posted
Did anybody watch it? A beautiful filly, Eight Belles, fought hard to finish second to the race favorite, Big Brown.
Then, apparently after the race was over, she fell and fractured both front ankles and was euthanized on the track. My youngest daughter was in tears.
I really, really don't think I will ever watch horse racing again. This, after the Barbaro thing - I just don't think I ever want to see another race.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
On the track? Dang, that's sad. Poor horse. Do they have to kill them if they hurt themselves? Is there any other way?
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
They interviewed one of the track vets - he said this was an injury she could never recover from - it was two compound fractures - and that it was extremely painful. Euthanizing her as soon as possible was the best thing to do.
Then they kept running replays of the race being won - with her finishing second, and all the while I kept thinking - that horse is DEAD, and they just keep talking about the winner...it just upset me. I didn't want to keep watching but my daughter was so upset she wanted to keep watching in case they said anything more about the filly, which they never did except a few perfunctory remarks. I had to turn it off.
I do believe I'm completely off horse racing forever.
posted
Haha, nice, Fusiachi. My dad (a veterinarian (for small animals but he had to study large animals in school)) has said that breaking a leg is so detrimental for horses that the most humane thing to do in such an extreme injury is to euthanize the horse.
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I'm so sorry to hear that. I didn't even realize that today was Derby day.
Nothing more exciting than a horse race, and those horses just love to race and to win. But it's sad that Thoroughbreds are so fragile, really, and then are driven so that those weaknesses are exploited. :-(
Has anyone read In the Presence of Horses?
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Breaking two legs is impossible to fix. One can be done for certain injuries.
A 17 (that's 74 inches at the shoulders) hand 3 year old horse of any breed should have not been ridden before last October or so, no races until around February. At least that's the oppinion of many trainers who are objecting, but also know what they are talking about. It's too much stress on their young bones.
I didn't cry and will continue watching racing. I also will continue riding and hoping to own a horse. If I ever do own a horse I will be emotionally involved but I will also realize that my horse is mortal and delicate.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
"I went hunting once. Shot a deer in the leg. Had to beat it to death with a shovel, took about an hour." -- Michael Scott from the Office
Sorry couldn't resist.
But yeah- that really saddens me. Race horsing is actually quite a depressing sport if you think about it.
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posted
I'm not sure what they did, Nighthawk. It can be either a needle or a gun. It depends if the vet was there fast enough. I hope it was lethal injection.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Wow, now I'm glad we didn't turn on the race after all. I don't know that I could have handled that, much less my kids.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
When I was quite young I used to think horse racing was incredible and that showhorses/dressage was, well, "sissy." Now, after being in a serious relationship with a girl who does dressage professionally and seeing her emotional attachment to the horse, as well as witnessing the injuries in racing...well, let's just say I almost wish all horses just did shows and minimally dangerous activities. They're such beautiful things, and the thought of one having to be put down makes me really sad.
Posts: 349 | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:Originally posted by breyerchic04: I'm not sure what they did, Nighthawk. It can be either a needle or a gun. It depends if the vet was there fast enough. I hope it was lethal injection.
That's why I ask. In a back country farm you might use a double-barreled shotgun, but on the track at Churchill Downs I wondered how discrete they were about it.
posted
My dad had a horse euthanized and I watched the procedure. Big needle, massive dose (I bet that vet is very careful to keep it pointed away from himself in case the horse flails)....and it's over very, very quickly.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:"What we really want to know, did he feel anything along the way?" PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo said. "If he didn't then we can probably blame the fact that they're allowed to whip the horses mercilessly."
So now they're blaming the whippings for this.
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quote:"What we really want to know, did he feel anything along the way?" PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo said. "If he didn't then we can probably blame the fact that they're allowed to whip the horses mercilessly."
So now they're blaming the whippings for this.
This is probably the most blatant example of spin I have ever seen.
posted
I watched the replay over and over again - she was running fine and strong at the end. He says that he heard "a pop" and tried immediately to pull her up, but couldn't get her stopped. Once he heard something, it was too late, more than likely.
He was galloping her out after her run - horses can't stop from that speed on a dime, galloping her out is the safest way to slow her - this was just a freak accident.
To quote the title of this thread - PETA makes me sick, when they do stuff like this.
I mean, sure I don't mind looking into horse racing and seeing if things like artificial turf might make things safer for the horses, but blaming the jockey? That's uncalled for here.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
And racing horses from families with known soundness issues for five races with no break.
From the first replay I saw I would have been willing to believe that he pulled her up too fast. Now I'm not so sure.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:There is no turning away from this fact: Eight Belles killed herself finishing second. She ran with the heart of a locomotive, on champagne-glass ankles for the pleasure of the crowd, the sheiks, oilmen, entrepreneurs, old money from the thousand-acre farms, the handicappers, men in bad sport coats with crumpled sheets full of betting hieroglyphics, the julep-swillers and the ladies in hats the size of boats, and the rest of the people who make up thoroughbred racing. There was no mistaking this fact, too, as she made her stretch run, and the apologists will use it to defend the sport in the coming days: She ran to please herself.
But thoroughbred racing is in a moral crisis, and everyone now knows it. Twice since 2006, magnificent animals have suffered catastrophic injuries on live television in Triple Crown races, and there is no explaining that away. Horses are being over-bred and over-raced, until their bodies cannot support their own ambitions, or those of the humans who race them. Barbaro and Eight Belles merely are the most famous horses who have fatally injured themselves. On Friday, a colt named Chelokee, trained by Barbaro's trainer Michael Matz, dislocated an ankle during an undercard for the Kentucky Oaks and was given a 50 percent chance of survival.
According to several estimates, there are 1.5 career-ending breakdowns for every 1,000 racing starts in the United States. That's an average of two per day.
posted
It's a shame that it happened, but once again (and sadly, it's getting to the point that one could as easily say "as usual") PETA is way out of line- and pretty clearly going for the high-visibility case to make publicity for themselves.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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