The point of the chuckwagons is the skill of the driver combined with the athleticism and training of the horses. There's no doubt its dangerous to the horses moreso than the drivers by a large margin, but at least the intent is there to display the horses as athletes not just prey-- and those horses get the best treatment and training possible before they rise to the level where they are entered into a major race like the Calgary Stampede.
I'm not taking a hard stand here, but if we're going to say no chuckwagon races in favour of the welfare of horses, to be consistent we have to look also at the welfare of the animals we eat whose lives are brutal compared to the life of a racing horse. Cows, pigs, chickens, and everything else. Those slaughterhouses are brutal.
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