From HW Vice President Joy Aten. Simple and to the point:
Those in the racing industry are so clueless about horses and what enriches their lives that they actually think leg wraps and blankets and hay bags and Jolly Balls and baths and a damn stall are “royal treatment”?!? If the horses could talk they’d BEG for NO MORE royal treatment! They’d say, Just let us be HORSES!
Seriously, is there ANYONE in racing who KNOWS equines, that has a clue in what conditions horses thrive? Because THIS is not it…
These are not horses. They are investments. Or tools of the trade.
People really do have to be clueless to think that it’s okay to do these things they refer to as “Royal treatment” to these horses. It’s outright abuse & neglect, pain & suffering to the horses, and killing & dying. This industry is so barbaric and absolutely nothing can make it okay to do what the stakeholders in horseracing do to horses. The horses are unwanted when they are not able to perform on the racetrack or the breeding shed. The horses are exploited from birth to death. They are objects for gambling entertainment and revenue. If a horse cannot be promoted as a “horse to bet on” they become unwanted by the racing people. A relatively small percentage of horses are exploited by the breeding farms. When horses are owned by greedy psychopaths, they quickly become unwanted and killed. What is ROYAL or AMAZING about being used, abused routinely, and killed? The people that exploit horses should be locked up in small spaces and given a jolly ball. Being locked up in a stall for 23 hours a day is punishment and the horses don’t deserve to be punished for human greed and lack of empathy.
The horses don’t deserve to be dumped into the slaughter pipeline. The horses don’t deserve to be treated like a commodity. The horses don’t deserve to be violently killed in a slaughterhouse. The horses don’t deserve to be killed on racetracks or in stalls. This is the so-called “Sport of Kings” and the so-called “Royal treatment” is abuse and torture of the horses. The people who are committing this so-called “Royal treatment” on horses should be punished by law.
Thank you Joy,all of these poor innocent animals are robbed of their natural life …. instead they are born into slavery, that for 99.9% of them ends way before their time and in the most horrific ways imaginable …slaughter house or catastrophic injuries. How dare you total a******s think you have the right to send them to slaughter. How would you idiots (who don’t work a real job) feel if someone sent your fat ass to a slaughter house?
I have spent my entire life working with race horses at the track and I can honestly says Joy is one hundred percent correct in what she states. I totally support Horseracing Wrongs for exposing this horrible industry for what it is cruelty to animals-all animals. This industry only cares about making money. It is a terrible antiquated industry which should be abolished.
Heartbreaking to know the miserable lives of RACEHORSES — why this fact does not touch anyone in the industry is beyond me — let’s keep at it until we SHUT DOWN this unconscionably cruel industry / racket — FOREVER
Great post, Joy. And your mention of baths reminded me of a quick story about one owner who was defending all the “care” his horses received. He claimed they were bathed TWICE a day, and that they were all “clean enough to EAT OFF OF.”
First, mine have never “enjoyed” bath time, and would much prefer being out in the open with their herd. (Then again, I suppose they’d all have rather had a bath than be stuffed back into a damned BOX.)
Second, thanks, but I think I’ll stick with the kitchen table and a plate.
What a picture that is: eating off of a horse. That’s a disgusting thought, but even more disgusting is humans eating the horse as they do in certain countries more so than others.
Horses definitely prefer a roll in the dirt and to be turned out to a large pasture where they can do what horses prefer to do: to graze and be in the company of their buddy horses. It is absolutely wrong to lock horses up in stalls for more than 10 hours a day.
Thank you, Joy.
These poor horses live miserable lives.
Better to forego the matching wraps and blankets and treat the painful gastric ulcers that plague over 90 % of these unfortunates.
Better to forego the daily baths and provide turnout to relive the stress of isolation and confinement in a tiny stall. There would be less cribbing, weaving and more…
These people are a mix of human arrogance and ignorance but worst of all, they don’t care.
I know you’ve all heard and/or read comments from racehorse owners about their horses’ great lives (the “royal treatment”) – it’s obvious you have by your comments. And I’d bet you’d agree that many of them are really that ignorant. Think about the fractional ownerships – owners who OWN a PIECE of a horse – they don’t know anything about horses and they have no farm for their horse to retire to once he’s used-up and worn out. They all want to get in the win picture but they wipe their hands of their racehorse once he’s no longer meeting their expectations, gets dropped into a claiming race and becomes someone else’s “family member”. Again and again – cheaper and cheaper until he’s just…gone. And they just buy a piece of another racehorse.
But there are those IN racing or supporters of it who know better and understand what horses need to be a happy horse. I know some of those folks, those who have their own farms and actually do the daily work of having and caring for horses. And the odd thing? – they don’t make their “backyard horses” live like racehorses do. Why is that? – they KNOW – they KNOW that a racehorse’s life is NOTHING like what any horse would choose. Yet they continue to claim the lie of “royal treatment” and enable the suffering of countless racehorses in doing so. Those are the individuals I find the most disgusting.
Thank you, Joy. The picture above is a picture of the type of abuse, torture and neglect that horses exploited for racing and wagering receive on a daily basis! Being confined to a stall like that is what horses are forced to do for 23 hours a day at race tracks and training tracks and it is most definitely abuse and neglect! Of course, that is not to mention the insanely barbaric abuse that is inflicted on the horse while not confined to the stall.
Horses should not be confined to a stall for longer than 10 hours a day. That means they should be turned out to a pasture that has safe fencing and that is large enough for the horse to graze at will for no less than 14 hours a day. Horses should never be forced to stand in mud and muck either! The reality is that they are forced to stand in mud and muck all too often. Horses are forced to stand in mud and muck in a killbuyer’s feedlot, for example.