RE: [RC] [RC] Ho Boy! Here comes PeTA! - D'Arcy L. Demianoff-Thompson
The fact of the matter is that the
licensing requirement for owners/trainers/jockeys is already in place.
Grooms/stall cleaners are also required to have a license. Personally,
I find it far more important for the Groom Staff to know all about the anatomy
of a horse. Why? Because they spend a greater amount of time with
the horse at the track. I don’t want a stall cleaner knocking my
horse around and creating the start of an injury that is further exasperated
by training. Because the licensing structure is already in place - licensing
could be implemented to articulate certain course levels that must be completed
– prior to licensing.
If anyone has gotten an owners/trainers
license at any track in the US,
I was licensed in CA and DE last year, Keith in CA, DE, and TX up until this
year (no one on the track right now). It is a grueling process. And
those racing secretaries don’t back down for anything when it comes to
getting the necessary paperwork and finger prints in!
Do I ‘trust’ the governing
bodies, as a whole, absolutely not! Look what just happened in NY with
the Chairman of the Racing Board! Point here is there has to be a
starting point. I’d feel a whole lot happier if my horses are with
a trainer, at the track, that has a clue about anatomy! Which, my
trainer, Lynn Ashby, absolute does!
As far as a horse being ‘powerful
enough to break themselves down’ – the point is not to have them
break down! They can be as powerful as they want. Doesn’t
amount to a hill of beans if their bodies are massive and their legs are
spindles!
The entire point is to focus attention and
support onto the breeding practices. Insure the issues of bone density
are addressed and then go to training methods, practices and procedures. Is
it realistic to think that we can ‘insure’ there is a governing
body in place, and monitoring, and implementing procedure – no!
However, the public opinion polls are better handled when ‘they’
think something is in place! It is up to the rest of us who are one on
one with the horses to insure we are doing right, at all times, in the best
interest of the horse, to preserve and protect!
