by Ashley Smith

Created on: March 14, 2009

There will always be criticisms of horse racing and any other sports or activities involving animals. The animals in any sport where there is risk will have sympathy from many parts but they will also be checked on by these same groups when involved in their sports.Horses involved in racing have checks by vets regularly,they are checked when they race and if they don't race to their potential they are checked on again.Tragically horses do die in races from their injuries but this happens outside of racing as well.Perhaps some of the problem is the announcement that a horse who has broken a leg is put down,many people not understanding why this happens.Simply a horse cant stand with a broken leg and cant be supported in a sling for the time it will take for the break to heal.

There are certain races that attract the most criticism, the British institution ;the grand national.The race is over four miles long and involves some of the biggest and hardest jumps around,horses die taking part or from injuries most years.The race is also the biggest around because of the excitement and the difficulty involved.The race takes millions of pounds in bets and the horses become part of the spectacle.

The horses are trained hard and long for all the races they take part in and especially for the bigger races,Many horses become worth many thousands of pounds,some even millions so they are worth looking after. The owners want their horses to win,the trainers want to look after the horses and the jockeys want to win so many horses are looked after well.There are some cases of cruelty but very few,if a half ton horse doesn't want to run then an eight stone jockey wont make any difference.Many horses will refuse to run if they don't want to or will run badly despite the jockeys best efforts,in the same way no matter how well they are trained the horses that win are the ones that want to.

Their is cruelty in unregulated sports and some exist where there is regulation but in the majority of cases horse racing is safe and well run.There are rules that have to be obeyed and there are cameras everywhere,no sport is perfect but horse racing does its best.Those who break the rules are penalised heavily,band and fines often given for the smallest break of the smallest rule.

Its not perfect but no sport is,theire is contoversey in every sport but racing is trying to be as clean and as safe as it can be,

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