Animal Aid

In the second section of Riding for a Fall, we look at the impact on the offspring, the hard 'remedies' in use and the role of the Animal Health Trust in the lethal experiments.

The offspring - 'We are ruining the breed'

One top trainer, Ian Balding, summed up the crisis facing the industry when he told Racing Post: 'We get far more injuries than we used to. During the 1970s, as many as 90 to 95% of my two year olds ran at least once in the first season. In the 1980s, it dropped to 75 to 80% and in the 1990s it's dropped to 65 to 70%... The only reason for not running is due to injury.

'These figures tell a depressing tale... Shortage of labour has decreed... horses rarely get ridden for more than an hour. We scarcely do any roadwork with flat horses which is good for strengthening bone and hardening-up tendons and ligaments, because of increased traffic... The fashion now is for speed and more speed. We have gradually lost [the] strength, stamina and durability, temperament, extra bone and courage that those horses have. If we carry on like this, then slowly but surely we are ruining the breed.' (17)

The consequence, according to one expert, has been 'big increases in equine health problems', such as shipping fever. (18) The last 35 years has also seen the spread of infectious, stress-related diseases, such as equine herpes and influenza. Exercise induced bleeding lungs is one more condition that is rife among the Thoroughbred racers. The lung-bleeding phenomenon has been studied by independent animal welfare researcher Dr Tim O'Brien, who notes: 'A Japanese study in the Journal of Comparative Pathology (19) examined racehorses performing low-intensity exercise on a track at running speeds up to 8.5 metres per second, and found that more than three-quarters of the horses suffered haemorrhaging into their lungs. 8.5 metres per second is around 19 miles per hour. In race conditions, horses may frequently be required to achieve speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour.'

Another endemic condition is chronic gastric ulcers. Notes O'Brien: 'A study in Virginia, USA, reported in the Equine Veterinary Journal in 1996 (20) found gastric ulcers in 93% of horses in race training; in horses who had actually raced, the incidence was a staggering 100%. A study from Hong Kong, reported in the same journal, (21) found that the stomach lesions appeared to be chronically progressive during training, but regressed if the horse was retired. This ulceration may be related in part to the high-cereal, high-energy diet given to racehorses - more acidic than the animal's natural pasture-based diet, to which they rarely have free access.'

The yearling sales (for horses aged between one and two) are a vital money market that see the top prospects sell for a good return but thousands of under par horses weeded out and rejected. There are no publicly available statistics to indicate where and how these animals are jettisoned. But seasoned industry watchers, such as Kareena Grey who runs an investigative organisation called Discover Racing Death (KareenaGreyDiscoverRacingDeath@hotmail.com) is convinced that thousands are simply shot and fed to hunting hounds or turned into pet food.

Vanity surgery

There have been many notable changes to the way yearlings are prepared for sale. One is the fashion - more common in the US than Europe - for animals with perceived 'angular limb deformities', such as knock-knees, to be subjected to leg-straightening surgery. Yet recent research by the president-elect of the American Association of Equine Practitioners determined that such interventions could cause serious leg problems. 'We found that a degree of carpal valgus [knock knees] protects a horse from knee injuries. Study findings suggest that 'corrective' surgery may do more harm than good'. (22)

Hard 'remedies' - the drugs, the whip and the lethal experiments

The racing industry has two main remedial approaches to the ailments arising from its patterns of breeding, housing, feeding, training and competition. One comes under the heading of chemical and physical inducements. The other involves lethal experiments on live horses.

Chemical and physical inducements

The first category includes a range of drugs that often mask pain and suppress symptoms of injury. This allows a rapid return to racing but often at the cost of long term damage. One such substance is a powerful steroid called MPA, which is commonly given to young race horses who suffer lameness due to their punishing training regime. Administration is often by injection into the inflamed joints. There is evidence that such steroids weaken the bones and predispose them to fractures.

These substances actually appear on a very long list of drugs banned by the racing authorities in Britain - or rather it is an offence for these substances to be found in the urine of horses when they are tested post-race. Apart from the limited amount of testing that is done, the prohibition does not extend to animals - young or old - while they are training rather than racing.

'Butes', 'milkshakes' and snake venom

In a similar vein and also on the banned-for-racing list, is phenylbutazone (or 'bute'), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is widely used in Britain to treat bone, tendon, joint and muscular injuries. Again, its use masks the pain that is a natural and protective reaction to injury.

Then there is sodium bicarbonate, given two to three hours before a race, via a stomach tube, to delay muscle tiring. Known as a milkshake, it works by increasing blood CO2(23) The extent of their use in Britain is not known.

A Jockey Club-approved 'remedy' for exercise-induced lung bleeding is to dose the victim with rattlesnake venom. (24) The logic behind the alleged cure ... exposed by Kareena Grey - is that, because a bite by a rattlesnake causes massive internal haemorrhaging, a small amount of venom can help build immunity to bleeding.

Then there was the evocative account of whip use given by the owner of a young filly in a letter to Racing Post in the winter of 2002. (25) Wrote Jasmine Chesters of Braunton, North Devon: 'When she came out for her first race this year, the only words I can use are that she was thrashed. Not by other horses but by her jockey. She was hit at least 12 times inside the last furlong and a half and finished third. Her rider was suspended for two days but the harm he did to my horse is incalculable. She has never run the same since. She breaks well but on reaching about the four-furlong pole, when she is nearly always in the first four or five, as soon as she is smacked to push her on, she drops herself out. Her emotions must be in turmoil. She must be expecting to be thrashed again. We have nursed her all season but to no avail. Now I have to make the decision as to what to do with her.'

Lethal experiments on live horses - the role of the Animal Health Trust

There is a less than noble tradition of lethal experiments on horses, designed to yield solutions to the numerous ailments suffered by modern race horses, as well as to increase their efficiency. Notable in this area is the aforementioned Newmarket-based veterinary charity, the Animal Health Trust - subject of three previous major exposes by Animal Aid. A number of the AHT's experiments, which often involve low-value Welsh mountain ponies, have been wholly or partly funded by commercial racing interests. In fact, the AHT jointly established in May 2002 a new company called Equine Genetics Research Ltd (EGR). (26) This is the enterprise, referred to above, that is working on mapping the equine genome in order to eliminate genes that give rise to 'defects'. The AHT's partner, and principal investor in the project, is the British Horseracing Board.

• To study cartilage damage caused by strenuous exercise, 12 young female Thoroughbreds were exercised on treadmills - gently or hard - for 19 weeks, during which time they were kept indoors. All 12 were then killed and their lower legs sawn off for analysis. (AHT) (27)

• Many horses suffering limb pain and swelling are injected with steroids into their inflamed joints rather than being allowed to rest and recover. To test the impact of a commonly-used steroid on bone structure, eight young female horses were injected with the drug 16 times and exercised on a treadmill for 13 weeks. They were then killed.(AHT) (28)

• Eight horses were subjected to large full-skin-depth wounds at the back of both their front legs. Healing took between six and 12 weeks. One leg was treated, the other left untreated. (Jointly by the Universities of Cambridge and Sydney) (29)

• To measure horses' responses to low levels of oxygen, five animals were restrained in stocks for 70 minutes, while breathing through a face mask and simultaneously having their blood sampled and monitored via catheters inserted into their jugular veins and carotid arteries. (Co-funded by the AHT) (30)

• To study the long term effectiveness of influenza vaccines, 30 Welsh mountain ponies were infected with the flu virus - some suffered fever and coughing. (31) And 18 Welsh mountain ponies were infected with EAV (equine arteritis virus). They were kept indoors for a month and studied. The six 'control' ponies suffered severe fever, depression, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis and nasal discharges. (32) (Both AHT)

• 19 mares were subjected to embryo transfer, involving the implantation of Thoroughbred embryos into much smaller ponies and vice versa. Two mares aborted and the foals of two others were stillborn. One pregnant mare was killed when she broke a leg. The Thoroughbred foals who were incubated in ponies suffered muscle wastage and freakishly long and malformed legs and hooves: their ankles were bent right over on the ground. It was claimed that the project would advance understanding of human illness. (14)

• 74 mares were used to find the most efficient way of insemination. It was discovered that valuable sex-selected semen can be made to go a long way by delivering the semen to a particular part of the neck of the uterus. Seven of the mares were shot after insemination and their reproductive tracts removed for study. (13) (Both Univ Cambridge Equine Fertility Unit)

In the third section of Riding for a Fall, we report on the 300 horses raced to death every year and the Grand National race itself, and we describe what happens to the horses once their racing days are over.