To wonder how many more horses will die?

[PinataHeeHaw]

There's already been one horse died at the Grand National. Sentient animals dying in the name of entertaining humans. It's sick.

Yanbu, it's sickening, I hate the Grand National so much.

Me too. It's a horrible 'sport'. I heard a jockey on the radio talking about the horse she'd ridden having to be put down and admitting 'there are risks' and 'thank God I was OK'. The horse didn't get the choice whether to take that risk or not. 😢

Exactly, selfish arseholes, the horses are the only ones I feel sorry for, they don't have any choice whether they take part or not.

Well, they all will die one day, and they only exist in this country for entertainment, they aren’t wild animals. If you like the beauty of thoroughbred horses they’re really only for people’s hobbies, or they would not be around at all.
But yes, it’s very difficult to watch and very hard not to have sympathy.

I completely agree. I dislike any type of horse racing and never bet on any of them.

This comes up every year and the answer seems to be money. There's a lot of money to be made in horse racing and horses are disposable.

Well, you are a time traveller, because the Grand National isn’t run until tomorrow, Saturday 5 April.

could you possibly have a look at the currency markets for tomorrow and report back before 18.00 ? TIA

I assume you want a blanket ban of anyone owning a horse?

Im glad you agree it’s awful to watch. But they preferably ‘die one day’ when they’re not being beaten to run as fast as they can in fear though. And no not true have you been to the New Forest? Horses can also be used for farm work etc people have them as loving pets etc etc

Anyway don’t understand how it’s still going, they make the risks greater every year in the name of entertainment it’s so sad. Unfortunately the money talks

They mean Aintree calm down

What?! What a bloody weird question. There's a difference between keeping a horse as a loving pet and racing one to death on a racecourse for money.

Oh is it that time of year again? Grim

I wonder if it seems to be getting less popular, I didn’t even know it was tomorrow and I’ve not seen any work sweepstakes or similar. Let’s hope so anyway

The Grand Nation is a 3 day race meeting.

It also plays heavily on my heart when I think of the grand national. I do understand it’s horse racing in general but the grand national jumps are higher?! I’ll never forget a lad coming into school being devastated that their racing horse had to be put down. It really upset me seeing him that upset me. I cannot abide animals being hurt for the sake of human entertainment.

I’ve had horses all of my life (although have it up a few years ago)
Some aspects of racing don't anger me so much. Most of the horses are well cared for and enjoy running. All of mine always loved a good gallop! I do disagree with other bits of it, particularly that the horses generally are started way too young and how disposable they seem to be.

Horses do love to injure themselves though. They break bones or get injured all the time. In fields, cross country, hacking, on horseboxes. If you’re going to ban racing then riding and keeping horses as a whole needs looked at.

It's upsetting and unpleasant, I agree. On the other hand, top racehorses are like elite athletes. They're given the best food and the best medical care, and looked after like priceless jewels. They are trained up to maximum fitness. I would imagine they feel as good as a horse can feel. Lots of ex-racehorses go on to a life after racing - I used to ride a lovely ex-racehorse at a riding school. Those horses wouldn't exist without racing. And if you have had anything to do with horses, you will know that it's very difficult indeed to get a horse to do something that it doesn't want to do. I don't believe that racehorses run as fast as they can out of fear. I think they run because they want to run. Running is natural to horses. I don't think the racing question is as simple as "it's cruel and it ought to be banned". There is a good side and a bad side to racing. I'm not convinced that the bad side outweighs all the benefits of racing.

My friend's horse broke its leg running round the field at home. They do tend to have a habit of it, whether they are in a race or not.

I do understand your feelings about the Grand National though - I always used to watch it avidly years ago, but I can't any more.

I don't like any animals being exploited for entertainment or "sport"

If the owner of the horse loved it that much they wouldn’t enter it. I love my dogs, they are my whole world, no amount of money in the world would allow me to risk their life even though they could maybe be attacked in a freak accident by another dog on a walk. They’re not worth the risk. They are more to me than any money

I take it you lot are all strict vegans? I would argue that the general 'plight' of racehorses ranks pretty low compared to many humans in THIS country let alone others. And I'm willing to bet at short odds (haha) that many on this post have indulged in the products of intensive farming. This is performative (and largely hypocritical) outrage that lacks any nuanced.

It's horrible to see horses die, but the grand national gets more headlines than the ritual halal slaughter. The animal rights activists should be stronger on that barbarism.

Yep. The same every year. The only time threads about horse racing ever gets posted. I guess people do it for attention as it doesn’t get mentioned any other time of year

Thousands of horses who fail to make the grade as racehorses end up being sent to slaughter. This article is 3 years old, but sadly nothing has changed since it was written.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/19/thousands-of-ex-racehorses-being-sent-to-abattoirs-bbc-investigation-claims

But things have changed? There is a now a ban on the slaughter of racehorses trained in GB . Of course one can still export to IRE or the continent so laws can be got around.We also need to think about the unintended consequences of such legislation. Sometimes 'humane' slaughter is the preferable option (sadly).The UK slaughters millions of animals considered to be 'traditional' livestock annually , to put things into perspective. And I'm just talking about cattle, pigs and sheep. They are no less sentient and therefore I would argue that taking exception to equine slaughter is ethically inconsistent. It is mainly sentimentality cultural aversion.