Race Horse Death Watch

[BornToRide]

In light of the latest tragedy, here's the sad reality of racing listed case by case.............. http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/index.php

[TBCollector]

Just want to warn anyone who may be bothered by it that there is an especially gruesome photo that pops up on the link....

[jolise]

I think I'll mosey over to the sporthorse breeding forum and start a broodmare death watch thread.
And then how about a riding horse death watch thread. And a shipping fever/colic thread for deaths related to the transoport of horses. A neglected horse death watch thread........well, you get the point.

My 14 year old spoiled rotten gelding just fractured his pastern in turnout goofing off. Horsekeeping is not without risk. Be careful how hard you come down on racing, lest the animal rights come after all horse owners for keeping horses in unatural conditions, jumping them , driving them, making them dance, etc.

[ChristieNCritters]

OMG...thanks for the warning!

[Mega Rock]

The website that you link to is British and it is hurdle races and chases.

[gholem]

We should not shy away from collecting this information just because it might make us uncomfortable. It is the best way to fix problems and will help to us to figure out which solutions will actually make a difference.

And while you dismiss such a list for broodmares as being obviously stupid - I imagine it would actually help for broodmares too. It would help focus energy on fixing the issues that cause problems most often or perhaps help even identify patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The reason airplanes are so safe is because every time something goes wrong, an entire investigation is launched, the cause is determined and every effort is made to make sure whatever the problems were never occur again.

[gholem]

The website that you link to is British and it is hurdle races and chases.

There is a link to american fatalities at the bottom...

[Mega Rock]

So were you just going for shock value??? Why not just link to the US fatalities?????We are, after all in the US........... http://scrollsequus.blogspot.com/

[Beverley]

The very inflammatory name of this web site suggested a bias to me when I went surfing recently.

I am all for some GOOD data from reputable sources- and peer reviewed studies.

AAEP's web site listed some of interest to me when I went googling the other day, but one has to be a member to access the full articles.

If anyone has time to look, I'd love to see some educated opinions on which of the following is the best way for a horse to die:

1. Catastrophic breakdown on race track followed by immediate euthanization.
2. Complications of laminitis followed by euthanization after days of hopeful treatment.
3. Euthanization following unsuccessful colic surgery.
4. Being killed and eaten by a mountain lion.

If I were a horse, I'd pick #1, but that's just one amateur's opinion.

[Equilibrium]

We should not shy away from collecting this information just because it might make us uncomfortable. It is the best way to fix problems and will help to us to figure out which solutions will actually make a difference.

And while you dismiss such a list for broodmares as being obviously stupid - I imagine it would actually help for broodmares too. It would help focus energy on fixing the issues that cause problems most often or perhaps help even identify patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The reason airplanes are so safe is because every time something goes wrong, an entire investigation is launched, the cause is determined and every effort is made to make sure whatever the problems were never occur again.


Um, what? A broodmare list. Comparing horses to planes. Are you serious. Leaving racing aside, horses get hurt and horses die doing the simpliest of things such as going out to graze. Mares sometimes die during and after childbirth and believe it or not so do some women.

Terri

[gholem]

I am not comparing horses to airplanes. I am suggesting (some) of the techniques used to ensure the safety of air travel could be applied with positive results here. And to do that would require actual data. These techniques are obviously not exclusive to air safety, it just an example I used because it has far-reaching consequences (ie air travel is extremely safe compared to just about any other mode of transportation).

Humans die far far less often than they used to when giving birth because they did/do keep track of what is killing babies/mothers and then figured how to solve most of the problems. Probably vets have done and already doing this for horses as well. Undoubtedly these records are in no way sensationalized as the OP link, but I was not suggesting they needed to be, only that collecting the information is not a bad thing.

"Mares sometimes die during and after childbirth and believe it or not so do some women. "

Indeed - by understanding WHY they died we might be able to do something about it in the future instead of chalking it all up to bad luck.

[BornToRide]

yes, bad luck indeed :mad: I wish they had similar websites of US race tracks as well

[Lora]

http://scrollsequus.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

[VentDependent]

Humans die less often than we used to when giving birth because Dr Lister discovered ASEPSIS and made his staff on start washing their hands in between patients.

[WhiteCamry]

Humans die less often than we used to when giving birth because Dr Lister discovered ASEPSIS and made his staff on start washing their hands in between patients.

Your point being ... :confused: