Relateable Equestrian Rants

9. Horse Racing (Long)

9. Horse Racing (Long)

Okay so basically, this is a paper I wrote for an English Honors assignment where we had to write an argument paper.  I chose horse racing, since it is very controversial.  This is long, so a little different.  I wrote all of this, and I sited my work so DO NOT COPY ANY OF THIS PAPER!  This is owned by me and I own the copyright(:

Horse racing, also called “the sport of kings,” has been around for hundreds of years.  English royalty were the first to breed and race horses and it was introduced to America in 1665 by early European colonists.  Usually, the thoroughbred horses start racing at two or three years old.  The length of each race can vary from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a half, with winnings of sometimes $1 million or more.  The most prestigious group of races in the United States is the Triple Crown, which consists of three races; the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.  Only eleven horses have ever won the Triple Crown, the last being in 1978.  However with great success and money, there is also much controversy about racing.  Many are concerned about the age of the horses being raced, the steroids used on them, the way they are raced, and the tracks they are raced on.  With all of these major concerns and controversies, should horse racing in the United States be banned all together?

            All race horses must be thoroughbreds registered to the Jockey Club.  The Jockey Club is the official association which horses need to be registered with to race.  These thoroughbreds are bred to specifically look fast and run fast.  Breeders will purposefully breed horses to get an outcome of a true race machine, focusing more on speed than on durability. Most race horses are bred to have large upper bodies, to hold a large heart and lungs, and thin legs, making the horse fast and agile.  However these thin legs are also weak, and need to support the whole upper part of the horse.  This is similar to a house on stilts; the whole weight of the house is resting on four, fairly thin, posts. A horse’s whole body weight is resting on four, thin legs.  Jim Squires said, “…the horses we raise are not as sound as they used to be.  The thoroughbred horse is one of the most fragile creatures on earth, an animal with a heart and a metabolism too powerful for his bones, digestive and respiratory systems, one too heavy and too strong for the structure supporting it…” (Horse Racing Is Cruel and Dangerous for Horses 1). The heavy weight of the horse on these legs can make for catastrophic injuries.  Bones can easily fracture, tendons and ligaments can rupture, and heels can break.  These injuries have been the death of three famous race horses, Ruffian, Barbaro, and Eight Belles, as well as others (Horse Racing 3).  All three horses were euthanized because of injuries caused by bad breeding.  Race horses that are bred with thinner leg bones are more susceptible to breaking bones and rupturing ligaments.  When they break a bone or have some other injury, most owners would rather euthanize the horse than spend money on rehabilitation.  So, breeding race horses with thin legs will end up causing more losses than wins.

            Bad breeding can easily cause injury and the tracks the horses run on does not make it any better.  In the United States, most horse racing tracks are dirt.  Dirt is not forgiving to the thoroughbreds’ fragile bones.  Dirt tracks are hard and put stress on horses’ legs (Horse Racing 3).  Thousands of pounds are being forced into the ground each step a horse takes.  The surface of a race track should be forgiving, to reduce injury to the horses.  A synthetic track would provide horses with this shock absorbing ground they need.  This new track footing has been mandated in California, where there has already been a great decrease in injuries.  Some critics of these new tracks have said the tracks slow the horses down and interfere with calculating betting odds (Horse Racing 2).  However, if the tracks do slow the horses down, they will still be going the same speed in relation to their competitors.  So, if the race will most likely end up with the same results but fewer injuries than a dirt track, why not spend the extra few minutes watching these horses run?