Eight Bells (Kentucky Derby horse)

[Vela]

On the flip side, what makes you think they are forced? Do you spend time around race horses? Do you know anyone in racing? I do and I know the horses and those who do it LOVE to run. They aren't forced, half the time they have a hard time keeping them from running too fast in work outs. The horses LIKE it. My Morgan LOVES to run. He would run all day if I let him. I have to ask him NOT to. I don't force him. There are horses who don't like to race or run, don't have it in them the desire to do it, so they don't race them. If a horse doesn't run and doesn't want to perform, they are not raced. You cannot force a horse to run and/or win if it doesn't want to. Knowledge like that comes only from being around an animal and getting to know it.

There are poor trainers and barns and breeders in thoroughbred racing, just like in every sport, but unless you have spent time with the people and horses involved, you can't make assumptions based on seeing a few horrific stories. Well I guess you can, but they won't be accurate. NOBODY wants to see their horse go down like that. The jockey was in tears, the owner was in tears, the trainer was in tears. The love them, they pamper them, they take VERY good care of them, most of the people.

I know of owners and trainers who have rehomed horses who didn't like to run or had injuries that prevented them from running safely. A HUGE majority of those horses are now in "pet" homes living a good life and well loved by someone else. The Jackson's retired Barbro's brother, Man in Havana, to be a hack horse on the farm, because he didn't like to run. Rick Porter, who owned Eight Belles, rehomes horses who aren't happy racing with other families for most of the time NO money. He then keeps track of the horses to make sure they are well cared for.

And that is not true that if they don't run fast enough they will end up at slaughter. Some will, yes, but MORE horses end up on slaughter houses because of hore people being BYB or horse mills, just like puppy mills. There are back yard breeders in horses just like in dogs, and that is where the majority of the slaughter horses come from. I know all about the slaughter statistics, but that is only part of the picture. The horses who are bred with no thought to where they will find homes, whose parents are poor breeding animals, and the horses with no training or are very old are the horses that generally end up at slaughter. I will not pretend no race horses ever go there, some do, but you can't make a broad based judgement about a whole industry because some of the people in it do the wrong thing.

Unless you actually know the animals and people involved, you don't know what they do or don't like to do. You can TELL when an animal is happy or unhappy, just like with your own dogs. Horses are just as expressive.

Comparing horse racing and pitbull fighting is a little odd though.

I don't think people should watch horse racing if they don't like the sport, or have issue with it, then it will just upset them, but to paint everyone involved with the same brush and make them out to be sadistic jerks is not true either.

[pitc9]

I don't think people should watch horse racing if they don't like the sport, or have issue with it, then it will just upset them,

Even then it will all still go on, not watching it will never make it go away. And with the way the pictures of Eight Bells and her injuries have been plastered all over the news and internet, it's hard not to see her.

but to paint everyone involved with the same brush and make them out to be sadistic jerks is not true either.

I'm not lumping all horse breeders/trainers..etc. together. It's the same that goes for dog breeders. One bad person is all it takes to ruin it all for everyone, and I understand that.

Sometimes I think it's less upsetting to know that a homeless dog is being put to sleep rather than a homeless horse is being sent to slaughter.

Seeing what happened to Eight Bells on Live TV is what's making this hurt that much more and is what has upset people, like me, that are against racing even more. To see first hand what can, and does happen to those young horses.

[Grace]

Yes, horses love to run. If you doubt this just go to You Tube and type in Secretariat Belmont. Sit back and watch a horse who loved to run.

He won by 31 lengths; the jockey didn't lay a hand on him; Secretariat simply loved running.

[RICHARD]

Just for the record.

Animals evolve into their bodies and body parts become 'specialty' traits.

Dogs?

Whippets and GHs got the legs to run, terriers got the speed and the digging gene?

Sledders? St Bernards? Coats to keep them warm. Looking at a horse you would have to guess that long lean legs would be a predisposition to speed.

When you look at the long-legged animals, deer, giraffes and elk- they all have the speedy leg look. It only makes sense to assume that a horse is a runner.