even eventing, that compares to that in racing. EVERY race is televised, EVERY jockey pushing a tired or lame horse is pulled up about it, there are vets at the start of EVERY race....
That does not happen in SJ......
Horses love racing, in the main, if you turn a horse out in a filed with his mates, he'll run around and race them. If you turn a horse out in a field of jumps, you don't see him jump round them, do you?
I'm not against SJ, or eventing, or dressage or any horse sport, but with all sport involving horses, there are good and bad things that go on. However, to take the moral high ground over racing with SJ as an example, is ludicrous. I would rather send a horse racing than to suffer some of the continual mental cruelty I've witnessed in SJ. And if you think SJ at the top level is any less about money or greed compared to racing, open your eyes.

Loose horses, BTW, cannot 'win' the race, they have lost part of the rules of the race, carrying weight, ie the jockey.
 
Dear Gonetofrance, I agree with you completely.
I will now relate what my oh witnessed last weekend at a showjumping comp. He is a transporter so is out and about and sees a lot of whats going on-good and bad. Last weekend he took a client to a , not very important,3 day showj comp. Lots of trucks, horses, people and dogs-the usual. Big truck parked next to our little one, all the local 'important' people chatting away and pretending to be the Italian equiv of the 'W' bros.Oh was getting nervous listening to a horse on 'big truck' pawing and banging around (more than an hour) when all hell let loose. Horse on 'BT' decided that he was coming off one way or another. Trouble being, he wasnt in front of the gate/ramp. He went berzerk and managed to climb over 2 horses in his attempt to get out and then tried to throw himself over the gate and down the ramp. Dickheads of owners/grooms whatever, went hysterical on seeing this poor beast trying to get himself out of this claustriphobic situation managed to stop him. That was his end. They managed to stop him when he was half way over the ramp gate-had they let him get on with it he would have hurt himself but not to the extent of a lead bullet. Poor bugger was stopped ontop of the gate and swung by the belly for a few secs then discovered that his only option was to continue with his escape. He disembowelled himself in his second attempt to get off-he was put down immediately. One of the other horses has back lesions and the other has had his chest kicked to hell and back and refuses to get back on any form of transport. OH is still upset about it and is still damning the idiots who were too busy preening themselves to listen to the cries for help coming from a horse who was suffering.
As far as I am concerned, this was neglect, cruelty whatever you want to call it-a horse who died as McKelvy did, well, his time was up-end of story (sad, but there you go). God bless all the horses who have died through our stupidity. Mairi.
 
I just wonder if there would have been so much uproar about this horse dying if it hadn't injured itself last year? Horses die every day, either at the hands of ignorant or inexperienced handlers, taking part in an event or indeed (i would think the majority) in accidents in a field.

Yes it's a tragedy when any horse dies and no i do not believe race-goers go to watch the carnage one bit. How many horses are there that have fallen and winded themselves at a racetrack, the screens go up for several minutes and everyone thinks the worse. When that horse gets up howevr, it is greeted with a bigger cheer than the race winner. If people didn't care they wouldn't bother would they. I think on the whole NH race horses are probably treated a heck of a lot better than many dressage and showjumpers (and I showjump and event). Racehorses get a lot of the time at the end of the season turned out in fields in a 'herd' to be horses, they are cared for by extremely dedicated grooms and their health is of utmost priority plus their trainers have access to the most advanced treatments and veterinary help available.

How many dressage and showjumpers are kept shut in stables for the majority of thir lives, strapped down with contraptions to make them 'look pretty' and beaten to get 'results'? Why is that any better than racehorse treatment?

Do riders get bans at shows for abusing their horses with whips? No, i don't think so! I think this has all got blown out of proportion with the actual incident especially considering the horse didn't even die as a result of any pre-existing injury!

Oh and for the record in my job i have had 2 calls this morning from 2 people whose horses died at the weekend - broken legs!
 
I think to be fair - there is no justifying any equine death in any sport we partake in with them.

I watch all national hunt racing with my heart in my mouth - and with the National I watch behind my sofa and my hands.

So sad for all his connections - but that's the game of racing unfortunately.
 
Mairi, what a terrible story, and how appalling they didn't have the savvy to deal with it.
Similar things happen in the UK too, I was at a BE event a couple of years ago, a well known rider had left a big horse on it's own in a truck, and it was going ballistic. I went in to help it, there were no grooms or anything there, and the horse had climbed on top of the locker space and was stuck. Rider came back, and we got it sorted between us, and then he buggered off and left it again, and it did the same thing......
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The only mistreatment of racehorses at a track that I've ever seen has happened here in France. I have been in countless UK track stables and lorry parks at the races, and ptps, and I have never seen any abuse of horses.
The lads cop a degree of flack when it goes wrong, but not the horses!

I have seen showjumpers thrashing merry hell out of horses when they go back to the truck tho'.
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the vet on the one show said the horse had broken his back!! and could not be saved!!

am on the fence with this one with large splinters in my butt!

my heart sinks and i do think if badminton started with 40 runners and only 15 actually completed there would be a massive outcry!
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poor horse am very sorry for all those who got to know him
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on the horsecam and all involved with this well loved horse, big kiss to him!!
 
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Do some of you not read the threads you comment on?
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I put earlier in the thread that Mckelvey was injured by running into a barrier when loose. He couldn't get up again, and was euthanased.

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Sorry i did read the previous comments on this thread and i know that he sustained an injury by running into the rail. What i meant was what injury was caused by him doing so, i wondered if he had re-injured a tendon by running into the rail or if it was something else. Someone has now said he broke his back. Sorry if you thought i was being rude or confused anyone with my question
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Also i agree that because racing is televised more than other equestrian sports there is much more focus on them than other disiplines. Such as SJ and XC. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen, just people who do not see these things first hand do not know about them because they are not there for all to see on TV.
 
Sade1968, my post wasn't directed at you in particular, sorry if you though it was.
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my heart sinks and i do think if badminton started with 40 runners and only 15 actually completed there would be a massive outcry!
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Errrm....at Badminton 2008, 76 started and only 38 completed?
There were several horse falls, several rider unseats and loads of refusals. Very similar to the National. Horses are killed eventing, and it is really sad too, but there is no-one targetting them, like Animal Aid does with racing, because it is very difficult to find the information. For which I am really glad, BTW. I'd hate eventing to be attacked in the same way people are witch-hunting racing here. Because everything about racing is in the public domain, it makes it a very easy target.
Eventing has only kept accessible records for the last ten or so years, unlike racing which has kept accessible records for the whole time. I did a BE event years ago where I was held on course after a horse broke a leg further on the course and had to be destroyed. No-one really knew, it wasn't reported in H&H, and I don't even know if records were kept. It is only in the last few years that accident forms have had to be filled out by jump judges.
When a TB dies, you have to return the passport to Wetherbys. There is then a record of the death. Not so with any other horse sport, so if a horse dies as a result of a fall at an event, unless you hear through the grapevine, it never comes to light.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Badminton or eventing, I love it. But I get upset when racing is compared in a poor light to other horse sports, when the policing of them is entirely different. One of the riders at the top of the leaderboard one year at Burghley had a horse tie-up in the 'D' box, but still carried on to the XC. The vet checks are as you come in not out of the box........it went wrong and the horse ended up having to be retired. There was no comeback on this rider, there would have been in racing.

If you are going to equate eventing with what happened to Mckelvey, it would be on a par with a horse running into a tree and being killed (which has happened eventing).

By the nature of horses being horses, accidents will happen in any equestrian sport, it is just wrong to attack racing more than other undocumented disciplines.

Anyway, off my soapbox now.....
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I was very impressed with how the One show handled the situation. They got two sensible and highly qualified people (Clare Balding and the vet- he looks 12 but evidently knows what he is talking about!!) ) to explain what happened. They admitted that accidents happen in racing but that is the nature of the beast. I think they managed to turn a potential PR problem into a touching hommage to a lovely horse.
 
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