Posts Tagged ‘racing’
In The News: Focus on Racing
Is the racing industry’s attempt to resurrect itself contributing to the large number racehorse break downs?
For those following the racing industry, or even just those on facebook, you’ve likely seen something about the recent article published by The New York Times entitled “Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys”. This article has sparked a lot of discussion. Since being published, related articles almost immediately were published on RT Fitch’s Straight From The Horse’s Heart, Vickery Eckhoff’s personal blog, as well as on The Chronicle of the Horse’s website, to name a few.
The New York Times – Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys
Straight From The Horse’s Heart – Death and Disarray at America’s Race Tracks
Vickery Eckhoff – Dear New York Times: Please Don’t Forget the 26,000 Slaughtered Thoroughbreds. Thank you. (oh dear god if you’re at all squeamish/prone to nightmares, avoid that first image!!!)
Paulick Report – Task Force Formed to Investigate Aqueduct Breakdowns (this one was published prior to NYT but goes nicely with the topic)
Chronicle of the Horse – Can Veterinarians Improve The State Of Thoroughbred Racing?
Does this rush of media attention mean better times are on the horizon for racehorses? Are rules going to be enforced? Penalties set that actually offer some measure of deterrent? Maybe a national governing body is the way to go?
Some quick fun facts from the various articles:
-Only 11 states require necropsies be performed when a racehorse breaks down
-Quarter Horse’s were found to be 29% more likely to breakdown than Thoroughbreds
-Claims level horses have a 22% greater chance for breaking down than higher grade racers
-The tracks that increased the allowable level of bute in racehorses also experienced an increase in injuries (hmmm…)
-Not all racetracks are willing to share their reports on track accidents and/or drug testing (Really? Why not? hmmm…)
Due to the nature of Thoroughbred horse racing, there is almost zero incentive for a horse to be properly rehab’d after sustaining an injury. The people involved stand to make more money by doping the horse and racing it, rather than waiting for it to heal properly – especially given the (overall) incredibly lax penalties and enforcement thereof. I’m not trying to say that all racehorse owner’s view their horses as expendable commodities, but a disturbingly large percentage sure seem to.
As the article on COTH asks, what about the vets performing the prerace exams? Can something be done there to reduce the number of pre-injured horses allowed to race?
So many questions, so few answers…
Unlucky horses on Luck
By now, most people have heard about the three horses that died while filming the HBO series “Luck”. The first two were euthanized after breaking their legs during staged races and the third was apparently being walked back to the stables when it reared up and fell back.
The American Humane Association (AHA) has been involved from the beginning. After the death of the second horse, they worked with HBO to implement more strident regulations – including having an additional vet on site and radiographing the legs of each horse being used in production. (Not quite sure what that additional vet was for – I imagine that at that point they just stood around, death syringe in hand, waiting for the next horse to catastrophically injure itself).
The horses being used were between the ages of 5 and 8; not exactly spring chickens in the world of racing, but not ancient either. PETA’s vice president and “equine specialist” Kathy Guillermo, has been quoted objecting to the age of the horses being used in the “races”. Apparently she’s not familiar with the AHA horse specific guidelines that state “no horse under the age of 4 shall participate in horse-racing scenes” (section 8-68 e). I’m not sure why the age of the horses is a point of contention – there are races for older horses. Snarkly’s (aka JG) own OTTB was raced until he was 9! Points like this make me wonder at Kathy’s “equine specialist” title. It’s like saying the celebrities from Friday’s post are “equine specialists” because they supported an equine-specific issue. THAT DOESN’T MAKE YOU A SPECIALIST! By the way, here’s Kathy’s bio on PETA’s website – you’ll notice there’s no mention of horses in it.
What they should be focusing on, as opposed to trying to list as many possible issues as they can conjure up in their tiny PETA brains, is the health, particularly soundness, of the horses being used. The necropsies noted the first horse (a 5 year old gelding) as having a lot of damage to his suspensory (couldn’t have felt good to gallop around on that) and having banamine, bute, “Solu-delta-cortef (Prednisolone)” and “Torbugesic (Butorphanol)” in his system. According to a recent article by TheHorse.com, bute and banamine together is a no-no as it can cause renal toxicity.
There are some people who will question as to when the horse was given this cocktail of drugs – and rightfully so. It could very well have been in response to his newly shattered leg, before they determined the best course of action was a humane euthanasia. Except, PETA’s lawyer, in a letter to the president of the Pasadena SPCA (cc’d to the Assistant District Attorney), states the drugs were given prior to the injury occurring. Now, PETA may not be the best source of information, but one would hope that their lawyer is held to the same ethical standards as all others and therefore wouldn’t outright lie – at least not in a printed format that could come back to haunt her.
Unfortunately, what’s done is done. Moving forward we have to ask who’s responsible for the deaths of these horses, just how avoidable were they, and how do we prevent them from happening in the future?
According to section 8-79 of the AHA’s guidelines, they “may inspect the animals and check appropriate documentation, including health certificates and Coggins tests.” Part b. goes on to state that the “animals must be adequately trained, conditioned and prepped”. So were these horses inspected? And what are the AHA’s guidelines for inspections for horses that will be used for racing? Do they have different levels of qualifications for different purposes? Ie. a horse to be used for racing should exhibit a certain level of fitness and soundness before being “hired” for a production, while cowboy/western production will have completely different physical demands. How are they going about testing for soundness? (I wonder what would have happened if they had required radiographs from the beginning on Luck? What would the legs of those two horses looked like?)
Or are the directors and producers of the show to blame? Did they know and (perhaps more importantly) understand the physical limitations of their equine actors? Did they proceed knowing full well they were endangering the horses? All the while with dollar signs dancing before their eyes?
We see examples of it across the world. Horse abuse, particularly in the name of human profit, is a growing commodity. People seem to be dreaming up new ways to exploit and profit from them every day (and yes, I do include PETA-ites in that as well). But how do we stop it? Do we keep fighting the good fight, as we’ve been doing? Or is there a better way? Because it seems to be an uphill battle and I’m worried we’re losing ground.
The ArkLaTex Fuck up
Fair warning: this post contains coarse language and links to disturbing pictures.
First the facts: On January 6, 2012 approx. 60 horses were seized from O’l Home Place in Many, Louisiana. Not all of those are still alive and certainly none of them are well. According to one article, rescuers have so far found the bodies of 25 dead horses on the farm. The owner of the horses, Charles Ford, was arrested but is already out on bail.
Donna Keen, who took part in the rescue efforts, wrote this account of conditions on her blog:
On January 7th and 8th 2012 Remember Me Racehorse Rescue and the Louisiana Horse Rescue assisted the Sabine Humane Society in conducting a 60 horse seizure at a thoroughbred breeding and training farm in Many, Louisiana. There were originally reported to be about 120 horses on the property but by the time the case was built and the seizure was conducted half of them were either missing or deceased.
Not only were the horses at Charles Ford’s farm in horrid condition there was a large dog kennel full of hungry barking dogs with deceased dogs only feet away. There were also pigs and goats on the property that looked like staggering skeletons.
As this is an ongoing rescue effort, there really aren’t that many facts to report on. Of the articles we were able to find, they each quoted slightly different numbers. What is clear is that this was supposed to be professional Thoroughbred breeding and training farm.
O’l Home Farm LLC (Suzanne Ford listed as the owner) was still running horses at Louisiana Downs as recently as this past September. William R. Young is listed as the trainer in the track’s racing form. According to Remember Me Horse Rescue Mr. Young was on the property during rescue efforts and was commenting on the condition of some of the horses. In his eyes, the following emaciated grey mare was “not too bad” and he “laughed when she was being difficult to catch stating she couldn’t be too bad if she could still get away from” the woman trying to catch her.
Grey Mare (You’ll have to click; it’s refusing to embed. Grrrr.)
Apparently the trainer also told volunteers that “the owner will try and retain ownership of some of these horses. The Humane Society representative did tell us that this was his understanding and that in the end the Judge would make the final decision.” Unfortunately, and here’s where the law sucks, according to this article, Ford “has 15 days to post bond on all animals he wants to retain.” That bond is set at $1,500 per horse. Although if he’s hoping to claim multiple horses, than at least that amount is slightly more substantial than what bail was set at for Ford himself.
After all, you might be asking yourself, as we certainly were, how did this monster make bail when he can’t even afford to feed his goddamned horses? Naturally, we had assumed that since the DA is charging for each horse that bail would somehow reflect the number of charges. Nope. It was just $2,500. That’s it. The bastard wouldn’t shell out for edible hay, but bail he managed in a heartbeat! Of course, $2500 doesn’t go far when you’re talking about this many horses, especially in their current condition. According to the Louisiana Horse Rescue Association it’s going to cost around $450/day to maintain the remaining herd. That bail is worth just over 5 days to these horses.
From a TB Champions forum: “Louisiana Horse Rescue Association recently posted this list of dead/alive broodmares, given to them by Charles Ford, owner of the farm. Obviously, many yet remain to be verified. I’d heard that previous owners of Crossed Wire were actually going to go to Sabine Parish, LA, hoping to find her alive and to take her into their care. Unfortunately, it appears that that will not be possible.
ALIVE:
Auto B A Pro
Beautiful Lyrics
Beep Beep
Brassie Road
Bunny Cat
Cayla’s Playmate (euthanized during rescue))
Da Vinna
Dance Recital
Daring Tru (found dead horse with this collar)
Dillydalydeed
Fabulous Gamble
Formal Blossom
Galorious
I Dream of Jeanie D
Jewelry Talks
Le Big Time (claims to have given away)
Maggie’s Missy
Monita’s High Stepper (claims to have given away)
Moonlight Mango
Nassau Bound
Radcliff (claims to have given away)
Salty Cowgirl
Sattidy’s Girl
Sheikra
Tactical Vixen
DEAD:
Algebra
Ambitt’s Bullet
Anti Versay
Avie’s Trick
Bemybabytonite
Beyers Fortune
Call Me Eppi
Claudcat
Crossed Wire
Flattermeforever
George Sand
Great Aunt Alice
I Had To Laugh
Invalidate
Lady Di’s Kipper
Lissanisky
Miss Salty Gift
Notice
Ohnoitsmotherinlaw
O’Nora
Party Dreams
Pewter Power
Ralina
Samuri Dancer
Smokin Bonnie
Tiff’s Problem
Winterland”
In case you’re wondering, that’s 27 dead mares that the owner himself admits to. What possible defense can he come up with? Money issues aren’t going to cut it, especially considering the farm was still breeding and racing horses within the past year!
There are two things in particular that we find especially disturbing about this case.
The first is the incredible disparity in condition of the horses at this farm. While the broodmares and the babies were being left to fend for themselves (and dying off as a consequence), the “training” horses were stalled and in relatively good condition. How can someone knowledgeable enough to get horses in race shape just look on as others starve to death? Which brings us to the second thing – these guys were supposed to be pros. As much as we get after the backyard breeders and the irresponsible ammies, it pisses us off that much more when people fuck up at this level. They’re bloody well supposed to know better.
And just in case you weren’t depressed enough, here’s another abuse story from the southern US. In this case 16 horses and 2 donkeys were recently seized from a Missouri farm. According to a neighbor, he’s been complaining about the place for four years and 42 horses had died on the property in that time period.
How is this different from the Omak Suicide Race?
So every year, we all scream bloody murder about the Omak Suicide Race, because pretty much every year, a horse dies — and that should tell you the event is too dangerous, right? OK, so what about the Grand National? It took place yesterday and two horses, Ornais and Dooney’s Gate, died on course. I’ve said before that while I’m not anti-racing (I am anti-2-year-old-racing but I’m anti-2-year-old-RIDING of any type), I think steeplechases are too dangerous. See, when you have, say, a Jumper class or a horse on course cross-country, everybody is going like hell and jumping but they are not doing so in a PACK. The nature of steeplechase is that you’re going hell for leather and you cannot see what is on the other side of the fence. So you are blind jumping at top speed into, frequently, horses that were faster than you but have now fallen and may be lying there dead or injured. Horses die, people die. This year one horse broke its neck and another broke its back. Why doesn’t this happen during regular fox hunts? Again, it’s the element of not being able to see what’s on the other side. Hunts primarily have traditional fences with plenty of visibility, so that both rider and horse can see a problem and avoid it, or things like small water jumps. And most hunts don’t have big fences, anyway. The Grand National has fences ranging between 4’6 and 5’0. You would never see that on a typical foxhunt. I’m not opposed to “extreme” sports, but let them be sports where the only risk is taken by those who choose to participate – the people. You want to jump off a cliff in Omak, or bound wildly over a blind jump into god knows what, do it on foot. You want to have a drunken party, which is apparently what the Grand National is known for (see the Dlisted gallery), have it without horses. Right now, I simply do not see what the difference is supposed to be between the Omak Race and this equally over-the-top and inhumane competition, except in terms of the social classes and money behind the participants. Do you think there’s a difference?
A site after my own heart!
Someone finally did it! They made a web site to help the old TB broodmares find homes!
You all know that this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I love old TB mares and know that there are like a gazillion of you out there who are competent enough to get one, tune them up and place them in a riding home. It is not that hard. Honestly, if they’re track broke, by the time they’re 15+, they aren’t going to be any harder than riding a school horse who roots. They make great first “projects” if you are a solid rider but have never actually trained before and want to start learning how. And these mares desperately need your help! They get dumped ALL THE TIME. No matter HOW nice they are.
Here is my latest, pictured at the auction on Sunday. This is Show Ticket. Look at that pedigree. Who dumps that? And it’s not like she’s barren. She had a baby last year.
Ticket is safe, but so many more are in jeopardy. Check out the new site — save a life and get yourself a summer project!
For those of you in Maryland…please check this story out about a Morgan Show Horse Shot. It sounds like there’s a real sicko in that area and somebody knows who he is. Please share the story around to your friends and family!
The U.S. Trotting Association just started its own program to help ensure the safety of Standardbreds when their racing careers are over. Check it out!
I’ll be darned if I can figure out if it’s the horse or the little sister who is pregnant, but it’s good for a laugh!
Horse
