Quote Originally Posted by K9soul View Post
I'm a racing fan. I always hesitate opening these threads because there are often very uninformed and some downright untrue statements made about racing. A lot of articles in the media are not well informed either. Are there problems going on in the industry? Yes. Just like there are problems going on in anything that deals with animals. There are those who are sleazy and put greed above the animal's welfare, and there are those who consider their animals a part of their family.

If you really want to learn about racing, visit some racing message boards where a lot of people involved with it every day post. Here, for example: http://thoroughbredchampions.com/for....php?board=2.0

Most love their horses and give them all the best they can. Yes there are problems going on. I do not agree with breeding lines that are repeatedly unsound. I do not agree with how early they race and train yearlings. Curlin was not raced until he was 3 and he has shown to be strong, sound and a monster on the race track, an international champion now.

I regularly read this blog, very educational, sometimes humorous and pointing out a lot of problems in the world of horses and breeding practices:

http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/


She is very knowledgeable about horses and made a blog entry that I completely agree with regarding Eight Belles and breakdowns. I will quote it here:
K9soul, I'm not very informed about racing at all. It just makes me very sad that this happened. My mom rode horseback when she was a teenager and although I don't enjoy riding, I like to go to "horse country" and see the horses (and sometimes babies) in the fields. I also like what they are doing with riding therapy. I read in the Reader's Digest about a program where they were having prison inmates work with retired horses, doing their feeding, water, muck out and brushing. The horses needed their care and the participants benefited in lots of ways.