[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.