So I figured here was good since things are quiet here recently.

So a friend of mine posts a blog on myspace about Eight Belles being euthanized on the track after the derby. She broke both her ankles after the race and went down. It happens. I responded to her blogpost, and everything further that needs to be said is there. Here’s what she wrote, followed by my response in bold;

RIP Eight Belles

In a weird way, I kind of hope for a horse to break down during a Triple Crown race. I of course, HATE to see a horse get hurt, but the whole world watches these races, and when there’s an accident it forces the public to see that there’s something seriously wrong with the way these animals are trained and hopefully the racing industry might get enough bad PR to consider changing its ways.

You can’t race horses that are less than 3 years old (I know the Derby is for 3 year olds, but Eight Belles and other Derby horses ran races when they were 2, which couldn’t have helped her bone-development) — in the TB world, 3 years old often means 2 1/2 and racing animals before their bones have stopped developing is just a whole lot of no good.

You can’t start a horse before it’s even a year old — which is common practice in the TB industry. I’m not the biggest fan of horse racing — but if they’d at least wait until the poor thing is at least 3 years old (a real 3 years old) before they start galloping it with a rider on its back, I’d be a little more okay with it.

There are several points I wish to make here.

One, no horse is raced before their knees are closed, which marks a point in development showing that bone growth has stopped.

Two, speaking from experience, it is the most heart breaking thing to have one of your charges break down, and extreme lengths are taken by horsemen to make sure that their charges are fit and ready to race, after all, aside from loving the horses in their care, they are, at the end of the day, investments.

On that point racing is a business, and the point of having a race horse is to race them. Horses peak at three years old, generally speaking, and are even capable of bearing young at that age. Add in the fact that by three horses have generally grown to full size, and what you are dealing with is an adult creature. Given a horses life span, which limits the amount of years they can be bred, starting a horse young is only sensible.

Horses generally don’t have riders on their backs until they reach two years of age, at which point they are 80% full grown, and more than capable of carrying a rider, especially one in the 120 pound range. Horse can carry half of their weight. Given an average two year old size of a thousand pounds plus, 120 pounds is very light.

The care that goes into a race horse is phenomenal and our best human athletes don’t get half as pampered as the average race horse. Full time 24-7 care is the standard, with vets on call at all hours, the best grains and supplements and medications, a constantly clean living area and fresh water at all times.

Go take a job at a race track walking hots or better yet, if you can handle the workload, as a groom, and see for yourself how they are handled before you denigrate the racing industry.
I promise you that there is a groom in kentucky tonight staring forlornly at an empty stall and looking at a scrapbook.

But he will be in his stalls tomorrow, giving the same top notch care to his other charges, no matter if they are stakes horses or bottom of the barrel claimers, and he will remember sadly and fondly eight belles, mostly for what could have been, not only in the winners circle but in the breeding shed, but I guarantee you he realizes that racing is life, you don’t always win, and all you can do is try your heart out. I promise you he will remember for the rest of his life the courage and heart that his charge showed, and his chest will swell with pride when he tells people that he rubbed such a champion as eight belles, and he will argue endlessly about what great progeny she would have thrown, but at the end of the day he will do his job knowing that this is life, and she died doing what she was made for, what she lived for and what she loved doing, and at the end of the day no better eulogy can be said for any creature.

Said Kender @ 11:59 pm | Permalink   

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