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VETERINARY CARE AND WELFARE Q&A
Some frequently asked questions about equine care and welfare
Q: Horse racing is cruel, isn’t it?
- No, racing is not cruel. Those in racing care about horses and provide excellent care. Racecourses and many gallops are open for all to see what goes on.
- Horses are herd animals and galloping alongside one another is a natural thing they do. It is common to see horses continue to race and jump after horse and rider have parted company.
- A person can only ask a horse to participate, he cannot make it race if it does not want to. Some horses, despite being bred and trained to race, are clearly not behaviourally suited to racing.
- Thoroughbred horses are bred and trained specifically for racing; both parents of a racehorse will have commonly raced themselves, as would previous generations. The horses which are most regularly bred from are those which excelled and are well adapted for racing.
Q: How can you justify killing horses for sport?
- We do not kill horses for sport. Fatal injuries in racing do occur and, as in any sport, there is an element of risk for the participants. The British Horseracing Authority seeks to minimise that risk wherever it is possible. About 2 in every thousand runners are fatalities. Flat and All Weather racing accounts for around 0.6 fatalities for every thousand runners. Jump racing accounts for just over 4 fatalities for every thousand runners. However, accidents do still happen and, sadly, horses do sometimes get injured. Read More Information about Injuries and Fatalities
- Horses are like any athlete, they can pick up injuries whilst relaxing, whilst training and competing. Horses incur fatal injuries grazing at grass in the field and they incur fatal injuries while going for a steady canter on exercise.
- We have a good working relationship with animal welfare charities such as the RSPCA, SSPCA and WHW. These organisations, with their expert knowledge and understanding of the issues, support racing and offer constructive criticism, which we welcome.
Q: How old does a horse have to be before it can race?
- It varies depending on the type of race, and is set out in our Rules.
- In summary, for races on the flat no two-year old may run
- before the Flat Season commences in any year
- more than five furlongs before the York May Meeting
- more than six furlongs before the Royal Ascot Meeting
- more than seven furlongs before August 1st
- in a Handicap Race before July 1st
- in a Handicap Race with older horses
- in any Selling Race after having won two such races in Great Britain except when a Selling Race has a Total Prize Fund of £10,000 or more.
There are adjustments for horses born in the southern hemisphere.
- For jump races no horse may run in
- a hurdle race until May 1st of the year in which it is three years old
- a steeple chase until July 1st of the year in which it is four years old
- a Hunters' Steeple Chase until February 1st of the year in which the horse is five years old
- All racehorses are considered to have an age from 1st January each year. Clearly all racehorses are not born on this date, around 2/3 are born between January and April each year.
- For flat racing 5 years of data shows that of the around 3,200 foals born each year that subsequently race, the average interval between foaling and first race is 866 days, and each year around 60 horses (1.9%) race less than 730 days after foaling.
- There is "good evidence that exercise at a young age advances tissue maturity. Adult levels of tissue maturity have been shown to have been attained in horses at an age before two year old racing usually commences."
- Clearly, when starting training any horse, and especially a young horse, care must be taken to monitor the potential for injury, but "data strongly supports the physiologic premise that it is easier for a horse to adapt to training when training begins at the end of skeletal growth. Initiation of training at the end of growth takes advantage of the established blood supply and cell populations that are then converted from growth to the adaptation to training."
Q: How does the Authority take steps to ease pain, suffering, injury and disease
- The rules of racing define the duty of care on trainers and, like all animal keepers, they are subject to the Animal Welfare Act. The trainer and their veterinary surgeon ensure that the horse is fit to race and if it is not, it is not entered; or if problems occur nearer race time, it is withdrawn and the reason given. More information about Veterinary Certificates. This is a regular occurrence, which we report, which shows that trainers take this fitness requirement seriously – there is no benefit in racing an unfit horse.
- The British Horseracing Authority has veterinary officers on duty at every meeting who oversee horse welfare. The Veterinary Officers routinely looks at all horses in the parade ring and have specific protocols for looking at horses before certain races, that have not raced for a period, are of a certain age, or have sustained an on-course injury earlier in their career. A horse may not be fit to race for a range of reasons; if the veterinary officer is not satisfied that a horse is fit to race the trainer will be informed, and the stewards will not allow it to race. This is less common than a withdrawal by a trainer, again showing how seriously trainers take this fitness requirement
- The British Horseracing Authority records and assesses all withdrawals, fallers and racecourse injuries and fatalities via the stewards, the veterinary officers and the Inspectors of Courses who review the facilities for horses and the racing surface at each racecourse. The outcomes of this work are presented at training courses, to racecourses, at conferences and as part of published research.
- Racecourses all have to appoint specialist equine veterinary surgeons and provide horse ambulances to ensure rapid treatment of any horse. There are also suitably equipped veterinary treatment boxes.
- British horseracing has strict anti-doping rules and testing procedures to ensure drugs which may mask injuries or affect performance are not used
- Racing is not complacent, it is recognised that there remains room for improvement. The British horseracing industry continues to support research to reduce injury. Consequently the number of fatalities and injuries has fallen. More Information about Injuries and Fatalities
- The British Horseracing Authority has strict rules to control disease.
Q: Why are so many horses put down after injury. Why can’t they be treated?
- Vets take every opportunity to repair fractures where possible. Some fractures are successfully treated. Danoli and Moorcroft Boy are just two examples of horses which returned to racing after serious injury.
- It is not a question of money, even the richest owners cannot overcome the physical limitation of equine fracture repair. Around 1/3 of fatalities are long bone fractures. Despite veterinary advances there remain huge mechanical difficulties where a repaired bone must be part of the support for half a ton of horse.
- The recuperation of a large four legged animal is a major welfare challenge. Many horses and racehorses in particular, do not adapt well to sustained period of inactivity during convalescence. For example, horses cannot be “put to bed” or have their leg put in a sling. When you or I break a leg there will be a significant period of time following surgery when no weight whatsoever can be put on the fracture, and we only weigh a matter of stones. Most fractures are simply unable to bear the weight of a horse immediately after treatment.
- In addition, the risks of infection following a fall on turf and soil are very high indeed and sometimes no amount of antibiotics can prevent infection spreading and causing irreparable damage. Furthermore, when there is a fracture there is often significant soft tissue damage as well and this can complicate the repairing of an injury.
- When we talk about a horse’s welfare we are talking about the quality of life for a horse, both at the time and in the longer term. In the event of a horse incurring a bad fracture the vet responsible usually has two options; he can either try to treat the injury which can result in a protracted and difficult recovery period with no guarantee of a return to a useful activity or recommend euthanasia to end pain and suffering.
- View an article in The Guardian which discusses in more detail the reason why many horses are put down after serious injury
Q: You say racing isn’t cruel, so why do you allow jockeys to beat horses with the whip?
- The BHA recently carried out a full review of the use of the whip in British Horseracing. Read this review.
- To quote directly from the Instruction on use of the whip: “The Stewards will not tolerate abuse of the horse and consider its welfare, and the safety of the rider to be paramount. The whip should be used for safety, correction and encouragement only…” If used correctly and in the right place the whip can be used to encourage a horse to produce its best. If it is used incorrectly then disciplinary action is taken against the rider.
- Our veterinary officers check the horses as they come off the course, if a horse is found to show any sign of misuse of the whip the jockey will face an enquiry and may be suspended.
- Britain leads the way internationally with restrictions on the use of the whip, and there is no doubt that progress has been made in recent years and that the standard of riding is higher than ever.
- In addition, the British Horseracing Authority has introduced a series of educational initiatives aimed at improving the standard of riding at all levels and encouraging sensible use of the whip from the very beginning of a rider’s career.
Q: What does happen to horses when they stop racing?
- There are many options open to ex-racehorses, some are sold to continue racing abroad in less competitive racing countries, some go point to pointing and some retire for breeding purposes. Others are re-trained for use in other equine disciplines and enjoy life in a different sphere. (ie hunting, exercising, eventing, polo, dressage, showjumping, endurance riding etc.)
- In 2008/9 a study was carried out on the whereabouts of those racehorses which were recorded as leaving training in Britain in 2006 and which have not subsequently re-entered training here. Data from 2006 was chosen on the basis that this combined the merits of relatively recent training data with a time lag sufficient for the whereabouts of most horses to have become evident through future registration requirements. This study showed that racehorses go on to perform a wide range of future roles.
Even so, we have introduced systems to ensure that horses are well cared for after their racing careers are over. Every registered foal now has a microchip implanted under its skin to make it readily identifiable. Over 100,000 horses foaled in Britain and Ireland can now be identified this way, so it is much easier to find out the history of a horse found in need of care and attention.
- Racing has been carefully monitoring the effects of the financial recession that started in late 2008 to see if it has any impact on the welfare of thoroughbred horses. Download the report on monitoring since 2009
- In 2000, the racing industry set up the charity ‘Retraining of Racehorses’. Funding for this comes directly from the racing industry through licence and registration fees and it also receives voluntary donations. The charity has also benefited from a generous donation from the estate of the late Paul Mellon. In addition, we are working to raise the profile of ex-racehorses within the wider equestrian world to advertise their adaptability to other occupations. Extra emergency funding, provided by current racehorse owners through the Racehorse Owners Association, is available if former racehorses are found neglected or abandoned.
Q: Racing is all about money, no one really cares about the horses.
- There is indeed a considerable amount of money and turnover within racing, but that can be misleading as the largest sums involved are usually related to the betting industry. In reality people get involved in horse racing for the love of the horse rather than the lure of money.
- For the vast majority of owners the price of running a racehorse far exceeds the returns. On average an owner can only expect to re-coup about 23% of his outlay, hardly figures to entice the greedy. Whilst many trainers also struggle to make the figures match up.
- Jockeys and stable staff come into the sport to work with horses, any big financial rewards are often a bonus.
Q: Racing does not publish equine fatalities to cover them up.
No, this is not true. The BHA's position on the reporting of casualty information is as follows:
- The BHA places such information in the public domain where appropriate, ensuring personal confidentially and commercial competiveness to encourage reporting from participants.
- It shares anonymous and appropriate data with participants, such a clerks of courses, other racing authorities and research groups, to learn what we can to reduce risks.
- Overall fatality rates from 1994 onwards are published on the BHA website – with corresponding narrative and more detailed reports also published here in cases where there has been particular concern.
- Our database providers, Weatherbys, who are also the official horse passport providers, notifies the National Equine Database with information when all horses are reported dead. Access to this information is free. Weatherbys also updates providers such as the Racing Post and Timeform with the same information, the former provides this date freely, the latter is a subscription service.
- The Authority is thus open about the numbers, and provides notification on all horse deaths from our main databases to providers who make available this information.
- The Authority is not a database publisher so such reports are not available as part of the Authority’s website nor can we provide the private personal information to accurately detail the reason for the death of every thoroughbred.
- Additional reports on breeding, including foal production, are available from Weatherbys, and again the National Equine Database provides horse details.
Q: What is elective euthanasia?
- Elective euthanasia is euthanasia carried out after consultation with the owner or his/her representative on welfare and/or economic grounds of a horse whose injuries do not fulfil the BEVA criteria for immediate humane euthanasia.
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