Re: Racing horses and making money....

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/26/98 9:42:43 PM Pacific Standard Time,
CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com writes:

<<  agree that it is irrelevant whether the goal is money or enjoyment.  What
 bothered me about the post to which lpopp referred was the insinuation that
 even if there was a problem with the horse, as long as he was winning, it was
 not important to fix it.  ti is right to be concerned about the horse's
 problems, even though the horse is going to the winning post.  A HEALTHY race
 horse runs because he loves it, and it doesn't matter to him if you win money
 for his effort or not.  No more than a HEALTHY endurance horse who enjoys his
 job cares one whit about whether you get points or career mileage for what he
 does.  The bottom line is that a HEALTHY horse should always be the goal,
 regardless of the discipline.
 
 Heidi
  >>

Except that that person was thinking "turnout" was "layoff"--and his economic
analysis was correct for the most part. This horse is sound, but not for long
(in my opinion) if we are unable to correct his behavior. 

I don't think it is useful in a discussion group like this to attempt to ride
a moral high-horse. Humans USE horses for all sorts of purposes, always have.
All breeding farms attempt to operate at a profit, as do all riding schools,
all nutritional companies, all tack manufacturers, etc. 

Abuse is another thing. It occurs in all equine sports, unfortunately. I don't
think racing is the most abusive equine sport, but it probably is near the
top. Endurance riding is probably near the bottom. Still, this group has had
its share of raging controversies concerning "abuse". 

If we want to avoid all abuse, we should turn the horse back into the desert
and forget he exists--let him deal with Nature on his own.  I don't think that
would work very well.

The Unicorn is myth.

ti