Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
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?
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Good point. I'm only referring to the risks associated with the races themselves, chucks vs single horse race. The races are what people "see" (ie the crashes, euthanasia tarp, etc), and why they get all up in arms. They don't see the 6 year old track horses, who've been fed all manner of steroids throughout their lives, all being sent to the glue factory and the chuck horses being retired to a pasture, you know?
Anyways. I was in attendance for that crash at the centennial stampede and it was very upsetting. Although it was upsetting to be concerned about the horses but I was also pretty terrified that the driver and one of the outriders had been badly injured (which in the end I think they were both fine). But the crash looked really bad for horses and humans alike. Just based on what I witnessed I can understand why some people aren't fans of the chucks, especially if they don't have a good understanding of the care the horses receive and the nice retirements they get, etc.