I am very much aware that whatever an individuals opinion might be, the next person might not agree. We are all individuals that will always have different opinions.
The feedback I received for my blog post was some what fascinating. In just 3 hours I had just over 260 views on that particular post. It is evident that so many are interested in the Grand National and finding out what its fate will be for years to come.
I do not agree that the National should be "banned". Society and the general public who know nothing about farming and the equine industry have already managed to get fox-hunting banned. I wondered how long it would be before they took an interest in another sport that could be classed as dangerous and attempt to get that banned too.
Some messaged me following my recent blog post and asked why I compared horse-racing to football, rugby or any other sport of that type. Yes, football players can make up their own mind whether or not they want to play in a game but I also believe so can horses.
I don't know how many times I have to say to any individuals that do not understand horses, but in all honesty if a horse doesn't want to do something he wont! I remember last summer I had decided to take my horse cross-country schooling, before loading him in to the lorry he was full of beans and really on his toes. Upon arriving at the cross-country course he point blank refused to jump more than a few jumps. Usually he loves jumping into water and down ditches; that particular day he was having non of it and after an hour I gave up, boxed him back up and put it all down to having an off day.
If those race horses didn't want to race or jump I don't believe they would. We need to pay attention to those jockeys that pulled their horses up due to "not feeling right". Those decisions are one of the most hardest and disappointing to make, but if your horse isn't feeling like doing something, no one will be able to make it.
It all goes back to the saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!".
Anyway, moving away from the fact that horses are one of the most stubborn animals alive, I have also been questioned by a young girl about the use of whips on race horses. This is a good point that I wanted to cover within my blog and hope that by covering it I can answer some of her questions.
No jockey is allowed to be seen overusing the whip anymore and will not use it to "make the horse go faster and faster".
Jockeys can only use the whip a maximum of five times in the final furlong or after the last obstacle. Failure to comply to this rule will see them receiving both a financial penalty and ban from racing for so many days or races.
The controversial new regulations were brought in by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
Jockeys already use air-cushioned whips to minimise the
impact on horses, but an extensive review of their use began last
November.Many riders are opposed to the automatic forfeiture of their riding fee and percentage of any winnings when incurring a whip ban of three days or more.
The general public can rest assured that jockeys wont be over-using their whip when racing but if they do so then there are penalties in place that makes sure they don't get away with it lightly.
The other point I wanted to address was broken legs in horses. Following Saturdays race I was forced to see many statuses on peoples facebook profiles about broken legs in horses and how it came down to money from race horses owners about whether or not the racehorse would be kept alive.
Sadly, horses aren't as fixable as ourselves. Although a broken leg doesn't sound too dramatic and if it happened to you or me we would be put in plaster for just over a month and then we'd be on our way. Unfortunately in horses this isn't the case and no amount of money could save a horses from a broken leg.
Horses do not just sustain injuries while racing. It can happen when they take part in any kind of sport or leisure activity, or even while they are messing around on their own in a field. However much they are loved and however much money their owner is happy to spend on them, there is no way back from the wrong kind of break.
Cynics assume that money is the issue, but regular followers of the sport know this cannot be true. Neither Barbaro, the hugely popular Kentucky Derby winner, nor Rewilding, who pipped So You Think in a thriller at Royal Ascot this summer, survived their broken legs. Both would have been worth millions if they could have been preserved for a quiet life at stud, but it could not be done
Horses bones are very strong to carry their weight, but at the same time very light for them able to go fast. Unfortunately this means that when a break does occur it usually results in the bone shattering rather than clean breaking.
There is very little tissue covering horses bones so sometimes when a break does occur the bone will penetrate the skin, causing an open fracture.
I'm not at all saying that in a rare case a horse couldn't come through a break and carry on to lead a normal life, but through the eyes of a horse, what is a normal life? Following a break or fracture the horse may not be able to go out in the paddock, it may have to be on box rest for the rest of its life. What kind of life is this for any animal?
I can be honest here because I have broken both my wrists twice each. In the winter I get a harsh stabbing pain in both wrists due to the cold air following my breaks. Would a horse be able to tell its owner of the pain its experiencing in the cold weather? No. Although it seems a horrible thought to put a horse to sleep just because of a break, we need to look at its quality of life after and sometimes the kindest thing to do is let the horse be pain free.
I am a big believer in making the Grand National jumps lower. I know the feedback from this will be that the jockeys and horses will only go faster as a result, but if you take in to account the speed they are going around the course and then having to jump, do they really have time to sort their legs out before landing after a jump? I may sound a little naive here, but surely the faster the horse is going the less time it has to think about the positioning of its legs and how to land? By making the jumps a bit smaller the horse it could prevent the horse from tripping upon landing.
Following this I do feel the field needs to also be made smaller. By making the field smaller it will lessen the chance of one horse falling and bringing down another with it due to the field being less crowded. In stead of 40 runners, why not only have 20? It would be interesting to see how many of the 20 came home safe and sound as appose to the few that came back out of 40 on Saturday.
At the end of the day as I said at the beginning, different people are going to have different opinions on each individual sport. Nothing will be right and nothing will be wrong. All we can hope for now is the racing officials get it right when making the decisions about next years national.
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