According to the chart for the 5th at Horseshoe Jul 15, Oondiri “gave way in early stretch, then was transported home in the equine ambulance.” “Home,” here, means the pathologist’s table. From the stewards: “euthanized in the barn area.” Oondiri was five. Her final exploiters (among others): Donald Todd, Thomas Upton, Amir Mendoza. Oh, and she was also “For Sale” the day she died.
On that same day at Horseshoe, two horses – Evening Charm, Soxit Toem – were scratched for being “fractious in the gate.” “Fractious”? Both are just two years old.
Three days later, same track, three horses – Celebratory, Skrill, Apollitical Fast – were scratched for being “down in starting gate.”
And at Hoosier, 3-year-old Lady Adeline was vet-listed after racing Jul 16 for coming back “lame”; the same for 9-year-old Mr Ds Rock two days later.
Wanda, clearly those horses were traumatized. Absolutely unneeded to electrically shock a horse to leave the gates. Dumb technique. We have taught many horses to enter & leave the gates. Usually we would just ride them through & later close up front doors & later back doors. It`s a horse natural instinct to not stay in an enclosed area for long. The old mechanical gates we used in Tillamook were operated by hand & opened by springs with mechanical latches. No electricity needed for operation. When we set up the gate properly we could operate the gate by ourselves. We also would groom & brush or comb the horses manes in the gates to thoroughly accustom them to the gates & have no fear there. We`re so glad this industry is going away. At times it really makes us feel bad how we had the horses trust us so well only later to have that trust broken by others later on.
“Run into the ground”, is an idiom that no doubt has its roots in a literal reality. If one is “in” the ground they are no longer “on” the ground. Their body is buried. So many beautiful horses run literally into the ground.
That sounds like a nightmare for these horses to be forced into the starting gates and all of the rest of the sadistic brutality that goes with racing. For any horse to be fractious and down in the starting gates proves that starting gates are not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Who knows how many times these horses have been shocked by the jockeys or the trainers with electric shocking devices in the starting gates?
I read an article about a trainer who said he used an electric cattle prod to “teach” a Quarter Horse to jump out of the starting gate fast in Texas several years ago. I don’t know how common that type of abuse to horses is, but I think it happens more often than most people would suspect.