Last week, I reported on Justourluck taking a horrible – aren’t they all, though? – fall at Belterra. Here it is again:
I have been able to confirm (Ohio Racing Commission) that the 3-year-old is indeed dead. Shocking, huh? Anyhow, here is a video posted by breeder/owner Burch Farm. Apparently, this took place right before Justourluck’s very first race, at Turfway back in January. Keep in mind – while watching the yanking and jerking – that this poor, scared animal was just two at the time. A baby. And now we know he had but four months to live. Get out of the weeds on Bob Baffert, America. Horseracing is fundamentally cruel. It cannot be fixed or reformed. It must end.
They are @$$holes to treat a horse so coldly, callously, and abusively and the handler or groom doesn’t give a damn about the horse! They all just want him to be compliant to their demands! They just want to manhandle him to make him do what they want him to do! That makes me sick! Horseracing is Animal Cruelty everyday in every way! It needs to be DEFUNDED & OUTLAWED!!! This abuse is completely lacking in respect and kindness. There is nothing kind about forcing horses to run in a race for a bet, a purse or a paycheck of any type!!!! Burch Farms can go to hell.
Sometimes I wonder if they manhandle them, jerk on their bits, treat them callously in every possible way because they think it will make the poor horse “a fighter” on the track. They WANT them to become mean! That would be sick but we already know that horse racing is, indeed, sick.
The horses are gregarious animals that want to be a part of the herd. They run as matter of survival. The survival instinct in horses is fight or flight but in racing the humans are at the top of the pecking order. The humans are not running on the track in FEAR for their lives so that means the humans are the predators. Predators don’t normally make friends with the animals that they intend to kill and eat. That is part of why you won’t see humans working at livestock auctions and slaughterhouses being kind and friendly to the intended victims. The same is true of everyone putting horses lives at risk at the racetracks and the training tracks. Most likely the same is true at most breeding farms.
I think it is a combination of pure ignorance on how to work with horses coupled with a complete lack of apathy toward the horses as intelligent creatures. It’s truly disgusting, but I’ve seen people in other equine venues and in the private barns treat horses the same way.
A horse is a true reflection of his owner/ handler. When you see a horse anxious and easily upset it isn’t the horse, it’s the way he’s been handled. To these people, this horse is just an object that is there to serve their purpose. How he is made to do that is irrelevant.
In the discipline of Dressage, it is supposed to be the handler/ rider working in harmony with the horse. Yet, as insane as it is, the people who have the power, evidently, have evolved from a harmonious, calm, relaxed forward mindset/goal/ achievement to a barbaric, cruel, completely counter-productive, insanely abusive thing they call “rollkur” which I just read is considered illegal. It’s an absolutely unnecessary hyperflexion of the horse’s neck achieved through aggressive force. Horseracing can be summed as AGGRESSIVE FORCE to achieve what? To achieve fame, fortune, cheap thrills, dominance over the horse, corporate welfare?!
I never knew about the horrors of the horseracing industry. I was a great fan of the Kentucky Derby and just loved to see all of the beautiful hats, the horses walking the field. Saw this in my e-mail one afternoon and it changed my entire attitude about the beautiful horses and the races! Greed and cruelty is the name of the game. Pain and suffering the destiny of the beautiful horses. To outlaw this industry should be the ultimate goal, not financial gain.