Horse races are the most exciting spectacles in all of sports. The earth trembles as the thundering hooves of the racers barrel down the stretch. The experience is thrilling, and there are few things more exhilarating than feeling your bets pay off in the final moment. Yet, the equestrian industry isn’t just a sport; it’s also a for-profit business that treats animals as objects of trade. That must change if the sport is to survive in a world that increasingly recognizes the right of all animals to live free from for-profit exploitation.
The earliest horse races were match contests between two or at most three horses. Later, pressure by the public produced events with more runners, and winning became a matter of skill and judgment rather than just a lucky break. A dash was required to win a race, and the riders’ ability to gain a few feet made the difference in many races.
As a result, the industry has become an extremely complex and risky enterprise. It relies on the breeding and training of thousands of horses around the world, with a total prize purse of billions of dollars. Many of these horses are bred and trained in the United States, but racing also takes place at venues around the globe, and its popularity as both a spectator and betting activity has grown rapidly.
This growth is a tribute not just to the appeal of the sport, but also to the enormous investment that goes into making it possible. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each year to train and feed the horses, and billions more is invested in the infrastructure that supports it, including the track, the starting gate, and the horseshoe.
In the wild, horses are herd animals that graze and roam together. On the racetrack, humans perched on their backs compel them with a whip to run at a breakneck speed that, not insignificantly, often causes injuries. Injured horses are urged onwards anyway, in a desperate attempt to stay with their artificial herds. Despite this, horses instinctively understand that self-preservation is the best course of action.
In the crowded, isolated stalls that house race horses, these animals can be subjected to stress and anxiety, and may display negative behavior such as crib-biting (a repetitive behavior in which a horse grasps a fixed object with its front teeth and contracts its neck muscles), or weaving (in which a horse sways on its forelegs shifting its weight from side to side). They are pushed beyond their physical limits and sometimes even killed, if they fail to show signs of progress after a certain amount of time. This is an unnatural, inhumane process that is a far cry from what it would be in the natural environment.