>One of your reactions was and is to take it upon yourself to push a sweeping defense of the horse industry. <
I think it's perfectly fair to offer concrete defense where it exists, and to correct misconceptions and errors.
That said, anyone who knows much of anything about racing or breeding knows quite well where the problems are. You don't want to sit through my rant about allowing horses to race on Lasix and Butazolidin, and the long-term effects of resulting performance distortions on any running breed. Or my lamentations about the shrinkage of American Grade 1 stakes; does anyone else here remember when the Jockey Club Gold Cup was a 2 mile race, and a mare named Shuvee won it twice? Or about the silliness of keeping rider weights at levels that made sense 150 years ago when minors could ride, but that now require adults to do some risky things to themselves to make weight.
Thanks. I happen to think it's not only fair, it's important to stand up for horse sport, lest we see legitimate and valuable horse sports come under attack by bad media spin and PETA nuts who would ban all forms of horse competition if they could.
I do...and then some. My memories go all the way back to Carry Back, Kelso and a horse named Bally Ache who won the 1960 Preakness, then died shortly afterward of a twisted intestine. I was very, very young then, barely more than a toddler, but I remember. Bally was the first horse I fell in love with, probably because of the name.