Today is Derby Day in Louisville - is anyone making a prediction for the Kentucky Derby?

[Attilatheblond]

33. Here in the Southwest, we see how much more abuse there is that most people are unaware of.

Too many race horses bred, so too many are disposable when they don't show promise early in life. The 'extras' and those who get injured to the point they won't win big pots of money often get sent here (AZ) then shuffled to illegal races here and south of the border. They are abused beyond your worst nightmares, made to run despite crippling pain and injuries.

Daughter did volunteer work for several years at a horse rescue. So many sad tales of horses run until they couldn't walk, turned out in the desert to fend for themselves, starving unless some rescue people and animal control find them and save what ones they can.

Over and over, too many race horses just put out to die alone in the desert. Some of the lucky ones get caught, treated, cared for and sometimes even adopted to be pets. Too often, that is NOT the end result. Too many, weak, injured, left out in the desert to get attacked and killed by coyotes and/or packs of dogs who have also been just left out on the desert.

I have seen photos that would make you sob for a week. I cry again, just remembering. My daughter was holding the head of a once beautiful racehorse as the vets and rescue people worked to save him. Once he was stable, they checked for the tattoo most racers get. He was a brother of the beloved Barbaro, but he didn't chalk up wins in the first two races he was run in, so he was 'sent down' to lesser tracks and eventually left in the desert to starve. Money was raised and care given. He tried, he really did. He had heart and lived for a while, getting the best care volunteers could get him, the love he always deserved for just being a sweet creature. When he finally told his caregivers he was done, so many hearts were broken as he was given freedom from his fight.

And he is not the only one, not by a long shot. It is obscene what happens to the 'extra' race horses who get bred by rich assholes in hopes of getting rich selling them to richer assholes who want glory but never earn it themselves.

Thus it is with too many of the playthings of the ultra rich and bored. They brag about their acquisitions and just abandon the ones who don't bring them the 'glory'. Horse racing is violent and inhumane. And most people don't even know the half of it.