A horse race is a chaotic dance of horses and riders competing for a few inches of space. It’s a dangerous, exhausting sport that results in many deaths each year, and the most common cause of death is exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. Injuries are another serious threat, as is a condition called laminitis, in which the hooves of the horses deteriorate. The industry exploits these vulnerable animals and treats them like a mere commodity. If you love horses, don’t support this exploitative system by betting on horse races. Instead, wager on a football match or any other sport where the participants are willing athletes rather than mistreated animals.
In the wild, horses naturally run fast and joyfully. But winning a horse race requires human intervention, and most racing horses are pushed beyond their limits by a combination of illegal and legal drugs that mask pain and enhance performance. Many die as a result, including the 11 that died in a single race at Saratoga last summer.
Horses are also injected with corticosteroids to help them handle the pounding on their fetlock joints. This is a very dangerous practice, as it masks pain and allows injured horses to continue running until they break down.
These drugs are a major reason why horse racing is often considered an unsportsmanlike activity. The use of illegal drugs is a huge problem, but many trainers also overuse legal steroids to mask pain and encourage at-risk thoroughbreds to run until they break down.
During a race, a jockey must make dozens of decisions to maneuver the horse and avoid collisions. He must also manage the horse’s heart rate, which can increase tenfold from 25 beats per minute to an excessive 250 beats per minute during a race. These high rates of heartbeat can lead to collapse, a fatal condition known as cardiac arrest.
A jockey must also monitor the horse’s hydration and nutrition. Some horses are starved in order to lose weight before a race, while others are given supplementary feeding after a race to keep them in peak condition. Injuries are also common, with the most common being fetlock fractures, a condition in which the cartilage at the top of the knee turns to bone.
A jockey must also know how to read the “condition book,” a schedule of races that determines the training regimen for each horse. He must also pay attention to the track surface and weather conditions, which can impact the pace of a race. He must be familiar with a wide range of terms, such as “bad trip,” in which the horse encountered unusual difficulty, or “good trip,” when it had an easy ride. Other terms include calk (a projection that looks like a cleat on the back shoes of a horse to prevent slipping on a wet track), closed knees, cow hocks and cracked hooves. A jockey must also be able to read the expression on the face of his rider to see whether the horse is happy, angry or nervous.