@kopenhagen5 wrote:
So changes need to happen and I suggest no human interference in pushing the horse when it is racing.
No crops, no heels, no verbals, no slapping of reigns etc. The horse must run as it feels.
Let the horses run the race they want, they will slow if they don't feel well.
That will in effect perhaps see the true well bred horses, IMO.
Kopes, have you ever ridden a horse or know anyone who has?
If the jockey rides as you advocate there would be no races.
No crops....well there is an argument for better policing of the use of the whip but on the whole the racing whip does not hurt the horse when used properly. The leather flapper on the end lets the horse know what is required of it without undue pain. And please note....I said when used properly. Good jockeys do use it responsibly. They do not get to be top riders by abusing the horses...the trainers will not use them.
No heels....how are you going to get the horse to move forward? In "ordinary riding" the way to get a horse to speed up or slow down is by keeping your leg on him. Due to the very short stirrups in racing the jockey cannot keep his leg on the horse so uses his heels. There are no spurs involved, and the boots are very light and soft....no heavy/hard soles or heels as in ordinary riding boots.
No verbals....the average horse loves being spoken to by it's rider. Haven't you seen horses with their ears turned towards the rider? They are listening to what the rider is saying.
No slapping of reins.....the reins on racing horses are quite short compared to other riding bridles so they will not get tangled in the rider's feet....not easy to slap at all. Believe me, when you are on top of a 16+hand 600kg thoroughbred going at speed, the last thing you are thinking about is slapping the reins. The rider could easily overbalance if they start flapping their hands about.
The horse must run as it feels....well it won't if you don't tell it what you want it to do. If it takes off of it's own accord that is called bolting. Not desirable in a racehorse and not easy to control.
And I do know what I am talking about. I spent 25 years trundling around the horse show circuit with my daughter....from Pony Club to Royal/National Show level. She is still on the circuit showing miniatures and helping her own daughters.
Along the way she trained as a Vet Nurse and worked for a Vet practice that serviced the horse industry as well as small animals. Her boss was the chief vet at Randwick racecourse. She spent several seasons as a polo strapper, working for the Argentinian team at Ellerston (Kerry Packer's property)
She worked as a stable hand with Gai Waterhouse until someone told Gai she was a champion show rider and she was elevated to riding and leading the horses to the racecourse and warming them up for the stable rider to take over. BTW her considered opinion was that racehorses were mad, but it did not stop her taking 2 ex racehorses and retraining them for showing. She also took an ex polo pony and retrained it for hacking.
Someone on this thread mentioned knowing a Vet who pumped steroids into horses for arthritis etc. No responsible vet or trainer would do that...steroids are very definitely banned and not just in racing but across the whole competitive horse industry.
If horses need treatment with banned substances they should be taken out of training and spelled as long as necessary.
We had a pony that needed medical treatment with a banned drug just 2 weeks before Sydney Royal....it was not performance related. Although all traces of the drug should have disappeared before he competed we were still advised to get a Vet certificate stating the date the drug was administered, what it was for, the dosage and the fact that it was not performance related. We had to lodge it with the stewards well before competition commenced. Race horses are regulated even more stringently than show horses.
Race horses do not train/race the whole year. We had friends who ran a Thoroughbred spelling establishment. Some of their chages were with them for 3-6 months at a time. They were stabled at night but loose in the paddocks during the day. It was not at all uncommon to see a couple of horses racing each other across the paddock just for fun.
When we took out pony out to spell him for a few weeks our friends used to put him in the large paddock for the first few days....he used to take off as soon as he hit the ground and it set all the other horses off too. All horses and ponies love to gallop...often for no reason at all.
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