This undercover video, filmed in 2013 by a PETA
investigator, focuses on the prevalent use of drugs and of other
abuses in horse racing. The investigator worked undercover for
four months.
This 5-year old horse [Nehro] placed second in the
Kentucky Derby in 2011 and continued to race, though conversations
between the investigator and Nehro's entourage state that he peaked
in his third year and should have been retired after that season.
Nehro is shown in the video to have serious foot
problems in both forelimbs that are severe enough to make his
pounding on hard fast tracks excruciatingly painful. In
conversations between the trainer, farrier, exercise rider,
veterinarian, and groom we hear:
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that he has a non-healing quarter crack
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that one forelimb has poor pulse quality
and perfusion, possibly caused by injury and wear and tear; a
compromised blood supply to the hoof's sensitive lamiae is
disastrous for the hoof's proper function
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that he has holes in both soles that are
painful to the touch—"I know the fucker hurts."
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that he has infected "shed" (i.e. with missing
tissue) frogs
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that he has "no feet" (i.e. they are fragile
and sore)
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that he cannot run on paved surfaces
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that his handlers "know he is sore"
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that he has had z-bar shoes to attempt to heal
the foot—but which were torn off in "breezing"—fast workouts to
train for an upcoming race—by Nehro as he ran
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that he has contracted heels
All of these serious injuries and malformations
mean that the young Thoroughbred Nehro, at the end of his
adolescence and on the verge of adulthood, was so injured and
structurally unsound that he was in severe pain and should have been
given strict pasture rest for months—possibly for a year—to permit
the healing of his multiple lamenesses. There is no justification
for running a horse with a quarter crack at all: complete retirement
till full healing has been achieved is essential for the horse's
future. Tracks have hard and concussive surfaces, and horses carry
roughly 2/3 of their weight over their forelimbs: thus, galloping
racehorses weighing 1,000 to 1,200 pounds exert the damaging
pressure of 3,000 pounds per square inch on the forefeet, resulting
in an overwhelming and excruciating force applied to an injured hoof
sole and wall. The fact that he could run at all—even in pain as
evinced by his lameness—raises the possibility that he may have been
nerve-blocked to make his pain more bearable. With or without a
nerve block, running a Thoroughbred in a competitive race with such
severe hoof damage and weakness constitutes an unacceptable risk
from a fall for Nehro, his rider, and other horses running in a
pack, with potentially devastating (even fatal) consequences.
Instead of racing (compelled by the racing
trainer's adage that the horse makes no money standing in his
stall), Nehro should have been retired to a prolonged strict rest,
hydrotherapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS),
thermal treatments, special shoeing, and possibly antibiotics. I do
not believe his frequent "magnetic therapy" had any benefits for
these types of injuries. For his quarter crack, he would have done
better to have been shod with an egg bar shoe (rather than a z-bar
type) with the hoof wall trimmed away from shoe at the crack's
location.
In conclusion, continuing to demand an athletic
performance instead of retiring Nehro as "pasture sound" was cruel
and a common sequel to the initial stresses that the one-and-a-half
year old Thoroughbreds face as they bear a rider's weight and start
their rigorous training with their immature musculoskeletal frames
and their open growth plates. In other competitive equine sports,
athletic training commences a couple of years later, after their
musculoskeletal systems have matured, and does not become rigorous
until the horse is adult. Nehro's agonizing death from colic,
described by a witness, is a distressing end note to a life spent in
chronic pain. Though there is no direct connection between his
chronic lameness and his gut ischemia (lack of blood supply),
extreme pain and stress can have vascular consequences and thus his
painful lameness could have been a contributing factor. In my
opinion, Nehro deserved far better and suffered abuse at the hands
of his owner, trainer, and riders.