Eight Belles

[harvestmoon]

[QUOTE=ItchyRichie;3186821]
This past month I’ve just been thinking about this kind of stuff in general and honestly…
do horses like this? any of it? jumping, eventing, dressage, racing, showing, being ridden at all? do THEY LIKE THIS?!? is this all cruel? do we have the right to do whatever we want with these animals just because we can?

I’m starting to feel guilty every time I go to ride my horse and I don’t know how to justify it, I just do it because I like to. is this really okay?[/QUOTE]

You’re right. We should all stop riding immediately. Let’s set them loose and all join PETA.

:dead:

[findeight]

Please…nothing new. Polyturf/synthetic may or may not have helped here and I’d bet it would have helped with the luckier Chelokee yesterday. Horses are fragile and, unless you just want watch them eat in the field, some are going to get hurt. Come to think of it, they break down in pastures too.

At least racing is open and honest. We knew as soon as anybody else did. No pretenses. And she did not suffer…euthed immediatly…fact I think it was done before the camera picked up on it…or she was sedated heavily because she sure looked still laying there. She was bred to run, made a little history and died trying to win against what may be a superstar.

No excuses either, mind you. Sucks and has to be looked at. The Derby has been lucky. This is the first one in a long time and, IIRC, the first right on the track in a really long time.

My heart goes out to the Jones family who went from the top to the absolute bottom in 24 hours with 2 great fillies. We need to look at ALL horse sports and do more to protect them. We need to never accept anything as “it happens”. In any discipline. Anywhere.

[LMH]

I feel like many others here-I was letting my horses out and my head was screaming there HAS to be a way to do something-then I stop and realize things will go on, just like the did after Barbaro.

It is heart wrenching.

It is so…pointless.

Yes horses die…but a broken leg in a field is not even in the same universe as what happens to these horses.

I also went to the link for the Race Horse Death Watch and now I am ill on top of sick.

[slc2]

Actually there are numbers that suggest that synthetic surfaces cut down catastrophic breakdowns, so that suggests these breakdowns don’t really have to be such a frequent part of the sport. California, I read somewhere, is requiring all tracks to install synthetic surfaces by some year.

One track put in synthetic surface and cut down big breakdowns from 24 during one period to 2 in the same period the following year after the synthetic surface went in. These surfaces can’t be compared to surfaces for human athletes. THere are questions about whether synthetic surfaces might contribute to smaller injuries or wear and tear (cumulative) type of use injuries. THe information isn’t really available on that , but even there with human athletic surfaces, the surfaces have improved alot and their warmups and footware have changed to be more compatible with the suface.

But this video is so odd. This horse doesn’t appear to break down and take a few awkward steps at all, it appears to just fall. Maybe it’s the angle or that the video is so fuzzy that I can’t really see the horse’s legs clearly. But it looked a lot more like the horse weakenened and began to labor…WITHOUT taking any bad steps, that it fell rather than broke down, and the injuries due to the fall. I have to see a better quality video to be sure, I’m not sure. It looked odd.

[LMH]

@findeight;3186850

We need to look at all horse sports and do more to protect them. We need to never accept anything as “it happens”. In any discipline. Anywhere.

I agree but the million dollar question is HOW.

I will say this, if something isn’t done by someone at SOME point, there will be someone trying to do something and it may just be PETA and it may very well touch everyone of us.

[Mayaty02]

[QUOTE=Tiempo;3186819]
I’m not stopping because I think I can affect change with my own personal boycott, it’s just that fear of what I might witness overrides the joy of the sport for me now.[/QUOTE]

absolutely DITTO. I think we’re all allowed to vent our frustrations and sadness and we certainly have the right to stop watching something that only brings us sadness and stress. I don’t expect the racing community or the eventing community to care if I watch or not, I am just tired of seeing these events on the edge of my seat hoping that nothing bad happens and then of course it does.

[EquineLVR]

Just sickening… I cried my eyes out for her… what a gallant and brave girl…

RIP Belles.

[Twinkletozzz]

Eight Belles

When I saw her lying there on the track I just broke into tears. It broke my heart. Such a game filly – she didn’t deserve this. I hope something good comes from this and Barbaro and all the others lost on the track. My heart goes out to her owners, trainer, jockey. What a tragic tragic loss!

[Kenike]

I’m no expert, either. Watching the clips of the race, what it looks like to me is that her jockey was actually trying to pull her away from the inside horse, so she shortened, raised, and turned her head/neck to the right. Once they were clear you can see she straightened right back out and was all business.
It’d be interesting to hear what the jock has to say…when he’s ready (if ever), of course.

[Maude]

That’s it for me. No more. She trained for them. She ran her heart out for them. She beat 18 horses for them. She died for them. A heart that big deserved better. I will never watch a race again until the horse’s well-being comes first. Period. It doesn’t really matter “what happened”. She’s dead and she deserved better!

[carol_okc]

Scientific research bedamned… what we need is statistical research. How many 2 year olds who make it to the track break down relative to the total? how many 3 year olds? 4 year olds? There’s probably no way to track the number that enter race training and break down before starting, but we could at least compile that much data. Even if it’s a case of a DNF, without a definition of cause or whether the DNF resulted in the loss of the horse, it would help demonstrate the case either for or against pushing these young horses beyond their structural capacity.

How many of these horses are pushed beyond their youth via nutritional and/or chemical means? Granted, there’s no way to analyze that, but it’s a serious consideration relative to the structural enhancement supposedly resulting from controlled stress/exercise.

How much or little financial margin is there to take a ‘bye’ and push the two year old races to three, the three year old to four? It’s another year of expense without possibility of winnings, so I’m sure the industry wouldn’t welcome such an idea… and since most of the industry is driven by something other than love of the horses, even were it economically feasible it doubtless wouldn’t fly.

But at my advanced age, it’s harder and harder to stomach the callous disregard for these young horses and their open knees in the interest of a big pari-mutual handle.

[CrzyCorgi]

I can diffently see her take a misstep/bobble on the left right before switching leads, and I agree with someone’s earlier post that the left went first and then the right in the fall. I had posted earlier asking if maybe the broken ankles were a result of the fall and not the other way around, but now that I’ve seen it, I am convinced the first ankle broke then the stumble and the 2nd ankle went. What a tragedy…

[slc2]

I know every time I watch a race that a horse could die. They are going fast, it’s usually a natural surface with inconsistencies.

[Tiempo]

[QUOTE=slc2;3186854]

But this video is so odd. This horse doesn’t appear to break down and take a few awkward steps at all, it appears to just fall. Maybe it’s the angle or that the video is so fuzzy that I can’t really see the horse’s legs clearly. But it looked a lot more like the horse weakenened and began to labor…WITHOUT taking any bad steps, that it fell rather than broke down, and the injuries due to the fall. I have to see a better quality video to be sure, I’m not sure. It looked odd.[/QUOTE]

My husband has been saying excactly the same thing.

[On_the_Farm]

[QUOTE=Showpony;3186825]
Yes, excersize may be good for babies, but racehorse training is a total overkill, no pun intended. If it did make them stronger why do so many more break down relative to other equestrian sports and general turnout/being a horse?

Nothing will change, too much money involved.[/QUOTE]

Racing is the hardest of tests, no doubt about it, however in my own experience, we’ve lost one horse to a catastrophic breakdown in twelve years (and like Eight Belles, he broke down after the wire.) I compare that to the hunter/jumper farm where I was previously employed (nice folks who have received accolades on this site, but are very anti-racing) who euthanzied three horses (the eldest about seven) with navicular problems caused by the stress of jumping. That was in just the first year after I left. I guess I view such comparisons in a different context.

[findeight]

Yeah…to me she looked odd from about an 8th of a mile from the finish when she sort of checked then seemed to put her head up. Nothing drastic but you can see a change-I just thought she was tired and backing up. The blimp shot showing the breakdown does not show me an easy moving horse. Even exhausted I just think something went amiss earlier and she went on with sheer heart until something else went and then the other leg as well. Wouldn’t be the first.

Polyturf is not the only answer and they have had some trouble in heat-think it gets too hard. But it is a step in the right direction. Not sure it would have helped here but it sure might have helped Chelokee yesterday with the dreaded mistep.

[system]

assuming blame?

I am sure there is actual video of her braking down. But is hard to imagine what took place in the track to cause her to brake both ancles. In my experience this kind of injuries happend when the jockey pulls to hard on the reins and the horse actually responds and halts like a western horse would.
If that is the case the jockey needs to be hold accountable.

[VirginiaBred]

I’m heart broken for the filly, and all connected to her, and all of us who were pulling for her.

Run like the wind, Eight Belles.

[ItchyRichie]

[QUOTE=harvestmoon;3186845]
You’re right. We should all stop riding immediately. Let’s set them loose and all join PETA.

:dead:[/QUOTE]

I didn’t SAY that did I? I have just been unable to justify riding horses recently. This thought has just been looming over me for the last few months, especially recently since I took my horse on a trail ride and used a bit that ended up (accidentally on my part) cutting his mouth. Is it fair to him that he gets his mouth cut up because we thought a sharpening bit would be okay when really it wasn’t? It seems simple to you, care to explain to me then?? Please, TRY and step out of the whole mainstream, go-with-the-flow, “it’s natural”, THEY LIKE IT!, and everybody does it ideas. I’m asking honestly.

Do horses like this? Watch them in the paddock before races, many horses look scared and nervous. Watch them get into the gate, the skid away from it and rear and freak out on some ocassions.

I don’t know what I think anymore, is it really fair to ride horses who obviously hate it? I think racing is fun for horses like Curlin, Big Brown, and Pepper’s Pride but what about the rest?

[farmgirl88]

RIP Eight Belles. What a beautiful filly and courageous filly she was. I am heartsick and was balling my eyes out. My condolences to her connections. I too have been an avid fan of racing since my very young years and that love of racing led me to purchase a horse off the track 3 weeks ago. I too am done watching racing. The death of a horse isnt worth the it. I went out and gave a big hug to Storm Gulch this evening