Comments on: Horse Racing in the media spotlight http://www.horsekinetics.com/horse-racing-in-the-media-spotlight Straight Talkin' Information On Your Horse's Health Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:28:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 By: Pam Schiller http://www.horsekinetics.com/horse-racing-in-the-media-spotlight#comment-18236 Pam Schiller Sat, 10 May 2008 09:32:36 +0000 http://www.horsekinetics.com/horse-racing-in-the-media-spotlight#comment-18236 I agree 100% horses at the age of 2 are not ready to race or do a lot of other things, that we expect at such an early age, they are not a commodity unfortuately money espects fast returns, be it race hores or in the show ring eg; futurities, for cow work/ reining etc. I would like to see authorities here (AUS) take heed of what is happening in your contry, as the last couple of weeks here similar things have happened as well as time ago.I pray somebody will start to do something about this, let the babies grow I agree 100% horses at the age of 2 are not ready to race or do a lot of other things, that we expect at such an early age, they are not a commodity unfortuately money espects fast returns, be it race hores or in the show ring eg; futurities, for cow work/ reining etc. I would like to see authorities here (AUS) take heed of what is happening in your contry, as the last couple of weeks here similar things have happened as well as time ago.I pray somebody will start to do something about this, let the babies grow

]]> By: Shelly http://www.horsekinetics.com/horse-racing-in-the-media-spotlight#comment-18474 Shelly Sun, 11 May 2008 18:00:23 +0000 http://www.horsekinetics.com/horse-racing-in-the-media-spotlight#comment-18474 I second all your desires for racing. The time for change is long overdue. In an age when so many people spend more money on their pets than they do themselves, I think the racing industry would fare well publicly & financially if they went the humane route. I'd be willing to bet on sizable public support for choosing to insist on higher standards for both their horses and jockeys. I might add a couple to the "wishlist": ~Industry-wide standards of ethics which is updated to reflect the more humane requirements and strictly enforced. ~Safer synthetic racing surfaces. ~Industry sponsored "post-racing" retirement fund to support rehabilitation/re-homing centers for horses when they are finished racing. (As opposed to slaughter) A small "tax" or fee could be added to each racing registration, bet, and purse (similar to what we do here in Nevada gaming that funds school expansion) ~And when all these things are accomplished, I would like to see whips eliminated. When I worked for Monty Roberts (who is an advocate for non-violent training/racing) he did a (non-formal) study of horses in speed sports and the outcome when whips were/were not used. As you can guess the horses who were whip-free ran faster, mainly because their attention was not diverted to the painful area everytime the whip made contact and they were free to focus on the task at hand. One of the coolest results we ever saw was at a US Barrel Racing Championship and both of the top finishers in youth and adult were whip free and boy did those horses ever run! Oddly enough their week long performances were much more fluid as well. I'd love to see someone do a formal study to disprove the theory that whips=speed. I second all your desires for racing. The time for change is long overdue. In an age when so many people spend more money on their pets than they do themselves, I think the racing industry would fare well publicly & financially if they went the humane route. I’d be willing to bet on sizable public support for choosing to insist on higher standards for both their horses and jockeys.

I might add a couple to the “wishlist”:

~Industry-wide standards of ethics which is updated to reflect the more humane requirements and strictly enforced.

~Safer synthetic racing surfaces.

~Industry sponsored “post-racing” retirement fund to support rehabilitation/re-homing centers for horses when they are finished racing. (As opposed to slaughter) A small “tax” or fee could be added to each racing registration, bet, and purse (similar to what we do here in Nevada gaming that funds school expansion)

~And when all these things are accomplished, I would like to see whips eliminated. When I worked for Monty Roberts (who is an advocate for non-violent training/racing) he did a (non-formal) study of horses in speed sports and the outcome when whips were/were not used. As you can guess the horses who were whip-free ran faster, mainly because their attention was not diverted to the painful area everytime the whip made contact and they were free to focus on the task at hand. One of the coolest results we ever saw was at a US Barrel Racing Championship and both of the top finishers in youth and adult were whip free and boy did those horses ever run! Oddly enough their week long performances were much more fluid as well. I’d love to see someone do a formal study to disprove the theory that whips=speed.

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