Brummell, says the CHRB, was killed (“musculoskeletal”) training at Santa Anita yesterday – the second on-track kill at this, one of America’s crown-jewels tracks in less than a week. Brummell was two years old and had been raced once, at Del Mar back in July.
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Sometimes it stupid tradition & pompous ways Kathy.Now we know better than to start a horse at such a young age. We have learned from experience & we want longevity in our horses.
Ground training at a young age is acceptable.
But to expect an underdeveloped and immature colt to carry so much weight and advance from a walk to a gallop carrying weight, one-hundred pounds or more, at this stage of growth is cruelty to the colt or filly.
In horseracing, all the rules of basic care for LONGEVITY and well-being of the colt or filly are thrown out. Running them, doping them, forcing them to perform beyond their capacity has consequences. We see and/or read about the consequences everyday in this industry. This is mistreatment of horses; it is NOT treating horses like “royalty” as pro-racing people like to say.
These babies are discarded like trash and the die hard horse-killers move on to their next victims.
Look at all of the “Hall of Fame” Thoroughbred trainers. They are there to exploit horses for millions of dollars. The HOF trainers all have killed multiple numbers of horses in this ugly process.
D. Wayne Lukas said he had the “fractional owners” to think about as well as the other people involved with a specific young Thoroughbred he was training and racing and winning with at the time.
Forcing young horses to perform beyond what their bodies are capable of is a “high profit business” for veterinarians who are pro-racing. Look at Roof & Riddle as an example of this. It’s repulsive because they know this kind of mistreatment causes “injuries specific to racing” and they charge money for “their expertise” and their facilities. Can you imagine that when top tier horses are injured, such as a condylar fracture of a Kentucky Derby racehorse, these veterinarians are seeing dollar signs in their eyes…???
The suffering caused to the horses by the pro-racing so-called “horsemen” is what these veterinarians profit from.
I’ve been around horses for over 5 decades and have never come across anyone who thought that riding horses at any level under three years of age was OK. Even at three it is a slow introduction to carrying a saddle and eventually a person, and may be even later with specific breeds. The concept of riding and racing thoroughbreds at the ridiculously young age of 1.5 is related solely to profit either from the race purse or (if successful on the track) the breeding shed. The abuse of these horses is, and has always been, driven by money and greed. At no time in its history has racing been concerned with the physical and psychological wellbeing of the horses.
Clearly this horse had to have soundness issues if not having been raced for > 6 months. Also way too young as a 2 year old! Before we knew better we had started riding many long yearlings at 15 to 18 months. Later after a couple of years racing at tracks throughout the NW we were amazed as to how much those colts & fillies had grown & filled out. We could hardly recognize them & they felt entirely different from we were riding them at the farm a few years earlier.