The Power of Patience

This is an essay I did in college. I have worked with horses for years, including racehorses and while none of the horses I worked with were ever treated unfairly, I still held fast to the viewpoint that they are trained much too young. This essay is not a rant against or for horse racing. It is merely my opinion on how one change could perhaps better the industry.

The Thoroughbred Horse Racing industry first became a professional sport in Europe during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (1702-1714) and by the 1750’s the Jockey Club was formed by racing’s elites and rules of racing began to be written. To this day, Thoroughbred horse racing is a very popular sport all across the world that provides gamblers a legal outlet to place wagers. According to an online betting site the estimated “wagers totaled 139.2 million [dollars]” from betting in 2017 (Jones). Not only is this sport attractive to those individuals who enjoy placing wagers, but the purses offered by some of the top tracks in the world provide incentive for breeders to win. Unfortunately with money, often comes greed and Thoroughbred horses can become an occupation and a means of profit to some owners. A Thoroughbred horse, in the racing industry, is only worth the wins it accumulates and because of this, many owners believe in training their foals at eighteen months of age to have them race-ready at two years old. This ensures that the horse can be retired earlier with more racing-starts on its record. It is my argument that racehorses are being trained prematurely and should be given more time to develop before being placed in the stressful racing environment.

Many racehorse owners and trainers might argue with my opinion of starting horses at an older age, but strong evidence to support their arguments is lacking. Some trainers claim that based on the findings of Julius Wolff who stated “that bone grows and remodels in response to the forces that are placed upon it in a healthy person,” that horses who are started at a young age will adapt to the stress put on their bodies (Sears). This belief is widespread in the Thoroughbred racing community where many trainers support racing the horses as two year olds. Based solely on Wolff’s Law, Thoroughbred trainers justify that by training foals correctly they can improve bone density for their careers as racehorses which allows them to race young and “being a champion at 2 is, more often than not, a solid credit toward sire success” which is essentially how racehorse owners profit off these horses (Peters). If a horse can stand up to the pressure and stress of racing at a young age without breaking down, then the chances of them passing on such strength and resilience to their offspring is greater. Many studies have also shown “that Thoroughbred horses beginning their careers… at younger ages were more likely to have longer careers than those starting their careers later in life;” however finding physical evidence for this claim is difficult and the studies that are used as evidence are often only referenced and not made easily accessible (“Racing Start for Two-Year-Old Thoroughbreds Not Detrimental”).

Though Wolff may be correct in his theory that healthy young humans and animals will adapt to the loads placed on them, I would argue that Wolff actually means fully developed animals. An example would be how going to the gym and exercising everyday can increase the amount of muscle a human will develop and therefore the amount of weight they may be able to carry; gradually putting more pressure on a fully developed animal will have the same effect. However it would be unreasonable to bring a child to the gym and expect them to build up to the same regime as an adult. So when is a Thoroughbred horse fully developed? Most horses’ skeletal structure isn’t developed until they are approximately four years old and as Dr. Deb Bennett of the Equine Studies Institute says, working a horse vigorously is acceptable; however “before you can do that without significantly damaging the [horse], you have to wait for him to mature” and Bennett is very clear that it is essential to wait “until [the horse] is four to six years old before asking him to carry you on his back” (Bennett). It is important to understand that some horses can mature faster or slower and be considered mature sooner or later than the acknowledged age of four years old. Racing Thoroughbreds get started their training at eighteen months of age, but horses are considered a colt or filly before they turn four and it’s only after four years old that they can finally be considered a stallion or a mare. The equivalent of this would be having eleven year old children doing the physically demanding tasks of those who are legally considered adults. I myself have a horse who is two years old this year and because I have nothing against starting a horse young if done carefully, my plan was to train her to carry me at a walk around the paddock this year so that she would feel less stressed when I wanted to introduce more intensive riding when she was four, but my filly is not quite as big as her dam and not even close in size to her sire. She still is long and lanky like a baby and is simply not mature enough for me to back her.

So by starting horses, such as my foal, before they are considered mature, what physical risk does it actually carry? Many people insist that because of being started young, horses can develop structural problems in their undeveloped backs and though this is a risk, it is not as highly significant in breeds like Thoroughbreds as is the risk for accidents on the track. According to Daniele Camuffo, the general manager at Kingwood Stud, “a lot of young horses [receive] injuries in the beginning of training” and he admits this is because they are not ready to start such intense training (Camuffo). Because racehorses such as Winx reach top speeds of about 70 kmh, a fall can being very unforgiving. Many racehorses are euthanized every year because they break down on the track and when they lose their footing, ankles and legs often snap under the pressure of their body going at such a speed. Not only does this usually result in the death of the animal, but it can result in injury and even death for the jockey too. Young horses have a higher rate of injury as Camuffo observed and though many trainers want to get their horses out on the track as young as possible, there is evidence to support that starting horses later is by no means detrimental to their racing careers as we have seen in horses such as Zenyatta and Justify. Both horses were started racing later then the typical Thoroughbreds. Though she was started at almost four years old, Zenyatta became the first mare to win the Breeder’s Cup Classic and won nineteen races out of twenty. Justify was started at almost three years old and never lost a race and went on to win the Triple Crown.

Furthermore the effect of age on a Thoroughbred’s racing performance was a study conducted by researchers for the Japanese Society of Equine Science and it was found that four year old horses tested against youngsters actually showed a significant amount of improvement. This is further proven by many famous racers in history improving with age. One example is Seabiscuit whose racing performance showed significant improvement after he turned three. Seabiscuit won seven races out of the thirty-five that he ran as a two-year old and he won eleven out of fifteen races in his three year old career. In another study it was found that “a typical horse will improve by 10 (horse) lengths in sprints... and 15 lengths in routes… from age 2 to 4 ½ [years old]” further proving the fact that age can improve a horse’s ability on the track while also allowing them more time to develop, mature, and train (Gramm & Markensteiner 73). Though many people believe horses degrade with age, there is sufficient evidence for horses racing to older ages who have remained winners into their later years, such as Winx who was retired from racing at nearly eight years of age and had raced forty-three times and won thirty-seven, with thirty-three straight wins. Her only failures happened when she was three years old.

In conclusion, I believe that waiting a few more years to race a horse would be beneficial to the animal and safer for both horse and rider. The only benefit owners see in response to training so young and sending their horses out onto the track is that they’re able to sooner put their horses into a breeding program that accounts for the core percentage of their income. Human and animal health and safety is put at risk because of this and by increasing the racing age by one or two years, there is potential for very few if any negative results for the animal and the jockey. The risk of fewer horse breakdowns on the track could only improve an owner’s income as a dead animal makes less money than a slightly older live animal.

Works Cited:

Bennett, Deb. “Timing and Rate of Skeletal Maturation in Horses.” Equine Studies Institute, 2008, www.equinestudies.org/ranger_2008/ranger_piece_2008_pdf1.pdf. Accessed April 23 2019

Gramm, Marshall, and Ryne Marksteiner. “The Effect of Age on Thoroughbred Racing Performance.” The Japanese Society of Equine Science, 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013968/. Accessed April 23 2019

ITV News. “Is This the Future of Racehorse Training.” YouTube, 12 July 2017, youtu.be/wnC43ee6_QM. Accessed April 23 2019

Jones, Jack. “How Much Money Is Wagered on the Kentucky Derby Each Year?” BetFirm, 1 May 2018, www.betfirm.com/how-much-is-bet-on-the-kentucky-derby/. Accessed April 23 2019

Peters, Anne. “The Importance of Racing at 2.” BloodHorse, 11 Sept. 2015, www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/105235/the-importance-of-racing-at-2. Accessed April 23 2019

“Racing Start for Two-Year-Old Thoroughbreds Not Detrimental.” Phys.org, 5 Apr. 2013, phys.org/news/2013-04-two-year-old-thoroughbreds-detrimental.html. Accessed April 23 2019

Sears, Brett. “The Use of Wolff's Law in Physical Therapy to Heal Broken Bones.” verywellhealth, 30 Mar. 2019, https://www.verywellhealth.com/wolffs-law-in-physical-therapy-2696151. Accessed April 23 2019