Chart notes from U.S. Thoroughbred and Quarterhorse races last week. “Vanned Off,” “Equine Ambulance”: Horse unable to walk off track under own power. While fates remain unknown at this time, we will eventually get death confirmations on many, if not most, through our FOIA reporting. “Bled”: pulmonary hemorrhage. “DNF”: did not finish.
Stone Guitar “vanned off” at Finger Lakes
Medimpact “transported via ambulance after race” at Prairie
Crafty Gal “took a bad step, vanned off” at Mountaineer
Two Lucys “pulled up lame, transported off by ambulance” at Belterra
Cousin Joe “vanned off following finish” at Belterra
Beira “transported off via ambulance” at Aqueduct
Kicking Myself “exited course via ambulance” at Colonial
Boogaard “fell, transported off in ambulance” at Delaware
Classy Jesse “transported off via ambulance” at Albuquerque
Fdd Flash “hit rail, transported off via ambulance” at Albuquerque
Valentino Who “fell, DNF” at Albuquerque
Hand It Over “bled” at Churchill
Schoolyardsuperman “fell, transported off via ambulance” at Aqueduct
Brilliant Man “bled” at Churchill
Terrific Rocknroll “fell, ambulanced” at Los Alamitos
One Day Queen “fell over rival [above], DNF” at Los Alamitos
Interstellar “transported on ambulance” at Remington
Nick’s Attitude “ambulanced” at Sweetwater
Bandera de Mexico “fell, ambulanced” at Los Alamitos
Malibu Rocks “transported off via ambulance” at Los Alamitos
Fred and Joan, in 1967-68 & 1968-69 school years, I was in a horse 4-H club. One of the member’s father was the club’s drill team instructor.
I can’t even imagine how any instructor or riders could not be aware of the most basic principle of anything that resembles safety and also worthy of performing in a rodeo or a horse show as entertainment between other events. We started out doing circles at the walk and slow lope. Proper spacing was essential. Timing and spacing and maintaining a steady speed were all part of the basics of a successful drill team performance. I can’t even imagine clipping heels in a drill team performance.
In horse shows in the Western pleasure and Western equitation classes, proper spacing is essential. It is a basic part of how things are done.
Anything with horses requires safety first. I can see how that basic principle is thrown out the window in horse racing though with horses that are not given a proper foundation and they are forced to run fast and not in a collected manner when the jockeys are buzzing and whipping them.
Yes indeed Marie. We have seen horses with pieces off a horses fetlocks. Was shocked the 1st time we noticed that. We have also participated in university drill teams where our other riding members were unaware of the dangers of clipping heels by riding way too close! As we were not the instructor or advisor, at 1st said nothing. Later after realizing the ignorance of our drill team advisor we began to tell our fellow drill team members to back off & allow proper distance no matter what the drill team pattern was supposed to be! We learned some good things from riding at various tracks from bad experiences of others as well as ourselves. Playing bumper cars with horses while riding is another of many reasons we left the track in 2004 after participation since 1977.
Animal Welfare laws are being broken every day in this inhumane industry.
The people who break the rules and regulations and the Animal Welfare laws would be put in jail if there was justice.
The Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority should be charged with malfeasance for failing to protect horses from injury and death. Of course, that was not the true purpose of the formation of this group. It is a way to deceive the uninformed; a bureaucracy created to deny and deflect guilt of wrongdoing, and to delay the inevitable end of the Social License to Operate for die-hard horse-abusing thugs calling themselves horsemen/ horsewomen.
When mainstream media reported on the series of horses being fatally injured at Santa Anita, it became clear that somebody had to do something to “appease the gods” so to speak.
Not everyone who placed a bet on the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes realized that it wasn’t just Santa Anita that was bad.
Quite a few of these falls were the result of “clipping heels”, and jockeys playing bumper cars with 1000lb living beings. Their disregard for the horses’ (and each others’ lives!!) is shocking. My horses have NEVER clipped heels in a pasture or at a show. I was even thinking last night, as I saw Malibu Rocks fall because he was placed “in tight quarters”, what does the horse who gets clipped look like after the race?? Are their legs hacked up, a chunk missing out of their heels, bleeding, potential tendon damage??