HW was, of course, out in force for Travers Day at Saratoga – 50 activists strong and a mobile-billboard truck circling the track for eight hours. Educate and expose. A highlight was when a woman took one of our leaflets on her way into the track and shortly thereafter left for good. We then proceeded to engage her in further conversation, and much to my surprise she agreed to address our troops at protest’s end:
And our troops…
When we were feeding horses at the track in the mid-1980`s we fed 16# of grain daily! 2 , 4# cans in am & 3 4# cans at 4:30 pm except on race day if a horse was running. Absolutely a ridiculous amount of grain most of which had a high sugar content with the amount of molasses contained in it. Some horse would even have an added 4# can of grain at times if the trainer we worked for thought the horse needed more weight. Never did he use alfalfa hay. Only used timothy hay which added even more sugar!
Yes, and I believe it has a lot to do with feeding so much grain in order for the horses to have the energy to perform at a gallop almost every day of their lives once they are under a training for racing regimen. It’s all unnatural for the horses.
Racehorses are at a higher risk of developing laminitis.
Your dedication to educating the community is truly inspiring. Advocating for horses is like teaching. You don’t know what the outcome will be but know that your influence will linger long after the students go home.
When anyone says that Laminitis is something any horse can get, not just racehorses, they are correct. Laminitis is not specific to racing. I’m not sure what this lady understands about the causes of Laminitis, however, I am very glad that she is getting the message that horseracing is bad for the horses.
Love the idea of your circling the track for 8 hours! Wish you could do that with a drone or plane in the air. Probably illegal to do so though. Better to have the track circled by your display than the horses circling everyday.
Excellent work! Thank you all so much.