As a former racehorse person: I believe it is only cruel if managed and done wrongly. As it is sometimes, man does not always do what is right.
I believe, wholeheartedly, that "man" should not race horses before they are at least 4 years old. A horse is not fully developed until the age of 4 or 5. The majority of breakdowns on tracks all over the world, are stress related. Stress on immature bones and ligaments, not fully formed, hardened or conditioned. Of course that is not in "man's" financial best interests because of the high cost of breeding/training/racing horses. People need to get quick returns on their investments. So race them as soon as they can walk. Not all trainers/owners act ethically. Not all of them treat their horses right. Not all of them have their horses' best interests at heart. Same can be said for a lot of sporting activities. I personally treated my horses like gold. They were better taken care of than I was. I took care of stables full of high class, high bred stakes horses cost $250,000+ and I took care of and raced $5,000 claimers. To me, they all got the same care, no matter how much they were worth or how much money they made. That is not the case for some stables though. I saw people around me that took short cuts, shot horses full of pain meds, blocked hooves, administered "milk shakes", etc. I don't believe it is a majority, and state regulations make it very hard these days to cheat the system, but on class c racetracks and where people are trying to put food on their table week after week, you see a lot more corners being cut. As for being born to run? I took care of horses who got so excited, ears up, tail waving, nickering, prancing, ready to get on the track and go. Totally different attitude from when I'd lead them to a pasture for some down time, and they would plod along like "ok, if I must". Hook up their harness, and boy! Like waving a leash at a dog. So yeah, I guess racing horses is cruel if the people involved with a particular horse are cruel. Not all jockeys whip horses. You might see them waving the whip, but sometimes they are just waving it, not actually making contact. There are "excessive whipping" rules in affect these days that carry heavy fines and suspensions. It's not in anyone's best interests, horse included of course, to violate those rules. Otherwise, it's like any other activity/sport. It's great when everyone is happy. Bad when there's a bad apple. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:259840 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
