13/09/2023
Another day Another bloody 3 year old off the flat with kissing spine....
I am so sick of seeing these beautiful horses ruined before they have had a chance in life.
This lad is a big 3 year old who ran at 2 and was clearly weak and backwards.
Is it hereditary? Possibly.
Do we cause it training young horses too hard before they're mature, with bad fitting saddles and poor riding? Undoubtedly.
Something needs to be done. However there is so much money in running horses at 2 and 3 why would they stop it?
EDIT
Wow I am amazed at the response this post has received. I thought I would just add a few thoughts to share with you.
On the whole trainers love their horses, but some are misguided in their approach.
Racing has become cut throat and disposable. We start training on the whole, because we love these beautiful animals, however love doesn't pay the rent.
The pressure to get results has increased exponentially over the past 10 years, with prize money decreasing, which leads to trainers behaving somewhat immorally in certain situations.
There is no excuse where the welfare of the horse is concerned. However as someone pointed out to me, quite viciously a couple of weeks ago, I don't understand how hard it is as I have it so easy...Seriously he actually said that...
Desperate men take desperate measures and whilst there is a thriving gambling industry and owners who want results quickly, who don't want to pay vast training fees and get no return mean horse welfare will always suffer. The sick, lame and the sorry will be discarded, the lucky ones will find their way to people like me and some of you.
What can we do? Well we can bloody well start to educate owners to understand that pushing horses too early causes these issues.
We can stop breeding from lines that have the genetic predisposition.
We can educate trainers about the damage half tree exercise saddles do.
We can help teach staff and trainers how to ride their horses to give them the best chance to stay sound, how to go in a way they engage the topline, strengthen the lumbar and stop them being crooked.
To learn to change their diagonal, to learn to not ride off their hands, to help the horses who are weak and struggling, to make sure horses can canter on both legs equally...(sounds simple doesn't it??).
Stop the staff hoiking their stirrups up by their ears, putting all the weight on one small area on young backs.
To stop tying heads down with ridiculously tight bungees because this builds "top line"...
Sorry I shouldn't rant but in the end I train horses because I love them, obviously I want winners but I want them more for the horse than I do me...
Racing will be around a lot longer than I will so all I can hope is we can evolve as an industry for the better.
