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happy-horse-for-life In reply to painted-cowgirl [2016-09-02 01:50:24 +0000 UTC]

The thing about horse racing is that so many horses break down every day. They are forced to race before their bones are fully developed, and are pumped with pain killers to keep them racing. Therefore, a lot of horses literally run until they have no hoof left, or until they injure their legs. A lot of factors play a part in this, as you previously mentioned- being clipped by a back hoof, a previous injury re-breaking, but generally it's just that they are forced to race so often and pumped with such large concoctions of "medicine" that their bodies just fall apart.

I know that horse racing is glorified, and in a way I've aided in that by having my DA horses take part in racing, but in reality I have a very strong love hate relationship with horse racing. As a kid I thought it was awesome, I even watched the show Jockeys and in it followed Mike Smith ride Zenyatta into fame. But as an adult I now know how dirty the sport is and it just makes me sad. So I choose to shine light on these issues, since rarely ever does anyone want to highlight the nasty part of the sport. No one wants to hurt their favorite horses on DA because they want it to be a perfect world, which is what I assume HARPG was made for- to create a perfect scenario where you can own all of these horses, not have to worry about money or space, and that's just not reality. So I find splashing some reality in my very made up world is a bit refreshing and eye opening to the fact that injuries don't care if the horse is someones favorite, it doesn't pick and choose. It can happen to any horse.

I do not like PETA. They euthanize around 80-90% of all the animals that fall into their care (often within less than 24 hours of obtaining them- which is illegal), weather they are adoptable and completely healthy or not. Their founder believes that an animal is better off dead than under the care of a human, and I of course disagree on behalf of the good owners out there, but at the same time some people shouldn't have pets and obviously don't know what they're doing. Do all of those animals deserve to die because there are some bad owners out there? No. So like I said, I don't particularly like them. However, I do like that they shine light on companies and industries where abuse runs rampant. I would suggest watching their youtube videos on horse racing, and pretty much any other abuse video on horse racing.

They're topics that are good to know about, but then comes the dilemma of HARPG. Because I've created my own perfect world, I know that Dallas wouldn't race any of her horses if she felt them unable to, and that she is (unlike most people in the race industry today) a generally "good" person who cares about most of her horses (I can't say she genuinely cares for all of them because she is also a business woman and it's part of her character). So why, then, would something like this happen to Beelz if she wasn't being viciously pumped with meds to mask her pain? Well, we shall find that out as an update on this incident arrives. 

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painted-cowgirl In reply to happy-horse-for-life [2016-09-25 21:32:05 +0000 UTC]

I totally agree, I know myself, I see a lot of arthritis in my events, typically hocks, because I've got cutters and barrel horses, and both disciplines lean towards horses using their hocks, and their hocks just suck after a few years. You pump them full of pain killers, whether it's oral or an injection, and then they are off again. And people wonder why they have to get new horses every few years

I get the whole love/hate thing too, it sucks. I don't think there is any other way to really put it. There is good and bad everywhere. I actually have always enjoyed stables with realistic tendencies. I myself prefer to be blissfully unaware of most dangers, but, I get it.

Ahhhhh PETA. In my veterinary assisting class we had to research their website, and you hit the nail on the head. I don't care either for their founder's "mission", but I agree with basically everything you just said. I would like to see abuse decease and be nonexistent, but I recognize it'll always be there. Especially in things like horse racing, where you don't have to necessarily be rich, but the key players are, and I think there is much more bribery and darker sides then people realize. I'm not in the industry myself, so I can only assume

Now I'm off to find the update, my inbox is too full to look through it through here

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anthrozoic In reply to painted-cowgirl [2016-11-11 00:23:21 +0000 UTC]

I know I am very, VERY late on this response, but as I am reading, I would like to add that the trainer I worked for on the backside at Churchill for the longest time was actually hooking up with the girl who was in charge of filming that PETA video and she did it behind his back while they were together. Because he dumped her, she decided to exaggerate the video way more than it should have been. My friends and I always crack jokes about how exaggerated and dragged out it really is. I agree with all of you, the racing industry is pretty dirty but can be sunny as well sometimes.

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painted-cowgirl In reply to anthrozoic [2016-11-13 03:20:06 +0000 UTC]

I myself have a OTTB, so I opened up their barn to get another To be honest, I know a lot of horse industries are dirty, and a lot of "cruelty" videos are over-exaggerated and play on emotions rather than logic. Just because you like chocolate, does not mean your dog has to like chocolate, you know what I mean? I see a lot of "well I wouldn't want to live outside", and even blanketing horses "well I'm cold so my horse must be cold"... not how it works people But there are many great horseman out there as well, and usually they're not the ones who make big bucks selling their videos lol

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anthrozoic In reply to painted-cowgirl [2016-11-13 13:58:33 +0000 UTC]

Very, very true, agreed.

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