Re: Racing horses and making money....

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-11-27 02:53:54 EST, Tivers@aol.com writes:

<< If we want to avoid all abuse, we should turn the horse back into the
desert
 and forget he exists--let him deal with Nature on his own.  I don't think
that
 would work very well.
  >>

No, it wouldn't--that, too, is a myth.  Horses rapidly overpopulate if not
managed, and there is nothing sadder than coming across a "yard" of horses in
the spring that have died of starvation in the snow, or a group of equine
skeletons with hides stretched taut by a dried-up waterhole in August.  Nope,
I will take sane and humane USE of horses over that alternative ANY time.  As
you pointed out elsewhere in your post, there are abuses in EVERY sport, more
common in some sports than others, but that is not the fault of the SPORT, it
is the fault of particular unscrupulous individuals.  Each sport must do what
it can to go after such people, and I don't know of ANY organized equine sport
that does not have at least SOME self-policing mechanisms in place.  The worst
abuse that I see in my practice is overfeeding and underuse with resultant
obesity, founder, other medical problems, and shortened lifespan.  Yet these
people ALL think they are terrific owners....

Heidi