Re: [RC] the more money we come across, the more problems we see - oddfarm
Well, I am pretty sure all day long the announcers
talk about the horses. They talk about their age, where they came from, who
trained them, etc,. My point is, they DO announce their age several times and if
I am not mistaken it is also printed in the book the people who bet use. Whether
or not people know about what it takes to get a 2 or 3 year old to race doesn't
matter so much as what they see the end result could be. Most people don't know
what goes into making a fighting dog either, but the know it isn't good because
of what they see in the news as the end result.
It doesn't really matter how much they know, they
still support the sport. The public knows enough when they see the horse put
down on the track, don't you think? Without them the sport wouldn't exist and
that was the point of my post.
Subject: Re: [RC] the more money we come
across, the more problems we see
Lisa said:
For
instance, most people know that these horses are very young.
I'm not entirely sure that's true, even among horse people,
much less the general public. Lots of horse sports have futurities for 3
yr olds. It's considered perfectly acceptable to start a horse under
saddle before it's 2 and train hard for a futurity, then leave it lame before
it even hits 8 or so. Sure it's not the same as a death, but the
misery certainly lasts a lot longer.
As to the general public, how
are they supposed to know that racing 3 yr olds, even 2 yr olds is
unacceptable? Except when one of these tragedies happens, there is no
talk in the newspapers about the fact that the horses are considered
too young for such strenuous training/sport. Most non-horse people
don't know that a horse is not mature til after it's 5 years old. They
don't know that starting a horse under saddle at 1 1/2 or 2 is like sending a
5 yr old kid off to work. There aren't that many horse sports where the
horse is not expected to be fully trained and able to withstand the stresses
of hard work until its past 5 years old. Even endurance rules allow 5 yr
old horses to compete in 100 mile rides. jeri
