Business As Usual

[system]

you all are forgetting one thing

In the thoroughbred world this is all common place. the judges, the racing office all officials and trainers and many owners think this is just the way it is. I hear stories all the time from coast to coast, about trainer and or owners deliberately hurting the horse they sold or was claimed off them etc… One guy took a 2by4 to a horses knees, another guy took a board filled it full of nails and put it in a stall of a horse he sold, the next day when the trainer picked up the horse she couldnt walk. wouldnt give money back either.
I watched a a “trainer” beat an owners 2 yr old filly trying to load her for over an hour. I finally just walked up and loaded her in 5 minutes with feed. as the owner him self stood there whip at the ready to beat her another hour.
I see them constantly mistreated, constantly, do bad deal after bad deal, selling horses that are lame and doped up, or cant ride and dangerous from so much mishandling and poor horsemanship. I know a guy who reported a guy for givning his horse a shot because the guy took his wife off the horse to ride, and the guards laughed about it as they told the guy, and the judges did nothing. the same guy sold a horse cheap that raced good, and after the horse raced good first start he went in his stall and filled her full of hormones.
Another trainer dumped some sort of acid in another trainer’s horses mouths. you here scarry stories from coast to coast, safest way to race a horse is standardbreds. much more honest people way more integrity.

[Laurierace]

I don’t know what Throughbred world you live in but I have been in the business for almost 20 years and have never seen anything close to what you have described. Maybe you need to start hanging around a better track?

[WinterTriangle]

[QUOTE=nightmoves;4506262]
This is oh so true and it happens allover. Makes me sick and I’m starting to hate the whole business of TB racing.[/QUOTE]

My new year’s resolution is that I’m taking my money out of US drug-induced racing.

I’ll be wagering only on horses running in countries that do not allow it.

There are models out there, it’s not like all the problems can’t be solved. It’s just that nobody here makes it a PRIORITY.

I’ve noticed in life, when you make something a priority… whether in your personal life or business…it gets HANDLED.

Instead, we have many excuses.

which is fine, except there are live beings involved here. Which makes me draw the line in the sand.

[nightmoves]

[QUOTE=Laurierace;4506445]
I don’t know what Throughbred world you live in but I have been in the business for almost 20 years and have never seen anything close to what you have described. Maybe you need to start hanging around a better track?[/QUOTE]

I think you’re just used to it as it is. Had a horse sponged on several occasions and nothing was ever done about it they completely blew it off.

[Laurierace]

I have never had anyone lay a hand on any of my horses nor have I witnessed anyone abusing a horse in my presense. There is nothing to get used to.

[nightmoves]

Well then consider yourself very lucky.

[lily04]

I have been in the business and am on the backside everyday for over 35 years and my father and grandfather were also owner/trainers and I have NEVER witnessed anything like Festus has described. There is a VERY SMALL percentage that cheat or abuse but most of us do not.

[judybigredpony]

[QUOTE=Calamber;4506250]
Sleepy, wiggling around with semantics aside, you need to stand in on some surgeries of horses who have have their joints tapped repeatedly and been injected with any number of concoctions whose end result was no joint fluid and bone on bone. Forever Joe casts his shadow over all of my thoughts on these matters and I will fight it in his memory. There was bone on bone and he was continuing to be injected and run. And, you are dead, (sorry for the pun) dead, wrong. Unnecessary procedures will cause breakdowns. So unbelieveable that you can defend these kind of actions as just an “opinion” and that he can do whatever he likes to do just because they are his horses and isn’t this a free world. What a bunch of unmitigated horse manure.

As far as the stats for breakdowns, they are very often muddied because Penn National (I know their MO from Charles Town), does not want to have horses euthanized on the track or on the ambulance because it counts as a stat. There is no official record made of horses who have come back to the barn and been euthanized, or who have had career ending injuries as a result of a race injury, so the stats are skewed anyway.[/QUOTE]

So well said, I have lay-ups who come in w/ ankles and after a few months off they are stone cripples…why…because when we x-ray the joint is shot to he**…bone on bone…he** the bone looks like swiss cheese from all the concotions some of these vets cook-up to inject into joints.
I almost bought the most beautifull colt he was breath taking, but kept joggin just a fraction off after a flex. But he had a decent form and exercise rider swore he was sound. After a bit of sleuthing we uncovered his knee injection rate. I had 1 x-ray taken and trust me I wouldn’t have trotted him round a track let alone race him. The joint was degenerating from all of the injections.

[foundationmare]

Not long ago, my daughter, who, with her fiance, has a string at Penn, told me about a horse being put down there in the morning.

She’s an exercise rider as well and was coming off the track when a horse was put down. The horse was in a pen, in full view, until the vets got around to euthing him/her. Apparently he/she had a broken knee.

My daughter was upset because the horse stood in the pen during training hours and was euthed during training hours, and then was on display for all to see as the events of the morning carried on. One of her young horses witnessed the euth as he exited the track.

This is not a commentary on the topic at hand, but, wtf, can’t they be put down with more dignity?

[AppJumpr08]

[QUOTE=judybigredpony;4508006]
So well said, I have lay-ups who come in w/ ankles and after a few months off they are stone cripples…why…because when we x-ray the joint is shot to he**…bone on bone…he** the bone looks like swiss cheese from all the concotions some of these vets cook-up to inject into joints.
I almost bought the most beautifull colt he was breath taking, but kept joggin just a fraction off after a flex. But he had a decent form and exercise rider swore he was sound. After a bit of sleuthing we uncovered his knee injection rate. I had 1 x-ray taken and trust me I wouldn’t have trotted him round a track let alone race him. The joint was degenerating from all of the injections.[/QUOTE]

I took a lovely 3 year old filly last fall who we had to euth because her knees were totally shot. Injected so many times there was nothing left. Bone was swiss cheese, joint space was gone. 3 FREAKIN YEARS OLD. 14 starts. She would’ve been a lovely child’s hunter. Instead, we had to give her the release she so badly needed. Broke my heart. I still think about her, and it still brings tears to my eyes.
I love racing, but those who find it normal and ok to do things like that to an animal need to start racing cars.

[judybigredpony]

So the lasted installment of the as “The Worm Turns” Gill
Has fired top caliber Firm of Tiegland Brokken and Franklin as vet du Jour and may now be using Dr Brook Harper???

Fascinating will he ever run out of vets desperate enough to be associated w/ his ilk??

[DickHertz]

There are some rather credible rumblings about the Gill situation at Penn National, but against my very willingness to post them, I’m going to wait until they become factual.

[Alagirl]

@DickHertz;4518139

There are some rather credible rumblings about the Gill situation at Penn National, but against my very willingness to post them, I’m going to wait until they become factual.

Oh, you are such a tease! :lol:

[Jessi_P]

I have seen this same thing many times. The reason they wait until after training hours to euth the horse is so that the horse ambulance can be brought to the horse’s stall/barn, as close as possible, so that they can immediately remove the horse. The other option is to euth the horse and leave it laying in the street in between the barns until after training hours, most people prefer not to do this, but it is done sometimes, then the horse is covered with a tarp or blanket. The horse ambulance is REQUIRED to be on hand at the racetrack in case any exercising horse needs it, they cannot leave their post until after training hours. Its pretty standard procedure - if the vet knows he has to euth a horse in say, 3 hours, the horse WILL get painkillers in order to make that time as comfortable as possible.

[QUOTE=foundationmare;4508229]
Not long ago, my daughter, who, with her fiance, has a string at Penn, told me about a horse being put down there in the morning.

She’s an exercise rider as well and was coming off the track when a horse was put down. The horse was in a pen, in full view, until the vets got around to euthing him/her. Apparently he/she had a broken knee.

My daughter was upset because the horse stood in the pen during training hours and was euthed during training hours, and then was on display for all to see as the events of the morning carried on. One of her young horses witnessed the euth as he exited the track.

This is not a commentary on the topic at hand, but, wtf, can’t they be put down with more dignity?[/QUOTE]

[Dahoss]

[QUOTE=Laurierace;4506832]
I have never had anyone lay a hand on any of my horses nor have I witnessed anyone abusing a horse in my presense. There is nothing to get used to.[/QUOTE]

Obviously, you havent been paying attention as much as you’d like to believe you have. :winkgrin:

[judybigredpony]

This So Belongs On This Thread

:yes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9OAudSCGo

[tbracer65]

[QUOTE=judybigredpony;4519214]
:yes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9OAudSCGo[/QUOTE]

Yeah – good fit with this thread…a friend of mine sent that to me a long time ago. Funny…but sad & true:winkgrin::no:

[Calamber]

Oh my god Judy, that was hilarious! Can you send that to Mr. Gill, hopefully that is the “rumbling” that Dick heard. Thanks for the laugh.

[lily04]

[QUOTE=DickHertz;4518139]
There are some rather credible rumblings about the Gill situation at Penn National, but against my very willingness to post them, I’m going to wait until they become factual.[/QUOTE]I think I heard the same as you and from a very reliable source, but like the incident last month it will probably just go away.

[LittleblackMorgan]

Ok, I have owned a Gill horse. DISGUSTING

Despite my battle for papers, which I never got, I ended up with a severly arthritic horse, bone on bone almost, emaciated, bald.

When I bitched I was offered another Gill horse, same age, probably the same condition, for $100.

I passed. When I am shopping for my next TB, if I see his name or any of his trainers names, I dont give a rats @ss if the horse is 17.3, flawless and sweet as pie, and under 1k, PASS.