Woke Pony Ride?

[juanbenae]

Who knew? 6 or 8? One could very much lose count under such circumstance...


Lil like a "push for power" in an indy car perhaps?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/alvarado-banned-fined-62-000-141131698.html

[cockerpunk]

i long have defended horse racing as a sport. grew up riding, still do ride, and my mom still rides every single day. we went to the local track, hell, i still enjoy a beer, and a couple of 2 dollar bets...

and the argument was always, a healthy horse is a fast horse. which is true. i dont think anyone could make a super compelling case against the treatment of winning, popular, race horses. the healthier they are, the faster they are, and the more money they make.



but i think the OTTB trend, and learning about the the not winning, not popular, race horses, and just how many they are, is really where i stopped being ok defending horse racing. for every winner that gets the fantastic treatment ... there are dozens, in some cases hundreds of horses, bred, that end up god knows where, treated god knows how. the good ones get snatched up by the OTTB people, and turned into good dressage, hunter/jumper, eventing etc horses, because TBs are a great fit, and smart breed. much healthier than *any* other pure breed horses.

but again, what happens to the other 50% of them?

no matter how you do that math, you come to the conclusion that horse racing, is breeding, and then basically torturing and murdering hundreds, if not thousands of horses ... for no reason. those horses didnt ask to be bread. those horses arnt to blame for what happens to them. they didnt ask for this.

and it gets harder and harder to justify. these arnt college athletes who will just get a finance degree if they arnt good enough and quote people new rooves. these are animals with good used car monthly payments to keep alive and happy and healthy, forever. whos paying for that? no one. and they didnt ask for that. its tiger king, on a massive scale.

if that makes me woke, then i guess im woke.

[rockfan4]

The more my wife gets involved with horses, the less I like certain aspects of it.
If you're really having a day where you're feeling too good, go to a horse auction and stick around for the loose horses. I follow a horse rescue in Colfax WI, and they will occasionally take in a thoroughbred. The older ones have lip tattoos, and usually someone will look it up and "xxx horse had this many races, took in $125,000 in total winnings" or similar, and they end up there. I say older, now they're chipped, like you would a dog or cat.

We watched Black Beauty this weekend, the 1994 version, not the Disney version, so I'm a little jaded still, even if the book the movie was based on was written 150 years ago.
It's free with ads on Plex. Some horses are still treated in a similar fashion today.

This one knows what the crop is all about.

[unclebilly]

It’s not like these horses all suffer or die when their racing careers end.

Chuckwagon racers buy thoroughbreds and train them to race. It’s not easy but these horses are bred and trained to do one thing well… race!

https://www.calgarystampede.com/stampede/shows/evening/rangeland-derby

My son’s best friend’s father is a famous Chuckwagon racer and comes from a long line of wagon racers…

Here are some vids I took a couple years ago in High River.

https://youtu.be/eKPZVu_3opc?si=XV7MhCuImFNX-fM2

https://youtu.be/7OXs_UyzyPU?si=VtmhKgwqOoUB6ShT

And when the wagon guys are done with these beautiful horses, people buy them from them. A close friend of my wife’s has a thoroughbred named ‘big’. He had a very accomplished racing history but didn’t work out on a wagon rig.

[rockfan4]

We're way, way behind on watching Heartland, but we just watched the one where Amy helps the chuckwagon racers.

[stevej37]

No whip...

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

We're way, way behind on watching Heartland, but we just watched the one where Amy helps the chuckwagon racers.

Seriously, you watch that?

A couple years in the farm store, I was picking up some ear tags. At the end of the aisle, Amy and The Man Tracker were having a casual conversation… just another day at the High River UFA.

Oh and Vince Vaughn married a friend of mine’s daughter but that’s another story.

[rockfan4]

The wife watches it. I'll admit to letting her pick the show every once in a while.

Amber Marshall and one of the trainers - Dan James did a presentation at the Midwest Horse Fair about a month ago. Packed house, 5000 - 6000 people. I actually found it kind of interesting. They had a trained trick horse with them and did a few stunts. They let on that they will make up the horse to look like other horses if they need a specific stunt. They'll completely change the color from gray to sorrel. They also said there's been about 12 different Spartans, Amy's horse.

[unclebilly]

I could not believe how great she looked in person. There I said it.

[rockfan4]

Youtube thinks it knows what I want to watch. I watch online horse auctions. This afternoon, they're offering an online horse auction.

The Fasig Tipton Midlantic May Two-Year-Olds in Training auction. I looked at the catalog - 586 horses, although several are withdrawn. I watched a few minutes on youtube, too rich for my blood. Saw one go for $285,000. Saw one go for $12,000. I'm feeling a little better about myself, that I could tell the difference the moment they walked into the sale ring.

Still, 586 two year olds. They're not all going to make it to the Kentucky Derby next year. I hope they all have soft landings.

Update - 4 horses sold over $1,000,000. 21 over $500,000. 326 sold, 104 reserve not met, the rest were withdrawn before the sale.