Ain't it AWFUL

[Bast]

http://www.horsefund.org/horse-racing-breeding-for-trouble-part-1.php

And if Eight Belles was DOOMED by her pedigree, surely her half-brother Escape Route would share her fate, being far more inbred:

http://www.pedigreequery.com/escape+route3

He's a year older than Eight Belles, and he's still racing.

[Linda_d]

This organization sounds like PETA's Equine Division.

Whoever wrote the web page, such as it was, also seems to have been influenced by an individual who frequently posts on this MB. Instead of Phalaris being the ancestor of doom, however, it's Native Dancer.

[Crystal]

a researcher who posts "relentless inbreeding at the hands of unscrupulous breeders has created inherent weaknesses in the bloodlines that have led to dangerous flaws in physical conformation."

Sounds like a "a thoroughbred breeding consultant and analyst in Kentucky" who can't get work..

"The 1970’s and 80’s proved to unearth the establishment of large partnership groups that would control the major proportion of breeding and Thoroughbred ownership on a global basis."

To me this sounds like a breeder whos' lack luster mare was edged out from time to time because someone with more money got their spot in line. "Damn the man! Save the Empire!"


"With such autonomy and wealth-infused empires governing the racing industry therein lies the inevitable; an influence so formidable that there are few counteractive forces to prevent the disquieting proliferation of an ever-growing narrow gene pool. The control of the most sought after stallions and the financial capacity to outbid anyone but each other lends itself to indeterminate, yet measured compromise of the genetic pool of the modern Thoroughbred."

I fail to see the comparrison between wealth and inbreeding (of horses).. Are you saying the more wealthy individuals in this business want to inbreed horses and break them down?

Also beside supporting a stallion with ones own mares, no one is forcing a mare owner to sign a contract and breed his/her mare to a stallion with however many crosses of Ph- I mean Raise A Native.. Breeders are not clueless when it comes to breeding their horses. If this is such a MONEY driven business that is beyond repair than go breed flowers. It's called gambling for a reason.


And the most interesting statement from Mrs. Parker..

" Unfortunately this would require the Jockey Club stud books to “open” to allow these sturdier horses in. "

I'm speechless by this statement. Are the sturdier horses not allowed JC Registration? Or do you mean by "Sturdier" horses cross breeding with a different breed? Like the such of a draft horse? How are tracks going to condition between a TB race, and a TB cross race? Are we to hold a Non-TB Triple Crown? Would this be Triple Crown 3.5?

[Bast]

And the most interesting statement from Mrs. Parker..

" Unfortunately this would require the Jockey Club stud books to “open” to allow these sturdier horses in. "

I'm speechless by this statement. Are the sturdier horses not allowed JC Registration? Or do you mean by "Sturdier" horses cross breeding with a different breed? Like the such of a draft horse? How are tracks going to condition between a TB race, and a TB cross race? Are we to hold a Non-TB Triple Crown? Would this be Triple Crown 3.5?

I found this a jaw-dropping example in the genre of Greedy Owners and Breeders are Creating Cripples Consciously genre.

I have NO idea what the author means by allowing "sturdier" horses into the stud book. The Arabian people blather about having sounder horses, but I owned Arabian racehorses, and know perfectly well there are Arabs that would never handle a trail ride--a lot of them have very bad legs. Pretty heads, but very bad legs. (Mine had pretty heads and looked like miniature TBs past the head.)

[Crystal]

I just found the whole article and website that published it to be garbage. Whoever watches a sport like racing and "hopes" a horse doesn't break down is as stupid as the statement sounds.. Of course no one wants to see a horse break down. However if the article is based on the "greed" of the sport particularly from breeders then why go to the event in question. Why even go to any race, never mind the derby and patronage the sport.

[CosMos]

The full article that Ellen Parker wwrote is here...
http://www.reines-de-course.com/breeding.htm

[Bast]

Eight Belles was the first fatality, equine or human, in the history of the Kentucky Derby. The media hysterics ignore this truth.

[Crystal]

"It was suggested Mrs. Parkers article be submitted for an eclipse award.." that intro was written by Ron Parker. Good forhim supporting his wife, because it must be so much fun hearing the same line over and over again about how she saw the death of Eight Belles coming..

"GREED" is being point at Coolmore/Darley by Mrs. Parker as she wants to blame them for deterioating "our" TB gene pool with Northern Dancer blood.

"And woe is the poor breeder who does his homework and goes to farm after farm looking for a nice physical match for his mare, only to discover that the ‘perfect’ stallion had surgical intervention to fix this problem or that before he ran. Surgery used to be rather obvious, but due to newer arthroscopic techniques, little ‘tweaks’ are no longer so easily spotted. So if the mare happens to have the same problem that the sire had ‘fixed’, the breeder ends up with a crooked foal and isn’t sure if it’s entirely his mare’s fault or not. Some major breeders have even suggested that it be stamped on a horse’s papers if he had periosteal stripping or other such ‘work’, but commercial breeders kept that from happening"

Woe is the poor breeder who hasnt asked the stallion farm or done his research about a stallion to see if he had any injuries. Ask and 99% of people would tell you. But really, how often has anyone gone and looked or asked for a stallions papers? I have done the booking for 9 different stallions and no one has ever even asked a question regarding any work done. Please lady..

I also have an issue with some of her solutions. As I mentioned the crossing of TB with other breeds is doing nothing more than creating problems.

The idea of a "National Stud" is also something I am not in favor of. "A national stud with a variety of sire lines.." That is called a "STALLION FARM".If stud one isnt going to work out well for your mare, you move to stud two..

"Stud Fees in Reverse" -We'll pay you to let us inpregnate your mare from this bloodline.. Brilliant and with a foal share deal why doesn't the stud farm pay the expenses on the foal too, perhaps even buy it at auction and race it with your name as breeder and owner. #winning!

As I have said before, only fools pay advertised stud fees and a nick rating can be one of the most powerful tools a breeder has to negotiate with a stallion farm.

[Bast]

"It was suggested Mrs. Parkers article be submitted for an eclipse award.." that intro was written by Ron Parker. Good forhim supporting his wife, because it must be so much fun hearing the same line over and over again about how she saw the death of Eight Belles coming..

"GREED" is being point at Coolmore/Darley by Mrs. Parker as she wants to blame them for deterioating "our" TB gene pool with Northern Dancer blood.

"And woe is the poor breeder who does his homework and goes to farm after farm looking for a nice physical match for his mare, only to discover that the ‘perfect’ stallion had surgical intervention to fix this problem or that before he ran. Surgery used to be rather obvious, but due to newer arthroscopic techniques, little ‘tweaks’ are no longer so easily spotted. So if the mare happens to have the same problem that the sire had ‘fixed’, the breeder ends up with a crooked foal and isn’t sure if it’s entirely his mare’s fault or not. Some major breeders have even suggested that it be stamped on a horse’s papers if he had periosteal stripping or other such ‘work’, but commercial breeders kept that from happening"

Woe is the poor breeder who hasnt asked the stallion farm or done his research about a stallion to see if he had any injuries. Ask and 99% of people would tell you. But really, how often has anyone gone and looked or asked for a stallions papers? I have done the booking for 9 different stallions and no one has ever even asked a question regarding any work done. Please lady..

I also have an issue with some of her solutions. As I mentioned the crossing of TB with other breeds is doing nothing more than creating problems.

The idea of a "National Stud" is also something I am not in favor of. "A national stud with a variety of sire lines.." That is called a "STALLION FARM".If stud one isnt going to work out well for your mare, you move to stud two..

"Stud Fees in Reverse" -We'll pay you to let us inpregnate your mare from this bloodline.. Brilliant and with a foal share deal why doesn't the stud farm pay the expenses on the foal too, perhaps even buy it at auction and race it with your name as breeder and owner. #winning!

As I have said before, only fools pay advertised stud fees and a nick rating can be one of the most powerful tools a breeder has to negotiate with a stallion farm.

Claiming that the bloodlines are the problem when the same lines run without pharmaceuticals overseas and run soundly ignores two damning aspects of the problem with apparent "fragility"--undertrained horses and permissive "medication".

[Linda_d]

I agree with Bast that these very same lines run outside the US and do just fine, so it's NOT having a couple of crosses to Native Dancer or Northern Dancer 5 generations back in a pedigree that's the problem.

What puzzles me is why a pedigree analyst who made her reputation emphasizing the importance of great broodmares carries on with what borders on hysteria about the diminishing of sire lines? Since all Thoroughbreds supposedly trace tail-male to just three 17-18th century sires and fewer than 100 mares -- and have for a long, long time -- the breed has been "inbred" for almost 2 centuries. The female side of TB pedigrees has always been the conduit for genetic diversity, and especially for the blood (genes) of sires that were primarily noted as sires of broodmares rather than sires of sires.

[Pan Zareta]

What puzzles me is why a pedigree analyst who made her reputation emphasizing the importance of great broodmares carries on with what borders on hysteria about the diminishing of sire lines?

EP's melodramatic mix of fact and opinion aside, to some extent diminishing sire lines does correlate with increased inbreeding. A report published earlier this month indicates, based on evidence from the molecular level rather than pedigree analysis, that the TB has become significantly more inbred over the last 50 years. The authors don't leap to conclusions, nor does the data justify any, regarding soundness. But they clearly suspect the greater inbreeding is due in part to larger stallion books and shuttling and that it may be contributing to increased pregnancy loss.

[Linda_d]

What puzzles me is why a pedigree analyst who made her reputation emphasizing the importance of great broodmares carries on with what borders on hysteria about the diminishing of sire lines?

EP's melodramatic mix of fact and opinion aside, to some extent diminishing sire lines does correlate with increased inbreeding. A report published earlier this month indicates, based on evidence from the molecular level rather than pedigree analysis, that the TB has become significantly more inbred over the last 50 years. The authors don't leap to conclusions, nor does the data justify any, regarding soundness. But they clearly suspect the greater inbreeding is due in part to larger stallion books and shuttling and that it may be contributing to increased pregnancy loss.

That's evidence that can be substantiated, and I'll buy that. I also think the authors' suspicions are probably correct, too. When a stallion's book was "full" at 35 mares, it took 3 times more stallions to produce 1,000 foals than it does when a stallion serves a 100 mares or more. That also means there are also more sons and daughters of popular sires available to regional breeding programs than there were 50-60 years ago.

[Joltman]

Eight Belles was the first fatality, equine or human, in the history of the Kentucky Derby. The media hysterics ignore this truth.

I would be curious about a comparison with other major sports, in terms of serious injury and death vs the number of contests, spectators, etc.. Auto racing has seen it's tragedy this year despite the mechanical protections afforded. We enjoy the Sunday afternoon collisions in football without a second thought to that player (human being) who had his 'bell rung', and may experience early onset of disease, and just as bad or maybe worse, the offensive linemen who, in order to be competitive, must go to 350 pounds, and whose life expectancy is somewhere south of 60. High school football players die. I have a guy in my church who was a promising linebacker in college til injured and may have spinal issues the rest of his life. Somewhere I read that the greatest single cause of emergency room limb injuries is youth soccer. If you parallel human athletics you see certain parallels - drugs, larger size, intensive training regimens, etc. just to be competitive, often to the detriment of the athlete.

Equine Breeding practices may indeed help or hinder the process, but certainly not assure injury nor prevent it.

Sport brings the risk of injury, sometimes catastrophic injury and death.

jm

[xfactor fan]

And you didn't mention Boxing. Where the point of the sport is to beat your opponent senseless. Can we say head injury?

[casallc]

This organization sounds like PETA's Equine Division.

Whoever wrote the web page, such as it was, also seems to have been influenced by an individual who frequently posts on this MB. Instead of Phalaris being the ancestor of doom, however, it's Native Dancer.

Vivian Grant DVM (the head of the orginization) is a radical vegan nut, like PETA and is a critic of horse racing in any venue. Although she is a veterinarian there is no evidence she has ever practiced as an equine veterinarian. From their web site:

"The Int’l Fund for Horses advocates for equines because that is our specialist knowledge.

However, imagine no animals were used, for any purpose, not for their meat, not for their excretions, not for their skins.

For horses, that would mean no slaughter; no mares milked for their urine to make drugs, their foals killed by the thousands; no pony skins used for home decoration or horse hair adorning high end athletic shoes and high profile celebrity handbags; no breeding organizations clamoring for more slaughterhouses; and no cattle lobby fighting for the removal of wild horses and burros from public lands. These are just a few examples, and big ones, that concern only equines.

Now imagine every time you sit down to a meal you can help bring this and much more to an end, not just for horses, but for all animals.

Eliminating demand for animal products is the most effective way to eliminate animal exploitation, suffering and death in a way no amount of regulation and legislation can ever achieve.

The Int’l Fund for Horses invites you to advocate from your plate, not just for horses, but all animals, by going Vegan.

Embracing a Vegan lifestyle is the most important step you can take toward protecting animals in a peaceful, non-violent way. It is also fun, delicious, fulfilling and gives you a great sense of purpose.

Every sentient being has the right not to be treated as property and used as a commodity. Enlighten your life and the lives of others by becoming an agent of change for them and for us by going Vegan".
https://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/adv ... our-plate/