Horse Racing

[George1994]

I will have to look up some videos when I have a chance! You're right though I have no idea what jumps racing is other than it sounds dangerous, haha. I looked it up a bit and of course the first thing I see is a bunch of "JUMPS RACING KILLS, BAN IT" websites. I will look a bit deeper - I like to get my own info on things rather than listening to extremist websites, haha. Really, EVERY horse sport is dangerous in some way (look at eventing, for instance, it's similar to jumps racing it looks like but solo). I'll have to look up some videos of it and look more into the regulations and whatnot, it looks interesting enough.

Oh yeah, incredibly dangerous. You will not find a single jump jockey who hasn't had at least one serious injury. A quote from AP 'McCoy calculates that in his quest for greatness he has had at least 1,000 falls (the average for an ordinary jockey is one ejection from the saddle for every eleven races) and has broken most of the 206 bones in his frame musing: "My ankle, my leg, my arm, my wrist, my middle vertebrae, my lower vertebrae, both shoulder blades, collarbones, chin bones...need I go on?"'.

It is a very difficult one to explain for where I stand on the horse point of view. When a horse falls, the first you make sure is if the horse is up and still moving everything okay! Their safety is very important to everyone there, and there is nothing more horrifying or saddening than seeing a horse die for a sport that you follow. You can't help but feel guilt for it. Jockeys feel the pain, the owners feel the pain, so do the fans. But it doesn't stop the fact that horses die! I hate that part of it. If a jockey dies then it is bad, but they chose to participate, they knew the risks. The other side, I know the horses are greatly cared for, and the veterinary surgeons at the courses really are miracle workers. But a horse will struggle with a broken leg. They either need to lay down for 6 months or be put in a sling. Both of which greatly impact the horse, and is probably more humane to euthanise it. I cannot think of a worse image than Valiramix falling down the straight of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It is horrifying. AP McCoy, with an awful cut to his face gets up and restrains the horse, he knows it is hurt. He is visibly crying and you can see it, even to this day, 12 years later, he still talks about Valiramix and the effect it had on him. It is the one demon that horse racing will never shake. I feel huge amounts of guilt over this side of the sport, an emotion which has never been evoked in any other sport I follow...

--- EDIT --- (Contains details of a horse accident)
Another video on youtube, a horse has just started a race, and is in obvious discomfort. Throws the jockey off and falls to the ground. The first thing the jockey does, run over to the horse and comfort it as well he can, stroking his face and talking to him. The horse unfortunately suffered a heart attack shortly after the race, but I feel this goes to show the duty of care that many jockeys feel towards these animals.