The thing that bothers me most is people who know NOTHING about something and say it's abuse, it's horrible, etc. It seems many people still listen to stupid organizations like PETA. Vela, I agree 100% with what you are saying and I always have. Like I've said in a different thread horses, or animals in general, can't be FORCED to do something they don't want to. I am sure there are types of cruel horseracing such as one in Texas or some other state where they run down a hill as fast as possible and topple over one another, and underground racing to. How can anybody compare dog fighting to horse-racing? Horses aren't forced to kill each other, they aren't treated poorly, there is NO comparison at all, not matter what anybody tells me. There were times when I would use the crop on my horse during horse back riding lessons. You are telling me lightly tapping a horse is abuse? It's a signal, it's not abuse.