Horse racing - they killed the horse

[ludothedog]

On Saturday I attended a day at the races. Great day but... one of the horses and rider fell. The horse was hurt. They killed it. There and then. On the race course. No trip to the vet to see if it could be saved, no second chance.

WTF!

I had no idea it was so ruthless. Everyone carried on with their day out like it was no big deal, like it happens all the time. It just felt so wrong but it seems like no one else was bothered.

Any horse owners out there - is this normal?

If it's broken it's leg, there is little else that can be done.

They shoot them straightaway. Apparently, horses usually break legs when they fall - and they are no good for racing after that. Too much money and time to treat them, for no certainty of the horse ever racing again.

I hate horse racing. Dog racing is very very cruel.

They exist to make money. Incredibly expensive to keep and train. I expect any injury will affect the ability of the horse to continue to earn its keep and is therefore worthless. Well that’s how I feel. If it was a pet you would do anything to keep it alive and well.

A vet will have assessed it on the course. It's not just some random bloke who kills them.

There is a vet on the course but yes awful

It IS normal yes. And very sad I agree.

Pretty normal. As @Toddlerteaplease said. Horses very rarely ever recover from a broken leg and it's then kinder to immediately put them out of their misery. Don't think for a second it's done with no thought. These people can pay millions for these horses. The last thing they want is them dead but they're horse lovers and won't watch them suffer. Sorry you had to see it though. Very sad for all

Yes if its broken a leg or its neck or back, theres really nothing to be done.

Horses particularly racehorses, do not cope well stood still for the weeks it takes to heal a broken limb and whilst some breaks can be healed with the animal moving around in a cast, many can't and would require the horse to be kept in a sling, to keep the weight completey off the break, which crushes their internal organs, affects breathing etc.

Keeping them on three legs puts extra pressure on the others and can seriously and irreparably damage those limbs.

So it is usually far kinder not to try.

This is why I hate racing and won't have any part of it. It does happen all the time. Won't even take part in the office sweepstake at grand national time.

It's not because they're no good for racing after a broken leg - it's that recovery after a broken leg is rare

Very sad. I don’t bet on or watch horse racing.

They're assessed on the race course by vets. Those that can be saved are, those for which is is kinder to humanely destroy are put down on the course.

My dad took my sister and I to a local race meeting once.... I was about 15. They shot 3 horses that day, and it left me deeply disturbed to be honest. I've never watched it since. It's too brutal. What angers me is seeing people at meets like Cheltenham having a day out, drinking champagne dressed to the nines.... but they never report how many horses get destroyed to keep them all "entertained"

Yes they exist to make money. They were bred to make money.

But that has nothing to do with the decision to kill them on the course. If a leisure horse that makes no money had the same accident they would do the same, you can’t put a plaster cast on a horse and stick it on the sofa with Netflix for 3 months.

Now, is the horse more likely to end up in this situation through horse racing? Then yes. But let’s not pretend that euthanising horses to avoid suffering is unique to horse racing.

Everyone carried on with their day out like it was no big deal, like it happens all the time

Er, because it does happen all the time, to hundreds of horses each year. Did you really not know this?

Yes horse racing is very harmful to horses. I thought people knew this by now.

I won't go back to the races. I don't need a horse to die for my entertainment.

While I hate horse racing’s with a passion and the cruelty that goes with it (hard racing horses that otherwise wouldn’t even be ridden in other areas), a broken leg is not reasonably healable and the horse needs to be PTS. Sooner means less suffering.

Any horse owners out there - is this normal?

I'm not a horse owner but DD is a rider.

It is normal to humanely destroy a horse in the case of severe leg break. Their weight means it simply isn't practical to set and allow a leg break to heal.

There aren't that many horses that make a good recovery from a broken leg. It isn't because of the expense, heartlessness etc it is because horses have heavy bodies and light legs and cannot be held immobile.

Because the bones are light, and under so much pressure, when they break they don't crack, like many human breaks, they actually shatter and cannot be reconstructed. Because the lower leg of a horse is has almost no muscle below the knee (it is all ligament and tendon), unlike human calf muscles, a horse has little in the way of natural stabilising, so, even with a cast, the broken bone remains too mobile to knit.

So any horse with a broken leg, especially a front leg, is likely to be put down as healing is highly unlikely. So even if it were a pet the outcome would be the same.

A vet would have attended the horse immediately and would have been the one to PTS. I dislike racing too but what happened with this horse is far less cruel than what they put Barbaro through, months of suffering in a bid to earn stud fees. He died in the end from mechanical founder, just horrible

@ludothedog are you a vegan? If not, get a grip. The meat industry is 1000x worse than horse racing.

Who do you think killed it? Not some random bloke. An experienced racecourse vet who was out on the course, travelling alongside the runners. He or she assessed the injury and judged it disastrous. If there was any chance at all, the horse would have been brought to the racecourse stables where another vet is waiting to examine and treat any animal that sustains a non-life-ending injury, or straight to hospital. I can assure you that the trainer, owner, jockey and stable staff will all have been very upset. Unfortunately sometimes horses do incur fractures on the racecourse, as they may do in the field or stable at home too. Most fractures in 500kg animals are not amenable to treatment. If it is of comfort to you, the adrenalin rush of galloping seems to blur out the pain of injury.

Horse racing is horrid. I absolutely hate it! So dangerous for the poor horses

That is why I never bet.

There are sanctuaries that will take them but racing is all about money, shoot them and sell them for meat. I hate it, they are such beautiful animals.