Thoughts on horseracing

Image from Wikimedia commons

When I was a child, my favourite books were the Black Stallion series. As a result, I dreamed of becoming a jockey. Of course, I had a flawed and romanticised, or even downright flawed, vision of horseracing. I thought that, like in the Black Stallion, a jockey rode his/her horse, that horses loved to run and race, that they were not forced to do that. I knew nothing about bits and crops. Actually, I wasn’t even riding at the time. I was only a little girl, dreaming of horses. 

Later on, as I took my first steps into the equestrian world, I was still fascinated by horseracing. I saw the tip of the iceberg. Gorgeous horses. Champions with heart-warming stories of triumph over adversity. Speed, power... I saw a couple of horseraces and was entranced by the beautiful thoroughbreds that pranced in the rings and then thundered along the track. I still had the dream of riding a racehorse, which was a bit paradoxical since, when I started riding, I was, for several months, since falling off a cheeky pony, petrified at the simple thought of cantering. 

Then I grew up. I became a bit more knowledgeable about horses. And I started to discover things about horseracing that disturbed me. More than disturbed me, shocked me. Like the fact that the horses who are not good enough can be sent to slaughter. This is not what you read in feel-good horsey novels. This is not what owners, trainers and jockeys tell you, when you admire their horses in the ring, that the less successful ones have a chance of ending up as dog food. And there are other things, too. The fact that those horses are raced at two years old, when they still have not finished growing. They are babies. They do not have the maturity, physical or psychological, to be raced. And don’t look too closely at the bits some wear… When confronted, trainers and such will argue that the bits may look barbaric, but are not painful, that they’re necessary, that there’s a reason for them, that the horses are happy… And of course, they’re not hurt when hit with crops. It’s just a way to encourage them. The adrenalin, you see. 

Most of the people who say this believe in it. They believe their horses love to race. They believe there’s no harm in racing a two year old. Some do try to find good homes for the horses that are not good enough. Bad luck if they end up in the wrong lorry. But what do the horses say about it ? 

I dreamed of riding a racehorse, and I did. Ex-racehorses, the ones that were not good enough. I even own one, a former harness-racer. And every day, I am confronted by the scars, physical (on the tendons of his legs) and psychological, left in part by his racing days. One of those « scars » is an aversion to the bit, manifesting itself by violents fits of headshaking. Though he has had no bit in his mouth for over a year, he is still very suspicious about having his mouth touched. When the dentist came to do his teeth, I talked to him about this « problem » and wondered if it was linked to harness racing. The dentist answered that he would not be surprised if it was and that he refused to work with harness-racers anymore. He told me that the damage done to the horses’ mouth was barbaric and that he was tired of witnessing it. Worse of all was the attitude of the trainers, who lacked compassion and would say that it was the horse’s own fault if he hurt his mouth, that he shouldn’t have pulled on the reins or whatever. Harness racing cannot be blamed for all my horse’s issues. He’s had a difficult life, even after that. But it certainly didn’t help him and contributed to what I now understand was a form of post-traumatic stress. As for of the other ex-racehorses I rode, some had issues, some hadn’t. Trainers don’t all treat their horses the same. 

I am not rabidly against horseracing. It is a industry that gives thousands of people, some with a real passion for horses, a job. And it gives pleasure to millions more. However, I do question its ethics. I question the absurd quest for speed and records. I question the inbreeding and overbreeding. I question the slaughter of « unsuccessful » horses. I question the age of the horses and the tack used on them. The scientific knowledge wich we have acquired about horses, the way they grow, the way they think, makes horseracing outdated, if not, for some aspects, barbaric. It cannot go on like this. 

What if racehorses were left the time to mature and grow? What if they were ridden with gentler bits (or no bit at all!)? What if they were not bred so much ? Maybe the horses would not be so fast. Maybe records wouldn’t be broken anymore. But we would have sounder, happier horses. Horses who, perhaps would truly enjoy racing. And wouldn’t that be more exciting to watch ?