by Brenda Nelson

Created on: March 04, 2009   Last Updated: March 17, 2009

The biggest criticism of horse racing is that it is cruel. Naturally everyone has a different interpretation of what cruel is and is not. For some, even the thought of owning horses, and keeping them in stables and corrals is cruel. The fact is every year hundreds of horses will loose their lives as a result of breaking down on the race track. Others will be discarded for being too slow. Statistics vary from country to country, some areas do not even keep records, and of course we seldom hear about those horses who break down in training. Let us learn why some areas have more "accidents" than others.

Location

Horse racing is different world wide. In the United States, and Canada, for example, horses are kept pretty much at one race track for an extended period of time. Only the top horses tour the big races and go from track to track. These race tracks are typically located in urban areas and do not have any pastures, or riding space other than the tract itself, or exercise on the "hot walker". The horses are kept in their stalls for the greater part of the day, I will refer more to this below. In other countries, such as England the horses are kept mostly at home, shipped to race meets which generally are around two weeks long. These tracks are in rural locations allowing areas for riding. If you have attended a race meet in the United Kingdom you will notice right away that the horses are not "ponied" to the starting gate in the manner they are in North America. The riders seem to trust the horses a bit more, an indication that they are ridden more frequently and independent of racing and training. The race tracks themselves are often considered much more "humane" in the UK, being longer, they are often straight, or have varying direction, grassy, and so forth. Whereas the typical North American track is always a counter clockwise oval.

This is not to say that all racing in the United Kingdom is without criticism. National Hunt racing (formerly called Steeplechasing) is very hard on horses and every year several horses lose their lives in this dangerous sport. The risk is so great, that it is usually only geldings who race in these races.

Age

Race horse owners and the industry itself, push to get their horses on the track early. Regardless of actual date of birth, horses in the Northern Hemisphere are considered to have the birth date of January 1st of the year they were born. So if a foal is born in May, it is considered to be the same age as a horse born in

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