Monday, May 05, 2008
Eight Belles' Genetic Make-up
According to Washington Post reporter Andrew Breyer, Eight Belles' life-ending accident after Saturday's Kentucky Derby can be blamed on problems associated with breeding. It seems that horse breeders are less likely to breed horses to race them themselves; they now breed horses to sell them, which means they are more interested in a "perfect" horse and less interested in one that can weather the physical demands of horse racing.
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4 comments:
That's a really interesting point, especially in relation to your comment in my post about people playing God by breeding faster/stronger/better animals. With this added information, we've got a God with no conscience. Great...
I've been thinking a lot about the other comments to the original post, and it just seems best to continue the conversation here. Euthanizing aside, the comparisons to young athletes and those who participate in dangerous sports are interesting. But for me, the idea of not just decision making ability, but voice--and continuing choice--is the key point.
P-duck's statement that the horses do love to race is persuasive. In fact, it's what allowed me to watch the Derby every year. But even very young student athletes have some level of agency, agency that allows them to choose whether or not to play in every game or competition. They also have the ability to clearly voice concerns, pains, etc. And while a trainer and his/her horse are arguably in communication with each other, the language barrier makes that communication even more flawed than it is between humans.
I just keep getting hung up there.
After 20 something years of working with horses, I still can't decide where I stand on the topic of racing. However, I can attest from experience that a 1500+lb thoroughbred does have a degree of agency. If they don't want to run, they won't. If they want to run(and you don't), they will. If they want you off their back, you're gone.
In Xenophon's *On Horsemanship* (350BC) he aptly wrote: "anything forced and misunderstood can never be beautiful." My horse trainer taught by this principle.
As Megsg-h noted, communication is the key between horse and rider. There are some excellent trainers out there (Barbaro's trainer, Michael Matz is one I've followed for years, and had the pleasure to see in the show jumping arena on several occasions) who are incredibly in tune with their equine partners. However, as has been noted on the other thread, other owner/trainer/jockey combos are focused on the prize, rather than on the joy of having a 1500lb beautiful animal trust and listen to you.
I completely agree that there is some degree of agency on the part of the animal, at least in terms of whether or not the horse will race at any given time. I haven't seen horses refuse to race, but I have seen horse refuse to be harnessed and refuse to pull carriages. As p-duck points out, if a 1500 plus pound animal doesn't want to do something a human isn't going to have much luck coercing it.
I am really beginning to think that money (big surprise there) has corrupted the sport. As long as the prices of horses go up, many breeders will continue to focus on making faster horses, and if I've learned anything about horses from all of these discussions, it is that faster horses don't necessarily equal stronger horses.
P-duck you make a really good point about agency, and I'm especially interested in your perspective because of your lifelong experience.
To be devil's advocate, though, couldn't one compare horses being inclined to race and pitbulls being inclined to fight? It's a lot easier to say that dogfighting is heinous because the dogfights are so violent and death is much, much more common. But the fights are instigated, just as the races are. So humans are still compelling the agency of animals.
Just a thought to take us in a different direction...
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