Horse racing is a sport that requires great skill and endurance. During a race, horses sprint from one end of the track to the other in an attempt to cross the finish line first. While the sport may seem exciting and fast-paced, it is also dangerous for both horse and rider. A high number of deaths before, during and after races has raised concerns about the practice.
During the early years of flat racing in England, there were a limited number of standardized races called King’s Plates. These races required six-year-old horses to carry 168 pounds in 4-mile heats. A horse had to win two heats to be adjudged the winner. By 1751, five- and four-year-olds were admitted to the King’s Plates, and the races were reduced in distance to 2 miles. In the mid-18th century, demand for more public horse racing led to a proliferation of races in which age, sex, birthplace and previous performance were considered in addition to the qualifications of owners and riders.
Race-day procedures include warmups, which are exercises done to prepare the horses for their performances during a race. These exercises allow onlookers to observe how a horse acts during the exercise and see how well its jockey or driver works with it. These observations are important because the way a jockey or driver handles a horse can determine how well it performs in the race.
When journalists cover elections by focusing on who’s in the lead and who is behind — a practice known as horse race reporting — it hurts voters, candidates and the news industry, a growing body of research shows. Media scholars have been studying horse race reporting for decades to understand its effects and develop better methods of covering political races.
The sport’s unnatural training and confinement of horses often leads to psychological problems. Keeping a 1,000-pound animal confined for 23 hours a day, as is common, can inhibit a horse’s normal instincts, resulting in a variety of compulsive behaviors, such as biting, grunting, pacing and self-harm. In testimony to the New York State Senate, equine veterinarian Kraig Kulikowski likened it to locking a 100-pound child in a four-by-12-foot closet for an extended period of time.
Horses that are in peak physical condition can still break down during a race. This can be due to a myriad of reasons, including a lack of training and an over-straining of the muscles that help them run. The high number of horses that die before, during and after a race raises questions about the practice’s safety and ethics.