His first time out, he stumbles out of the gate and hurts his leg. I see this as a bad omen.
If my horse got hurt coming out of the gate, I wouldn't have made him run. The sad thing is, nobody seems concerned about it. It's like they're just shrugging off any possibility that he could end up like Barbaro. How many horses have to die before someone realizes how screwed up the racing business is?
I can't get past how young the horses are. Even OTT horses often suffer from their days on the track. Lameness early in life is common for them, along with arthritis.
They'll deny it to the ends of the earth. But it's true. I know an ex- harness racer who came to the barn half dead. He was a bag of bones and the idiots told the lady that bought him he was 19, and "that's why he's so skinny."
First of all, no horse should ever be emaciated, no matter how old they are. Granted, if a horse has heaves, it's hard to keep weight on them, but even they shouldn't look like walking dead.
There was no medical reason for Houston's condition. He was run into the ground and probably would have died of exhaustion if he hadn't been rescued. The funny thing is, his new owner got his papers, and turns out he was actually 11. Hmmm... imagine that.
His hindquarters were slightly deformed because he had broken bones that were never treated. We thought he was going to have to be put down for a while, but he perked right up after he started being fed and she even rode him a little. ;D He's been rehomed since then, and as far as I know, he's doing well.
Textbook example of why I hate racing. And why I worry about all the horses.
"How many horses have to die before someone realizes how screwed up the racing business is?"
ReplyDeleteThey know, they just don't care.
TvNB
That's true.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the spectators don't know, though. At least I've heard a lot of people claim that they previously had no idea how horses were treated. Whether or not that's true, I can only speculate.