Insurance to win, place, or show, on the underperforming ones.
Other than admiring their beauty and having ridden on very gentle ones at my uncle’s farm when I was growing up, I know very little about the psychological nature and behavior of horses.
Ignorance admitted, I cannot help but ask why not simply release them from their stalls and pins and at least give them the chance to save themselves by fleeing under their own power?
Yes, it would be a royal pain rounding them up afterwards. Yes, there would probably be frightened horse-vehicle accidents.
Do insurance and lawsuit considerations really override all consideration for their lives? Is it really “better” to have the horses provably dead (”hopefully” from smoke inhalation before the flames reached them) in their stalls/pens?
Sounds like a perfect “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation” for horse stable/training center owner/operators.
So sad. I’ve seen other stories of horses that couldn’t be saved. My daughter lives in Ventura and my grandson has several friends that lost their homes, including one that didn’t have time to save her horses and other animals.
Thanks for posting this article I just got up this morning here in Kern county and San Luis Rey training track is directly across the street from a condo that my wife’s family inherited from her mother. No one lives there but we use it when we visit family down there. I pray that the neighbors are okay.