Ann Romney = Animal Abuser

[magical thyme]

80. sled dogs occasionally die in the Iditerod

But it is true to their nature, as running is true to horse's natures.

There is a higher rate of injury and unsoundness in American racing than in European or South American, due to our harder track surfaces (designed to increase speed) and heavier racing schedules. That is due to people running them into the ground, and the focus on breaking records instead of winning a race. It wasn't always that way here

Horses also occasionally die in combined training, either missing a jump (the x-country jumps are solid) and have even had heart attacks.

Again, animals can end up abused in any situation. It depends on the individual people involved, not the specific sport or discipline. They can be abused by neglect standing in somebody's back yard.

Horses don't usually die from dressage or dressage competition. Done correctly, they are strengthened and live longer. A correctly trained horse that avoids pasture accidents can be sound well into their 20s.

My elderly gelding had a pasture injury in his late teens. He came back from that to doing lower level dressage and remained sound for that and trail riding into his mid-twenties. He had a catastrophic fall in his barn, just outside his stall, mid-winter in 2011. He came back from that pasture sound, but then got terribly sick and I had to put him down just last February. He would have been 27 in May.

I posted a link to some pictures of him elsewhere in this thread. One shows him doing a canter pirouette while playing in his pasture. He is in upper level carriage, complete with arched neck, hind end fully engaged. This is on his own, and he was doing them in pasture from age 5 on, along with passage, some piaffe steps, flying changes, etc. The close up pictures show a very happy horse who loved his work and his life.