Year after year on Melbourne Cup Day my newsfeed is flooded with anti horse racing reading material. It really grinds my gears to see the majority of these people have little to no understanding of horses let alone the racing industry. Their facts come from watching youtube videos and reading anti racing news articles. This is not an informed opinion. There are so many contributing factors when it comes to accidents with horses that can not solely be blamed on the racing industry. While I do not personally agree with all the the racing industry does, I do not believe that it should receive the uninformed criticism that it does. My view in relation to Araldo who shattered his cannon bone today after spooking at a racegoer waiving a flag: While this is very unfortunate and sad you have to understand that a horse is a flight animal that relies on running as its primary defence. In addition to the flight response its other defences include kicking, biting, rearing, bucking and striking. All of which can cause bodily harm and in severe cases even death to the animal. This reaction is programmed into the horse regardless if he is a racehorse, dressage horse, show jumper, pleasure horse or a horse who does nothing in a paddock all day. I myself have owned 3 ex race horses and lived and breathed horses for over 14 years. I have had a horse get spooked from a thunderstorm and sever a limb from running through a fence. I have had a horse spook and run off in a frenzy when it encountered a donkey. Yes a donkey. I have had a horse who was so keen for dinner that he tried to jump a fence and got his 2 back legs stuck in it, skinning himself from the stifle down. Another horse I worked with reared after getting a fright, lost its balance, slipped and cracked its head open on a post, killing it within 30 seconds. These things can be devastating however they happen and sometimes can not be predicted or helped regardless of the industry. Sometimes no matter how much love, care and attention you pay to a horse things happen. I believe until the autopsy of Admire Rakti is released there can be no informed opinion on why it happened and who is at fault. I have known a perfectly well horse who was let out into a paddock and while having a run around (of his own free will) drop dead with brain aneurysm. In my opinion until you have a fully educated opinion on the matter be open minded when it comes to others opinions on the matter. I believe that there are good and bad people in the world. There are good and bad people when it comes to the treatment of race horses. I myself have come across some very good horse owners and some very cruel horse owners. However classifying the whole industry as evil is just narrow minded and shows no understanding of the countless hours and years of preparation that went into each and every horse in that race today. I feel devastated for the owners, jockey, trainer, strapper, groom and any person who was involved in some way to Admire Rakti because the loss of an animal you love and care about is absolutely heart breaking. *end rant*
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 08:57:52 +0000
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