I suggest to the world ............ NO MORE HORSE RACING ......... yep, I'm a reactionary moroooooooooooon!!!
;-)
Love from this propagation nursery to all (the wise) FReepers.
When we humans finally get hip, if we grow up ............... the horse racing will end.
Really!
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These wonderful animals should not be and are NOT an amusement.
I would like to see some changes/improvements to racing. The single thing that would benefit the soundness of the horses the most would be to limit and then eliminate two-year-old races. It would take some serious pressure because of the strong motivation to see a return on the investment. But perhaps someone could devise an incentive -- like a prestigious race with a large purse limited to three-year-olds who did not race at two. And more distance races would encourage the breeding of more substantial staying types.
But if racing is eliminated altogether, you will wipe out THE number one financial support for improvement of the breeds (not just T'bred, but QH, Standardbred, etc.) plus the money for advances in veterinary medicine. Without the racing money, the Penn Center would not exist, and Barbaro (who probably would never have been bred either) would have been destroyed where he fell.
So just wiping out racing isn't the answer.
Nonsense. They are created by us, for our amusement. If not for our amusement they would not exist. After you eliminate horse racing, what next? Eventing? Show jumping? Rodeo? Horse shows?
Know one thing, if not for the money involved in horse sport, there would be no elaborate horse facilities, no New Bolten Center, no expensive research into extraordinary veterinary science. The best thing that ever happened to horses is their increased value. Without sport, no one would own them, they are too big, and too expensive to keep, just so you can drive by and think they are beautiful.
The best thing that ever happened to the horse was to be converted to hobby, business, and athlete purely for recreational purposes. He used to pull plow and haul heavy loads for work, and his treatment for injury a bullet to the head. Barbaro's injury was heartbreaking to watch, but don't lose perspective. The lives of sport horses have never been better. The best thing going for Barbaro is his potential to add to the future of horse racing.