Who struggles with watching racing due to fatalities?

Equilibrium Ireland said:
I used to love everything about racing but became disillusioned a few years ago. Spent my life in it really. But not because of injuries but because of the people.

My take on injuries. Had a hunt cross our land a few weeks ago. Did not have permission. Husband went down to the back field to make sure they came no further. From where I was I could hear the beatings the horses were were getting. The land was barley suitable for turnout never mind never mind jumping out over flooded ditches. Most had various bits of skin hanging off and bleeding injuries. But hey whatever right? And horses die galloping around fields and getting stuck in stables. More die deaths through ignorance or total neglect. But those aren't in front of us at all times.

I do know this, the trainers I worked for, mostly in America, they were some of the best looked after horses you'd want to see. I've worked for the same here but I will say I've worked for some that had know idea how to keep horses properly.

But for me it was mostly people. Bloodstock agents that tell you we'll give you 100k for your horse and I'm taking 150k for myself. They very rarely put anything back into the sport. Why don't you take 25 k for yourself for picking up the phone and put 125k towards racing charities. Owners who think they have a football and so when it isn't fun anymore they don't pay bills and don't give a crap what happens to the horse. People who's only talent is being related to somebody. Hard work will get you only so far over here. Only money gets you opportunity. But really rich or poor it doesn't change how you view the horse that doesn't win anymore. Or never wins. So yeah for me racing is ruined by these types of people. Yeah plenty of good but I never really realised how low some people are on morality and integrity. So yeah, I soured.

Terri
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Yes, me too! Every now and then the sordidness of racing would hit me - the rich folk you mention above and the abusive stablestaff - right down to the gallops watchers, snouts and tipster hangers-on and the pathetic examples of mankind one could see drawing on minscule hand rolled cigarettes at the local bookies while they pondered on what nose to place their giro money.
 
i also hate it when they fall but as a horse lover i can appreciate the racehorses speed and athleticism(not sue about that spelling)..i have been watching cheltenham an no one could fail to love the way sprinter sacre raced today....he is beautiful and such an athlete, wonderful!!!!!:D
 
I quite enjoy watching most NH racing and will certainly be watching the Gold Cup on friday.

However I cannot stomach the Grand National - I felt traumatised last year after what happpened to Synchronisesd and According to Pete and was in tears for hours after.

I refuse to ever watch that race again until they reduce the size of the field, as is just utter carnage in its current form.......
 
Its my job, my profession, my life and I absolutely hate the fatalities. I accept that they happen but I don't like it. The first thing that runs through any stable staffs head when a horse doesnt come home is - Thank god its not my horse.
 
Parachute said:
I never claimed they weren't. All i'm saying is, there's risks to pretty much everything! These thoroughbreds were bred to race, so that's what they're on this earth to do. If people kept thinking 'Oh no I won't do this, there's a risk to that' the earth would literally stop!!
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I disagree, we have a choice in the things we do, have opportunity to understand the risk horses obviously do not. They can't decide whether it's safe enough to do, we have an obligation to decide that for them, and IMO as a horse lover it's too big a risk.

In my life, i take a fair amount of risk in the sports i do but i am able to make that decision for myself.

Parachute said:
Neither have I. I think this post is because there are more fatalities in jump racing rather than flat racing. And Cheltenham is a jump racing festival!!
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Correct, not neccersarily Cheltenham itself, just that has prompted the post :)

Nicnac said:
Nope I love watching it and if this post refers to Cheltenham, after 2 days there haven't been any fatalities as far as I'm aware.

If you don't like it; don't watch it!

Think you may need to change your username OP as I always thought you worked in the industry.
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Thanks, i don't watch it. That used to be my login name and something happened on the forum and our log in names became our display name. However being a racing driver (cars) i think it's apt ;)

I am torn with it though, as i do think it's great that the horses are doing what they're bred for, and i love watching them work. And in some ways i guess it's probably better for the animals that they're in a professional environment and getting enough exercise to keep them sane rather than with a novice owner going to and from a stable and being misunderstood.

However the fatalities is a small part of what i dis like about the racing industry.
 
Love jump racing but hate the fatalities .
Mind you I've seen a horse drop a leg into a rabbit hole and break it so it isn't confined to the race track.
It's our local point to point at the weekend and I'm praying to god there's no fatalities
 
I held the south African horse at burghley as he was put to sleep after shattering a pastern on the flat. It didn't make it onto tv though, I think we are sheltered from the negative sides of some sports. I do think we owe some of them a greater responsibility though. My sister rode a horse last year who broke its leg on the gallops. He went through rehab and raced at the weekend. His leg broke and he was put to sleep. He was never going to be a superstar so to me its hard to understand why they would race him again, especially over fences.
 
I don't even try watching it. Knowing all I knowI just feel bad for the horses and prefer to stick my head in the sand while it is on :(
 
I love it, but I also hate it. The wastage & fall out rate, & all the negative side effects of the industry probably more than the actual falls on the track. And when one does have a fatal injury, I'm sorry for the horse, but after that its the groom I feel for, rather than the owner, trainer, jockey etc.
 
If you don't like it, don't watch it, nobody's forcing you to, it's personal choice completely but it's like saying you can't watch anyone cross the road as they might be hit by a bus - then again, they might not; both are accidents and while always regrettable, not always preventable.
 
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I love racing with a passion, this week for me is pure heaven. Having said that, I am also aware of the vulnerability of the race horse. Its all been said a million times about the dangers, injuries and fatalities. Better a swift death on a racecourse than in the hands of fools. Better to be sent to slaughter than to be ferried about around sales. Read Jane Smileys Horse Heaven, it is not just a story, it sums up racing and the true thoughts of trainers good and bad.
I find it more upsetting going to a low end horse sale than anything that racing can throw at me to be honest.
 
1stclassalan said:
Yes, me too! Every now and then the sordidness of racing would hit me - the rich folk you mention above and the abusive stablestaff - right down to the gallops watchers, snouts and tipster hangers-on and the pathetic examples of mankind one could see drawing on minscule hand rolled cigarettes at the local bookies while they pondered on what nose to place their giro money.
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You really are THE most ridiculous poster on this forum. Most of the time you make very little sense, then sometimes you make no sense at all.
 
I love watching racing but I think I shall give the GN a miss this year for the first time ever. The ill advised bowing to the "make it safer" campaign has done just the opposite, I thought last year was appalling.
 
I used to run Point to Points, at the busiest meets we lost up to 3 horses. Totally tragic but they were PTS so quickly so no suffering.
Compare this with a horse who could be your best friend and you sell on, it is then badly treated or neglected or starved.... What end would you prefer?
 
justabob said:
You really are THE most ridiculous poster on this forum. Most of the time you make very little sense, then sometimes you make no sense at all.
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Actually, I thought that was one of his more cogent posts. He wasn't developing an argument, but expressing an opinion (which we are all entitled to do).
 
Interesting comment about dressage being safer. In recent reports it is the dressage horses who have a far higher incidence of injuries.

You do have a choice to watch or not. It is also grossly unfair and ill informed to say that everyone in racing is self serving and uncaring...oh really? I am not connected with racing, I don't know much about it. I did go to Cheltenham yesterday and watched some of the very best race and they were magnificent.

Racing is not perfect nor are other sports and I put "my" sport, eventing, in the same pot. Rather than simply say you don't like it, do something. Donate something to racehorse rehabilitation, give up some time to help them. I hate what is happening to staffords right now but I don't just moan, I do help fund raise and give time to help.
 
This discussion comes up every time there is a big race meeting. If you don't like racing don't watch. I have stopped going to point to points as there the horses aren't very well ridden mostly and not that well prepared and every time I went there seemed to be dead and injured horses everywhere.

I do like watching racing on TV though. It is what the thoroughbred racehorse has been developed and bred for, and the size of the whole business of racing has meant that there have been huge improvements in veterinary practices which all horses in the UK have benefitted from.

Some horses fall, some get injured, some die, but most don't. I think I have posted before that racing is the whole of life in an afternoon - triumph, success, elation, guts, determination, team work, disappointment, sadness, financial success - or not - there is everything there from the lows of loss to the highs of success.
 
I'm right behind the industry, I really enjoy racing and Cheltenham is one of my favourites.

I think Claire Balding did a great job of pointing out last year that horses who unseat their jockeys continue on, often to the end of the course, often jumping everything. I know people will come back and say they are running with fear, they have it drummed into them, but I disagree.

There are a lot of people in the industry that care so fiercely about the horses welfare, no one dismisses fatalities lightly, stable hands are as attached to those horses like we are to ours, no one wants to go home at the end of the day with one extra space on the lorry.
 
Girlracer said:
an industry that is really (for the horses) pretty dangerous.
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It's an industry that is really pretty dangerous for the jockeys too. I know it's 'their choice', but the danger is still there. Accidents happen in all walks of life.

So no, I don't struggle to watch. I'm not heartless, deaths of horses upset me. But I love watching these animals at the peak of fitness displaying the speed and power that they were born with, and bred for.
 
I hate seeing any injuries/fatalities but still love horses and still love jump racing.

I do think that at least racehorses get to live a good life before they die. Unlike starved ponies dumped on wasteground and left to starve or the foals shot and dumped by the local travellers which I have seen at first hand. And those transported for days across europe without food or water for the meat trade.

A swift death is a tragedy but not the worst thing that humans do to horses by a long long way. My priorities personally are focused on practices that cause long drawn out extended suffering through deliberate cruelty, there is more than enough of that for us all to concentrate our efforts on long before we work our way down to accidents which happen in racing but also happen in the field or out hacking.
 
Me..I cannot watch it at all now. My dad does and it seemed everytime I visited him and tried to watch it a horse died. I decided to stop completely. I won't even watch the National this year and have loved it all my life.
 
RunToEarth said:
I think Claire Balding did a great job of pointing out last year that horses who unseat their jockeys continue on, often to the end of the course, often jumping everything. I know people will come back and say they are running with fear, they have it drummed into them, but I disagree.
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I think these people also want to make horses dumber than they are. Have they never seen the horses stop when they're riderless, or the ones that continue racing until they get round to where the stables are then - whoosh! - off they go. If mine was a racer and he was riderless, he'd likely stop to eat!
 
I am not a big racing fan, just because I don't really enjoy it. However, watching the best "live" was very different and was a totally different experience.

I still stand by what I said earlier. Either watch it or don't. And if you really are worried about racehorses, do something positive to help those out of training.
 
I'm fine watching normal chasing. Cheltenham is fine rarely fatalities. It's the GN that got me last year. I did not find it pleasant to watch and the horses that died haunted me for several days.
I'm more sensitive to it now that I have my own beloved ex-racer and my mum has one who is a super chap plus the ones we have had in the past. I don't see a horse at the beginiing of the race I see our boy's and I know how brave and kind our boy's are and it breaks my heart to see the horses killed in the race thinking it could be them :(.
So No I probably won't watch the GN this year. It is a shame as I do agree with racing in principle, horses die when we ask them to hack on the roads or go XC or SJ so I have nothing against horses in sport. I can cope with the odd fatality but I can't cope watching a race knowing that 10% will not live to see another day, those odds are too high for me to take pleasure in i'm afraid..
 
SarahThomas said:
It's an industry that is really pretty dangerous for the jockeys too. I know it's 'their choice', but the danger is still there. Accidents happen in all walks of life.
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What seperates racing from any other horse sport it that the jockeys are assessed and given licences before they are allowed to set foot on the track. They are taught to ride, to jump, to stride, to fall. And I think the last part is the most important - they are taught to fall - to try and curl and land on a shoulder and huddle up into a ball and make yourself as small as possible for the runners coming along behind you.

Yes jockeys get some fatastic injuries but you have to go back many, many years to find a jockey that died in a race. I'm asshamed to admit that I can't remember the lads name but he was a 3lb claimer and he died in a hurdle race at Market Rasen son 13-15 years ago. And yet not an eventing season goes by without one or two riders dying over a fence.

A lot can be learnt from racing.
 
Luci07 said:
Rather than simply say you don't like it, do something. Donate something to racehorse rehabilitation, give up some time to help them.
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£7.50 a month to the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre for the last 12 years and every intention to continue.
 
RunToEarth said:
I think Claire Balding did a great job of pointing out last year that horses who unseat their jockeys continue on, often to the end of the course, often jumping everything. I know people will come back and say they are running with fear, they have it drummed into them, but I disagree.
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Running with the herd? :D
 
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