training racehorses

Question
I am a children's book author. I would like to know how racehorses are trained to accept the rider. I think I read somewhere that they're trained using sandbags first. Is that true?
Thank you so much.


Answer
Hi Deanie!

The racing industry is cruel.  PLEASE do not encourage, propagate, or misinform children about it.  It is not glamorous or caring.  Most books about racing are pure fiction.  The race industry cares about one thing and that is making money on gambling.  It is no longer about the horse.  The percentage of people that really care about the horse do not last long in the racing industry.

The majority of horses that go to slaughter each and every year in this country are Jockey Club, registered Thoroughbreds.  They go from racing one day and being treated like pampered athletes, to torture, terror and death.  I can't make this pretty for you.  It is NOT the subject for a children's book.  It is the stuff Stephen King should be writing about.

ESPN did a special about race horses a year or so ago.  It is horrible to watch, but you need to watch it.  I couldn't sleep and had night terrors for months.  It is because I am an advocate for the HORSE and truly care about them.  The are majestic, intelligent and just wonderful.  We hide behind cute little stories about racing and glamorize it.  It is not the truth or reality for the horse.  

I have rescued two off the track TB.  I know what I'm talking about.  Because we have closed the majority of US slaughter plants in this country, our race horses go to Mexico and Canada.  In Mexico, they are killed for sport.  Their spinal columns are severed just behind the skull and they are paralyzed, drug into a pile where their terrified eyes dart back and forth while they wait for death.  This is after a grueling, long haul trip in a semi-truck where horses are packed in so tight that legs are broken, they are not fed or watered and many die in route to the kill plants.

Remember, these are the SAME horses that just hours or days before were pampered, groomed, and cared for.  Watch the ESPN special.  You can find it on U-tube.

I donate to several people that do rescue work.  They buy what horses they can and re-home them.  These horses are beautiful, glossy coats in peak physical condition.  They are not sick and ill.  They just can't make money.  

I'm both sorry and glad I could share this with you.  I hope you do more research and find out the awful truth.  The detail will haunt you.  Look up Ferdinande, the Kentucky Derby winner that was shipped to Japan as a breeding stallion, but was slaughtered and eaten.  

If you would like to learn more about horses, how they are started, don't look to the racing industry for ANY good examples!  Learn about horses, how to start them, and educate them in a way that respects the horse.  Don't buy into the Barbaro fantasy.  He broke down because of human greed.  He was drugged and make to run until the small stress fractures that were building and causing him pain, resulted in him snapping his leg off.  

I know this has been blunt.  I owe it to the horses to offer the cold hard truth.

Sincerely,

Denise LaChapelle
Laurel Mountain Farms