The Sport of Kings

(First published in the Christchurch Press)

'Cup week' often seems to bring out the best in horses and the worst in humans.

The horses are there to run fast and win money for their owners, the TAB and a few punters. They don't know that however. They'll instinctively try to establish contact with, and their position relative to, all the other horses. That 'look at me' factor is aimed at impressing other horses – not humans. Once they're off and running, their primary concern is to stay with the other horses and try not to fall over.

The humans also try very hard both to attract attention and establish their social position. Females tend to demonstrate their rank through the ostentation of their accoutrements, especially headwear. For some, it's lack of accoutrements that is designed to draw attention.

Quite a few, mostly the also-rans in the look-at me-stakes, simply concentrate on getting bladdered and, unlike the horses, frequently fall over.

There's the usual blether in the press about the polished perfection of the equine athletes, the glamour, the fashion and the spectacle. And most people will remain completely oblivious to the nature of the animal at the centre of all the brouhaha, and to the harm we humans do to it in our pursuit of pleasure, profit and prestige.

We've utilised horses in various ways for around 6000 years - in hunting, agriculture, trade, migration and warfare. Our relationship with them is characterised by sentimentality and idealisation at one extreme, and cruelty and exploitation at the other.

These days, in the developed world, the horse is mainly used in sport - the richest part of which is racing. Racing remains the sport of kings and these days, of sultans and sheikhs. Although its popularity as a spectator sport and in gambling is waning, it is still BIG business.

Racing's poorer cousins, show jumping, eventing, dressage, endurance, showing etc are thriving as participation sports. Over the last half century, in the developed world, horse riding has burgeoned as a leisure activity.

A plethora of industries supply commodities and services marketed as essential or helpful to the rider or trainer. Most of it is completely unnecessary, a lot of it is utterly useless and some of it is demonstrably harmful.

Like all domesticated animals, horses aren't born tame. They have to be habituated to accept human contact. We may have selectively bred for temperament as well as physical traits for centuries but the horse's essential nature remains unchanged. Failure to take account of that nature invariably causes harm – to both horse and human - at some point and to some degree.

Equus caballus is herd-dwelling, highly social and hierarchical.It's a prey animal whose primary defence is flight. It has a life span of 30+ years and is not fully physically mature until 4 or 5 years old.

It's a trickle feeder with a small stomach and a long hind gut and an efficient metaboliser of high-fibre forage. It cannot regurgitate food. It spends 16+ hours a day grazing in a head-low posture in which its spinal ligaments are in tension and its muscles relaxed.

Mostly, it sleeps standing up by locking its skeleton in balance, an ability which depends on the correct loading of its joints and tensioning of its spinal ligaments.

Its feet act as auxiliary circulatory pumps and are critical for traction and surefootedness and play an important role in shock absorption.

It has a large body mass relative to its skin surface and has more trouble losing body heat than retaining it. The most nerve-rich parts of its body are the vascular tissue in its feet, its mouth, muzzle and ears, and its sheath or udder.

It can only breathe through its nose. When it runs, it closes its mouth, shuts off its gullet and extends its neck to maximise air intake – hence going 'flat out'.

That, broadly speaking, is the horse. Considering how much of what we do to and with horses goes against its nature, it's amazing that it performs as well as it does and remains so stoical and forgiving.

Every year there are numerous accidents in which horses and riders are seriously injured and sometimes killed. In flat racing alone, a horse is put down on the track every second week. There are no statistics on the numbers that are put down off the track.

Life for jockeys remains both hard and dangerous.

There are accidents in other disciplines as well, but racing is unique among equestrian sports in that race horses start work before they are physically mature i.e. at 2 or even younger.

Most people in the racing industry will vehemently reject the assertions that racehorses are started too young; that they are kept in conditions which create degrees of mental and physical stress; that shoeing reduces traction, surefootedness and shock absorption (among other things), and that bits can cause muscular-skeletal damage and respiratory distress.

The specifics of these questions cannot be addressed in this article, but consider the fact that the longest living horse on record died aged 62; Xenophon spoke of horses living to 50; modern racehorses are considered to be old at 7 or 8. In Germany, a centre of equestrian excellence, the average age at death for a horse is 8 years.

Horses which fail in racing and have no future at stud may find a second career in another discipline, but many, especially ex-harness racers, end up as pet food.

So, the next time you place a bet on a horse race involving 2 and 3 year olds, ask the bookie what odds he'll give on that same horse still being alive and sound in 5 years time.