by Brenda Nelson

Created on: April 15, 2009   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

A person might enjoy watching a sport, or even betting on such a sport, but they should still be able to recognize that the sport involves an aspect of cruelty to the animal involved. National Hunt Racing is certainly a dangerous and cruel sport, so much so that it is losing popularity in many parts of the world.

National Hunt racing is the form of horse racing that originated in Ireland, where by the horses not only race at top speed, but also have to clear a number of obstacles. This sport was formerly known as "Steeplechasing", and even the horse owners know it to be so risky that they never race their valuable breeding horses in such races. Most of the horses who race in National Hunt races are geldings, horses of no breeding value. Many end their carriers on the track.

Flat racing in itself is dangerous and puts horses at risk of life threatening injury. In many cases there is a certain number of horses crippled in training who will never see the track itself. Add a few obstacles, including ditches, a longer distance, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Horses like to run, there is no doubt about that, but you will not see horses running in the field at break neck speeds just for fun, so the argument that the horses enjoy it is moot. Horses in the pasture frolic and are more likely to trot or canter for fun, than run flat out. They certainly do not jump four and a half foot high fences just for fun either.

One of the most notoriously deadly races is the Grand National, a race over four and a half miles, with thirty fences, none less than four and a half feet in height. In one-hundred-sixty-two race, no fewer than fifty eight horses have died during the race, four of them in the same 1954 race. There are no statistics on how many injured horses were destroyed following races.

Sometimes so many injuries occur in a race that a horse in last place passes all early leaders and goes on to win. This is not a sport. This is cruelty, forcing animals to risk their lives for our enjoyment, and profit.

It can be argued that it is impossible for a small person to force a horse to do anything it does not want to do. This is incorrect. It is well known that humans have created training methods that manipulate animals to do their bidding. The horse merely reacts in a way we have trained it to. They respond by moving forward to avoid the whip. They turn in response to the pencil thin, knife edged bit, in their mouth. They run because we pump them up with oats and high energy feed, and keep them stabled 23 hours in a day.

Cruelty can be defined as something that causes physically or mental pain to a person or animal without a legitimate purpose. What purpose of potentially watching a horse jump over a five foot fence only to fall into a two foot deep ditch serve anyone?

No question about it, National Hunt Horse Racing is cruel.

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