And how is that not an indictment of the racing industry? Wouldn’t they have been better off euthanized?
I got her from the backside buyer at Fingerlakes though the Exceller Fund made the introduction. There was no contract just a nice lady aka me who agreed to take a badly bowed mare who would otherwise have been shipped across the lake to the knackers.
Btw, the badly bowed mare after a year on turnout is now a pistol and getting ready to go into training to be my showhunter. When I don’t think I am going to call her Abi Normal I think I will call her Absolutely Fabulous because she is beeeee–autiful.
Interesting. Every rescue group Ive heard of makes u sign a contact that u wont breed the horse.
Not all. For years ReRun, for example, allowed breeding of mares and fillies. The only restriction was no breeding to a TB stallion. I think they’ve since changed that to prohibit any breeding recently, but the old contracts remain valid.
Congrads! I wanted to breed my rescued TB Fast Honor, but I cant cuz of the contract. I wanted to breed her to Alysheba, but thats not going to work cuz he’s in f****** Saudi Arabia!!!
Uhg. I’m taking this hard.
You missed the nuance of my point. People are going to criticize the Jacksons whether they spend the money to save him or whether they decide to euthanize – it just depends on how the wind is blowing at the moment. The arguement against would be to include “better” ways the money could be spend. But you are right. It’s akin to telling your child that he should clean up his plate because there are people starving in Africa. Even if he didn’t clean up his plate they would still be starving in Africa.
411 summed it up for me:
I’m probably being naive, but I’d like to think whether he was gelding or a colt, the owners would have done the same thing. I’m sure they have great affection for the horse, afterall, they did breed him. He’s part of the family. If I was fortunate enough to own Barbaro, nothing would bring me more joy than being able to look out the window and see him happily grazing in the pasture, enjoying a long and happy life.
With all the negativity around today, I would like to think (perhaps naively) that they just love their horse, like most of us do and are trying to do the right thing by him. He’s a l o n g way away from the breeding shed at this point.
I never said it wasn’t an indictment of the racing industry and assholes in general. The point is these horses weren’t broken down on the track and euthanized due to injuries, they are just unwanted. Surgeons can’t fix unwanted.
Do you think the breakdown had to do with being galloped as a weanling?
Yes, some people think they are rode as weanlings.
:yes:
Amen, Laurierace!
That is perhaps the most horrendous statistic the industry nees be held accountable for! In this day and age where we have a number of resources available to help owners and trainers transition horses once their careers at the track are over…there is just simply NO excuse for ANY TB to ever end up in an auction kill pen and/or on a dinner plate overseas! The people who are still discarding these animals like yesterday’s trash are not needed in this industry and should in my opinion, not be allowed to own horses.
By the way, I have been training racehorses for over 25 years. I have NEVER had a horse breakdown and need to be euthanized. In my entire career, have had 1 horse break a leg. He was a Maclay horse I had leased for a student to try to qualify with. He was rolling in the pasture and must have not properly loaded his front legs to get up from his roll. He dislocated his elbow and fractured his forearm. It was a horrific and tragic accident.
Nah, it’s the sucklings that gallop that always break down. Everyone knows that!
Yeah, to say that Barbaro should not have had surgery b/c there are people who don’t have health insurance makes no sense…Just b/c the screw-offs in gov’t are in bed with health corporations, which is why there is no reasonably priced health insurance, doesn’t mean B should get the bullet, or is that not what you meant?
But, the public’s perception of racing needs to be tended to very carefully, b/c if the public gets annoyed enough, they will give good fuel to the animal rights’ movement. And, anyhow, who wants to tune in to racing and then see such a terrible horse wreck, like Saturday’s? (and we should be thanking the deities above that Saturday didn’t become a terrible pile-up). Racing is not really like NASCAR, b/c the car isn’t a sentient being; nor do we worry if the car is being made to race against its will. These are very serious questions.
Gee I must miss them all too
I can watch a whole afternoon of racing on HRTV and not see a single breakdown… Hmmmm;)
Yup…
Especially with that weight they carry!!! Weanlings?? Somenone actually thinks they gallop weanlings??
I am kind of tired of the implication that he broke down because he was 3… The one thing Anderson said, I cant quote exactly but someone asked a question about his young bones being too fragile to take it… Anderson said a three year olds bones are like steel. Also I believe someone said somethng about conditioning… that was refuted… he was in awesome physical shape! I suppose we could go on and on about this… But I dare say, If we counted how many Eventers, Hunters Jumpers broke down in a year, it would be sizeable, possibly larger than race TB’s… you just dont hear about them. :no:
I do think racing is in trouble for a lot of reasons more or less connected with Barabaro’s misfortune: #1 Racing is tough on horses-- very tough, and a lot of us (including me) have seen too many horrific breakdowns to want to watch it anymore. Because of my respect and affection for MM and joy over his Derby victory, Barbaro’s Preakness became the first race I had decided to risk watching live since the horrific Breeder’s Cup Day which lost us Go For Wand and 2 other fine horses. I can’t imagine myself ever wanting to watch it again after this. If I watch racing at all, it will be only in video tapes of races I know to be catastrophe-free. #2 Although we all know very well how easily and often horses can hurt themselves, it must be admitted that racing damages them on a scale far exceeding other equine careers. Any honest racetracker will admit that on the track, horses are “old” at five and positively ancient at 10-- an age at which show and pleasure horses are often just beginning to peak. #3 The theory that racing would cease to ruin so many horses if only they weren’t started so young has in fact been scientifically tested and refuted: a controlled study comparing horses who started racing at 2 to those kept home until 4 found that the latter broke down at a dramatically higher rate than those started younger. Several studies of equine bone development explain why: to develope bone of optimal shape (modelling) and density to withstand the stresses of racing, horses need to be worked at speed BEFORE they mature, not afterwards.
I’ve been involved in the racing industry in several capacities, having worked as a groom and exercise rider, managed a lay-up barn, broken yearlings, and even sent one of my own to Fair Hill as a prospect. It was my feeling that despite all the casualities, racing still had considerable value as a means of selecting for breeding purposes. When I put my own filly into training, I soon began to have doubts even about that… they started when I met people eagerly waiting for their horses to bleed so they could enjoy the advantage of Lasix. Clearly there’s a great deal more than the inherent virtues of an animal that goes into competitiveness at the track: kind of scary, I thought, when an outright defect (e.g. bleeding) becomes an advantage.
A few years ago someone wrote an excellent (IMO) article in Bloodhorse describing the conditions under which TB’s currently race, what kinds of horses these conditions encourage people to breed, and how racing could be changed to encourage the breeding and development of sounder, healthier animals who could enjoy longer careers-- which would, in turn, encourage rather than discourage spectator involvement in the sport. I am always glad to see people within the industry recognizing these problems and trying to address them. I’d love to be able to return to the track and enjoy a day of racing-- but despite all the statements here of years gone by without a broken limb, etc., that was not my experience on the track at all. I’ve spent relatively few years on the track, but lost count of how many breakdowns I’ve witnessed. When people at the track react to catastrophes like Barbaro’s saying “that’s racing,” they are (IMO) quite right. Racing IS a dangerous, extremely high risk sport. For a lot of people, that’s a big part of its appeal. You just can’t expect to have those kinds of sports without injuries. Personally, I’ve decided I don’t like watching those kinds of sports anymore… I’d rather watch horses race in lanes as people do-- so they don’t run the risk of clipping heels, falling over downed competitors, etc.-- but I doubt that’s likely to happen. Until it does, I think I’ll just go back to watching dressage, hunters-- and the growth of my grass 
I hope no one interprets this as a condemnation of participation in racing: I still have friends very active in the sport-- one of whom, in particular, does an amazing job of keeping his horses sound, sane and extremely happy doing it. My hat is off to horsepeople like this friend. I just happen to have lost my own stomach for racing.
So if one watches the entire race schedule all day on tv, and not 1 breaks down…are we to assume that race horses only break down while in races??? Dosen’t make much sense…does it??
I think a lot of things could help racing. I know that it is not a concidence when one trainer has 5 horses breakdown in a 4 month meet, while another trainer has 50 head of horses and has never had one go down on the track in his 20 year career.
I would like to see punishment to the trainer when a horse breaks down. This sounds bad, but the first one a “freebie” of sorts.(Horribly sorry for the way that sounds.) For instances such as Barbaro where Matz is a wonderful horseman and it was a bad step. Then say in the next 1000 starts or year, which ever comes first it would revert to a clean slate. In the meantime, another catastrophic injury would result in a suspension, increasing during the time until the timeframe runs out. It is easy to tell when a horse clips heels, which would obviously be excluded. Also horses that have to pull up with injuries. Really just for the horses that fall in a race due to injury.
That lets a lot of people by, but the problem isn’t the people like Laurierace and others here who boost having none or 1 horse in a career catastrophically breaking down. They know the trainers I am describing. I think it would promote better horsemanship and scare those cold blooded monsters that always think, one more race.
We cannot lend trainers any more excuses. Once is a bad step, 7 or 8 a year is not. And we need a to be less tolerant. This is coming from someone who works in racing everyday and will continue. I can at least provide my horses I come in contact with, with a caring home.
Edited
Wouldn’t this also help the cost of jockey insurance? Can racetrack people point out the faults with this idea? Besides the obvious trainers complaining that have multiple breakdowns close together.
Of course horses breakdown in non racing situations. I still doubt that 40% of a given foal crop DIES from racing related incedents before their 4th birthday. If that were so, their would be fewer CANTER (and other such) horses.
Just because oir health care system if effed up doesn’t mean that owned of a horse have no right to attempt to save him. Just because some owners haven’t the wherewithall to save their seriously hurt horses doesn’t mean the Jacksons shouldn’t invest THIER money to save THEIR horse.
Believe me, I don’t work in racing but I do know exactly to whom you are referring. Why he hasn’t lost his license is just beyond me.
Unfortunately, though, I’m not sure penalizing people for breakdowns is the way to go about it - maybe something more along the lines of permitting an official inquiry if the same trainer has x number of horses break down in a single meeting, or something like that???
Has MMatz never had a breakdown before, in racing or training?
I’m genuinely curious.
I unfortunately know a few like that. One where I am at had an “official inquiry” but basically that was nothing. Since there is no rules stating your horse can’t break its leg off, they can’t punish them. And drug testing only does so much. There are things that are traceable, and sometimes that sore horse doesn’t have to be drugged up to try and race.
