A Derby for the ages

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

At one point the guy on the pony basically punched the horse in the face to get him away from the pony. That was a really unfortunate moment, much less one to be caught on live television.

And a horse that worked up will leave some people with the belief (mistaken) that the horse was drugged and that's why he was acting so crazy.

It's not really that unusual for a horse to try to savage another horse. Even in mid-race. But when the winning horse kept going at the pony I have no idea why the jackass on the pony didn't just back off and leave the horse by himself. He just made a situation worse.

I don't have any use for the horse racing industry, but I do own horses and handle them every day. I watched the video and I saw nothing cruel or potentially injurious. Certainly, it looks bad, particularly to folks who don't routinely deal with horses. But, I didn't see anything that I would consider abuse

Here is the thing. A horse weights 1200 pounds or more. They can injure a person in a blink of an eye, even when they are just being inattentive. So, you train horses to pay attention to you and take their cues from you. You are the head of the herd and they need to respect that authority.

Add in that we are talking about a stallion (who are recalcitrant just on general principle) that is pumped full of adrenaline after running a race, and I can assure you no good would come from releasing the horse and letting him "work it out on his own." I am reminded of something I heard the natural horsemanship trainer John Lyons say:

"The horse never ever has the right to kick or bite you. Biting is more dangerous than kicking because it is a more aggressive act on the horse’s part. You can’t ever justify that action in your mind.

I don’t want to be bitten. If the horse tries to bite me, I will try to kill him. His act is that dangerous and my rule is that simple. I have three seconds in which to kill this thousand-pound beast. The only limitation I’ll put on the murder is that his head will be off limits. Remember, I don’t want to blind him, I want to kill him. Immediately after I’ve exhausted the three seconds, I’ll pet him to reassure him that I still like him, but he knows that he made a serious mistake that almost cost him his life."

Added in edit: To state the obvious, you can't actually kill a horse with your bare hands. You are also extremely unlikely to injure it. But, they don't know that.