Chasing Steeples

There has been a lot of media attention to "jump racing" aka steeplechasing in the last few days in Victoria. This has been due to a number of horse deaths during the races. I have for a long time been very anti jump racing, and to a lesser extent racing in general.

I found myself quite immersed in the age discussion page on this topic and some of the reasonings for jump racing were truly appalling.

one person compared jump racing to bull fighting:

“I went to South America in January and saw bull fighting. I have to admit it was great to watch much more exciting then then football. The crowd was great as well so much atmosphere and culture. And that what you have to do when you travel overseas get enriched by the local culture. Thats what multiculturalism is all about.

And the best thing was afterwards they fed the slaughtered bulls to the cities poor. I thought it was very generous and showed strong enviromental standards. If only we recycled as much and avoided so much waste.

Anyway I think there is nothing wrong with jumps racing or bull fighting. Both are great to watch and make good day out with the family.”


Is this person crazy? It's bad enough that this person considers bull fighting a good day out with the family, but that they think its acceptable on the grounds of “multiculturalism” is really quite off. Then using this as a basis for making jump racing acceptable. Further to this, how does anyone ever reach this kind of reasoning? Did they not go to school? Did their parents not teach them about animal cruelty? Do they have no empathy or sympathy for other living beings?

The most trotted out excuse for jump racing was: “it prevents the horse being sent to the knackery, so it gives the horse a purpose and lengthens its life”

who do they think they are kidding? Ex-racehorses have long been sold to riding schools, as pets, as horses for hacking etc etc for as long as I can remember and undoubtedly for a lot longer than that. There is no reason for the horse to be sent to the knackery. In, fact if it wasn’t for the racing industry I seriously doubt there would be such a thing as “the knackery” in the first place. And here’s why:

The knackery only exists because the racing industry has so many cast off horses, and nowhere else to put them that wont cost money.

As a previous horse owner, I can assure you, not a single horse owner like myself would EVER consider sending their horse to the knackery.
My horse had to be put down after breaking a leg (he jumped a fence in the paddock and didn’t quite make it) and there was no way I would have let anyone come and take his body away to be used as any kind of food. He was my best friend. I loved that horse more than anything, and to this day I still miss him and wish he was alive. We even considered spending the 60K it would have cost to have his leg reset, even if it meant we couldn’t ride him. This would have been terribly painful for him though, so I made the choice to not go through with that. Instead we hired a backhoe to come and dig a grave for him.
THAT is what a horse lover does. They don’t send their horse to the knackery.

The third reason people were advocating jump racing was because so many people will lose their livelihood if it is banned. I can understand this reasoning, however I still can’t really make peace with it. Sure, it’s sad that some people will lose their jobs. That sucks for them, but in my mind their job mucking out stables, or wiping down tables at the racetrack isn’t worth a few horses lives. As far as I’m concerned it should be banned immediately and the racing industry held accountable for animal torture. It may not be bear baiting, but it’s a close as it comes in Australia. The people who worked in the industry (not the owners) should be retrenched appropriately and supported until they can find new employment. The racing bosses and horse owners can go bankrupt. Fingers crossed they do.