Seems an awful lot of deaths.

Pale Rider

Pale Rider

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Thought I'd have a look at just how many horses do actually die on British racecourses every year, according to this site, I make it 108 so far this year. That seems quite a lot to me.

I'm not pushing the ban racing bandwaggon, but it does seem an awful lot, particularly the ones which do die of exhaustion, in view of what has been said on a recent thread. 'I've been to Haydock'

www.horsedeathwatch.com
 
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TelH said:
Exactly.

What that site fails to tell you is how many horses run sucessfully because their figures wouldn't look nearly so dramatic then :rolleyes:
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exactly!! ^^

as I previously said though.. lets see how many people die on the roads, die at theme parks, die on planes and trains! Its a tragic fact of life that accidents do happen!
 
Pale Rider said:
Thought I'd have a look at just how many horses do actually die on British racecourses every year, according to this site, I make it 108 so far this year. That seems quite a lot to me.

I'm not pushing the ban racing bandwaggon, but it does seem an awful lot, particularly the ones which do die of exhaustion, in view of what has been said on a recent thread. 'I've been to Haydock'

www.horsedeathwatch.com
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And someone had to go and bring up death watch! You do realise that that site is a total load of twoddle! There are some horses on there that they claim were put down on the track due to injury that are actually currently standing in someone elses field living life as normal horses? They also frequently get the cause of death wrong. They stack up jockey totals, trainer totals and every other stat they can think of. The people that run that site really need to get a life!

In the vast sceme of things the number of horses that die on the track is very few and far between. You will find more horses are put down due to neglect in some form or another than racehorses die.
 
I'd like to keep a 'Leisure Horse Deathwatch' and see how many horses have died this year from being over-fed and killed through kindness, fat horses gorging themselves on buckets of fancy feeds and unlimited grazing who eventually die a painful death through laminitis.

Obviously, this is impossble. But I think you'll find the total would be pretty high.

I can't even be bothered to give the 'racehorses have a wonderful life participating in one of the best regulated equine sports with the best vet treatment in the world and if they do get injured, they meet a quick death' speech...because people don't listen.
 
EKW said:
And someone had to go and bring up death watch! You do realise that that site is a total load of twoddle! There are some horses on there that they claim were put down on the track due to injury that are actually currently standing in someone elses field living life as normal horses? They also frequently get the cause of death wrong. They stack up jockey totals, trainer totals and every other stat they can think of. The people that run that site really need to get a life!

In the vast sceme of things the number of horses that die on the track is very few and far between. You will find more horses are put down due to neglect in some form or another than racehorses die.
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I just so agree, do you think that if there was a site for show jumpers, trotting horses, show horses, event horses, or general riding horses, the tally would be any less? Racing is in the headlines and gets the brunt from these people. I bet they love every fatality so they can post on their Death Watch website.
 
http://www.eventing.zzn.com/

Here's the eventing version.

Why do people tarnish racing with a black brush? There are equine deaths every day in fields, due to neglect, accidents etc etc. It really gets my back up when people jump on the racing bandwagon. Open your eyes people and look at the far greater picture, rather than taking some "facts" from some bunny hugging welfare website. If they truely were animal lovers they wouldn't have that disgracefull picture on their web page.
 
As a slight (ok big) aside - which celeb was it that set up camp outside of Cheltenham during the Festival and tried to sell horse meat burgers? I thought that was both stupid and ingenious at the same time! I don't approve of it but it's gonna bug me now I have remembered it and can't remember the persons name!
 
O FFS. That website is such a load of tosh. Really, do people still look at rubbish like that? Next you'll be telling me to sign up to SHAC or ALF because of what their websites say. If people can't be bothered to separate sensationalist nonsense from reasonable reporting I can't be bothered to deal with them. What has the world come to?!
 
EKW said:
As a slight (ok big) aside - which celeb was it that set up camp outside of Cheltenham during the Festival and tried to sell horse meat burgers? I thought that was both stupid and ingenious at the same time! I don't approve of it but it's gonna bug me now I have remembered it and can't remember the persons name!
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Janet Street Porter IIRC :D

J&C
 
teagreen said:
I'd like to keep a 'Leisure Horse Deathwatch' and see how many horses have died this year from being over-fed and killed through kindness, fat horses gorging themselves on buckets of fancy feeds and unlimited grazing who eventually die a painful death through laminitis.

Obviously, this is impossble. But I think you'll find the total would be pretty high.

I can't even be bothered to give the 'racehorses have a wonderful life participating in one of the best regulated equine sports with the best vet treatment in the world and if they do get injured, they meet a quick death' speech...because people don't listen.
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Need a like button for this post.
 
Can I put my idea forward please, and sorry if this offends...

Let's ban ..

Racing
Show jumping
X country
Hacking
Keeping a horse

Infact let's just wrap our selves up in cotton wool, oh no, if that goes over our noses then we might suffocate!!!!

My point is that even just keeping animals or going about our day to day life is a barrage of danger, if we lived a life where we were completely safe , then what kind of existence would that be?

Even wild horses face danger every day of their lives
 
My dog died after being hit by a car daisydo. Do you think we ought to ban keeping dogs too? And perhaps cars, they're nasty dangerous things too.
 
What concerns me is the number of show horses that die early often due to colic - read Horse and Hound's In The News column and there was a spate of nearly one a week. There are far less show horses than racehorses too and this column only mentions the one near the top of the game. So many big winners seem to barely make it past 14, seems so strange.
 
Daisydo said:
Can I put my idea forward please, and sorry if this offends...

Let's ban ..

Racing
Show jumping
X country
Hacking
Keeping a horse

Infact let's just wrap our selves up in cotton wool, oh no, if that goes over our noses then we might suffocate!!!!

My point is that even just keeping animals or going about our day to day life is a barrage of danger, if we lived a life where we were completely safe , then what kind of existence would that be?

Even wild horses face danger every day of their lives
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so true!!
If there was a record of how many leisure horses had died so far this year I'll bet it's more than 108!!
 
Not deaths obviously, but I was at a little village horse show today (socialising new pup) and couldn't believe how many unhappy ponies I saw. I saw ponies with bridles far too big so the bits were banging on their teeth, one in tendon boots that came down nearly to its hooves so they dug in to its heel every time it flexed its foot, grossly overweight ponies being whipped at each jump to get them round the course, etc. I am sure all of this was caused by ignorance, but I bet this goes on every weekend at this sort of show round the country and no one bothers about it.
 
Ibblebibble said:
so true!!
If there was a record of how many leisure horses had died so far this year I'll bet it's more than 108!!
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and if we were to ban all sports and all the horses had to be slaughtered (as they would have to be if they didnt have jobs!) .. maybe one of us could make a site with the death toll and be against unrealistic geeks with one sided views and nothing better to do with their time :)
 
Yes, far more than 108. And how many people do you know who hack their obese horse/pony out at weekends only and expect it to be capable of 1-2hours hacking without any regular fittening work? Is this not pushing a horse to its limitations? I have seen many round our village alone so cant blieve its not widespread!

And as someone else said, racehorses are not ridden hard with the whip off the track - at our yard whoa be-tide you if you raise thewhip to any of the horses on the gallop. A single slap if they drift dangerously is all that is allowed. Therefore what you see at the racecourse is the extent o the usage of the whip. This is in direct contract to sport hors yards where the "correction" is one behind doors and therefore wholly unregulated. There are bad eggs in every sport of course but by enlarge most racing yards are similarly run.

As for hat website, its a load of crap. And having a quick rad through the list i didnt see any that read "collapsed and died from exhaustion". There were a few that said collapsed and died after race etc bt that does not necessarily say it was from exhaustion or the jockey over-exerting them.

For the record, we have one horse who is talented on the allops and in work, HATES schooling in the arena and is lazy on the track. You cannot push him to do something he doesnt want to do. Its frustrating as we see flashes of brilliance at home but he just wont reproduce it at he racecourse. He is not the sort who will be suited to life as a riding horse so unfortunately the day he leaves training will prbably be his last. Sad but not every horse will make a riding horse.
On theother hand we have an older flat horse who has spent 9 years in training winning at least one race each of those years. He LOVES his game. Does not enjoy schooling in the arena, a very masculine horse (cut at 7yo) and again not suited to a life outside racing (doesnt jump, hates the school, strong in company and you wouldnt hold him if you hunted him). However, everyday he takes to the gallops with a spring in his step. He is near impossible to hold and it is not uncommon to see him still galloping well beyond the day's set working distance. He is a horse who loves to work. At the races, he beahves impeccably and always turns in a good perfomance. Lucky for him hes the yard favourite so will be guaranteed of retirement to the field (as i say not a horse who would easily be rehomed). His trainer adores him.

Having visited many many livery yards in the UK as well as professional yards, stud etc I have come across far far more horses kept on DIY yards who are ill treated, neglected, over fed and under exercised, stared, denied veterinary treatment, company etc than horses mis-treated in racing. No one regulates these horse-owners. They have to answer to no-one.
 
I got into this discussion as a result of someone saying they had seen horses exhausted at Haydock, someone else said it was the heat. Then the question of horses having to have oxygen after races came up.
Now, I don't want to ban racing or any other sport, but, if something can be improved, made safer, both for horses and people, then I'm all for it.
No one surely can condone any horse dying in a sport, any sport if it can be avoided. From what I've read from the really pro racing people on here, racing can be improved.
No one likes changes, more rules and regulation but that's what has to happen for things to carry on.
I am coming round to the opinion that the industry needs to make itself more horse friendly, if it doesn't it will be done in spite of them.
Just slagging of the people who compile damaging statistics is stupid. You need to give them nothing to compile.
 
sadly i don't think you will ever be able to eliminate all the risks in any sport, yes of course it would be preferable to not have any horses die but it's just not possible. my TB broke her leg in the field, no sport involved but she still managed to snap it completely in half :( it's the nature of having animals i think, you have to accept that no matter what you do with them there is always a risk.
 
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