Horse Racing has quickly become one of most popular sports to watch in America. Whether or not you have any interest in horses or not, you most likely have seen a horse race. Multiple horses bolt from a gate at extreme speed. They race along the track, neck in neck with other horses. One mishap and the animal and rider can end up beneath the hooves of thousand pound animals galloping forward at such an extreme speed that can easily kill a rider and horse as well. However, it is not only the extreme speeds and close quarters that cause pain to the horses. Unfortunately, many of these horses are pumped on drugs, abused on and off the track, run into the ground, and slaughtered after the races- which is extremely repulsive and lowers my hopes for humanity. 

What most people don’t know about race horses is that they are injected with many chemicals in order for the animal to produce more adrenaline and other hormones that can cause them to run faster. The horses that are victims of these drugs are running on steroids, which can be detrimental to their health. Most horses injected have scars on their legs from the injections. This alone is proof of the pain, as nothing leaves scars without inflicting pain on any living thing. In the image I have pasted above (from a Peta investigation) it shows the “pain face” that a horse will often give when pain is taking place. It includes lowered ears (which you can not tell from the image) as well as facial muscle tension which is clearly shown, a scrunched muzzle, contraction of the eye muscles, and overall a lot of tension in the facial muscles. Although most people stereotype that this only happens in lower level racing, illegal drug tests taken from Saratoga race track have returned positive. These animals are constantly put through a cycle of injections that have become routine. This pain that they introduce to these animals is all for the glory of the win, and is most definitely not worth it.

Race horses also experience extreme cases of abuse on and off the track, such as electric shock pulses being used on the horse during a race in order to get bursts of speed. Although these shocks are illegal to use, they are still being used despite the act to end it. The shocks are similar to  “cattle prods” . However, in horse racing, most jockeys don’t bother to even use it “properly”, which makes the end result of the shock much worse when they are being used incorrectly. The punishment for using this device can result in arrest, however, it still does happen, especially in lower level racing. To add, whips are also used to strike the horse’s flank in order to encourage speed. Horse’s’ skin is incredibly thin, thinner than ours even, and the whips cause severe pain to the animal. That being said, abuse can also occur off the track through the extreme amount of drugs these animals consume. Also, the animals are forced to continue to run on hooves that have been shortened from how much they have run, proving that this is indeed unnatural. Racehorses hooves are also extremely short from being over ridden to the point where you’re not even able to feel a pulse. A horse by the name of Nehro died from colicing, which is a disease caused by the extreme circumstances this horse suffered.

 

Lastly, horses that come off the track from injuries are often slaughtered. Once they have supplied their speed to their money thirsty owners they are considered worthless. The treatment they were forced to endure during their running days continues onwards on their trip to slaughter. Instead of giving these horses second chances, they kill them. These people couldn’t care less where the horse goes as long as they got their money’s worth. The horse racing industry is a cold, and dark place which is often overlooked.

Overall, the truth behind horse racing is that these animals are mistreated. Before you turn on your TV to watch horses gallop around a track with whips being slapped against their sides, rethink horse racing. It isn’t as glamorous and glorious as often clueless people think it is.

Learn more about helping race horses here:

~Samantha