Quote:
Originally Posted by Peanut
The chucks does seem riskier than just generic track racing for horses, mostly due to the fact they are harnessed together, so if one goes down, they're all going down.
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No. You're 100% mistaken. The average generic race track horse is sent to the slaughterhouse around 6 years old. Certain lucky ones go on to become chuckwagon horses who can live past 20.
In a nice ideal world every race horse would retire to pasture to live peaceful for the rest of their lives, or maybe not be subjected to racing in the first place. That's obviously not the case, they get injured, old and used and are done and sent for a couple dollars to be shot in the head and ground up for dog food. The chuckwagons save the lives, at least unfortunately temporarily, of these generic race horses and provide an opportunity that very few race horses get to see old (and middle) age.
Of course an even better life would be just kept safely as a pet but financial that's impossible.
I think for the most part people are just misinformed and think the majority of these horses are bred from the beginning to be chuckwagon horses or are auctioned off where the options are being sent to the stud farm to be jerked off for the rest of their lives or be savagely killed in the chuckwagons. If that was the case I could see the argument, but it's not. And I know some people hold the view that it would be better to be dead than a chuckwagon horse. But I've been around these horses. I'm not a horse whisperer but they seem happy and well taken care of. If a couple accidents a year kill a dozen, while unfortunate, isn't it better than just killing them all?