Quote:
Originally Posted by The Agnoostic
As a 35 year veteran of the horse game . Sadly I have to agree with this. Racing is corrupt on every level. The owners for the most part have more money than they know what to do with. The trainers over charge said owners for daily training fees . The trainers use illegal medications and methods to get the animals to perform . P.E.D,s , Illegal street drugs , I've even eye witnessed grain alcohol being injected into horses feet to block pain. The trainers pay mostly undocumented workers a horrible weekly wage to work 12-14 hours a day , seven days a week.
The track owners do everything they can to cut costs including putting safety at risk. The stewards are mostly tied in too the owners and trainers and are not beyond taking a bribe or two . The jockeys are mostly all starving literally and are forced to do nefarious deeds to make extra money.
It's time for this sport to just die already. Half the tracks are now casinos and want nothing more than to get rid of racing . The people involved in the sport have nobody to blame but themselves and pure greed .
I don't know what stables you are referring to. But horses have to get pre race inspections post race inspections often by more than one vet. They have to be certified fit to race and tested for doping as well as any athlete.
It would need corruption from vets on a grand grand scale for what you say to be true throughout racing.
The deaths at the track in santa anita where due to the course itself. And a lot of courses around the world could be made safer and kept better. They didn't adjust to the wetter weather california had. The track was ****.
The
alchohol thing that is common throughout the horse world. Sorry to dissolution you. They are called hock injections or getting their hocks done. And if you have been riding or 35 yrs you have prob ridden a horse that has had them or will have them or at least in the same stable as a horse getting them. There is nothing wrong with it. If you don't like it then you pretty much don't like any horse sport or riding at all. Vets do it and claim it's perfectly safe. If you WERE in the horse world as much as you say you would probably have ridden a horse that has had the EXACT SAME TREATMENT. It's also used for arthritis and osteoarthritis in older horses. There is nothing shocking or
EVIL about it.
As for doping its more a case of companies come up with new steroids every year and it takes a few years for them to be banned.
Horse racing isn't my favorite equine sport but its not my least fav. Dressage horses have way worse injuries. And eventing causes more deaths.
Racehorses are bought and sold for not thousands not hundreds of thousands but MILLIONS. It would make ZERO sense to waste that investment.
Banning it would simply put it underground. We need animal rights activists to be realistic about affecting real world changes. Because on the other side we have 'punters' who see a horse as just a horse.
Any Ex Jockey i have known has always had a passion and a love for horses. And it's sure not an easy life they have so I respect them.
I am not saying things don't need to always be striving for something better and that people in the industry will always be open to that on the contrary.
Last edited by UrPerfectAsYouAre; 04-14-2019 at 02:44 AM.