Horse Racing Preconceived Notions: Weight

My fiancé and I looked at a horse at the track for someone that was interested in it for eventing. This mare was actually in the same barn as us, so we already knew some about her. She was really thin and needed some serious work in the hind end. Other than that, I really liked her. She was as sweet as can be, tall, clean legged, pretty, and smart. On top of that, she was well bred and would be worth at least as much as a broodmare. If she didn't work out as an eventer, she would still be marketable. The lady bought her.

I was looking through Facebook one day and happened to see that the lady who bought her posted pictures the day that the mare arrived (the new owner had tagged a couple of mutual friends in the pics, I wasn't stalking). She looked extremely thin and her previously shiny coat was all puffed up (she'd just left 75° weather to go to 30° weather) from the cold. Plus she had just taken a very long trailer ride that had sucked her down even thinner. In short, the mare looked like shit.

Not the horse she bought. All of these pictures are of horses that are or are close to the weight and condition that we typically want. This guy is bordering on being just a bit too heavy.

I'm not blaming the new owner for posting the pictures. It's a new horse, she probably was a little shocked by her weight, and she probably wanted to track the horse's progress. I would have done the same.

What bothered me were the comments, not only in just the first post of her, but in the ones that followed too (again not stalking, friends were tagged in them). People were saying that the mare just needed groceries and some TLC, that she must think she died and went to heaven. They assumed that she had been neglected. I know it's an easy conclusion to jump to, but they are so far off that it isn't funny. None of them saw what her life was like at the track, but I did.

This mare started her career in a very good barn. Seriously, almost all of this guy's horses look absolutely phenomenal and are the ideal of what a fit and healthy racehorse should look like. They are fed extremely well. This mare was an exception to the rule when it came to weight and muscle. While I'm sure that she was fed and trained just as well as the rest, I never would have guessed that she could have come from that barn if someone hadn't told me. When the next trainer bought her she was already thin.

The next trainer is an old man, the mare his only horse. He spent a ton of time grooming and petting her. She was given more than enough feed and it wasn't poor quality. I was doing something with one of our horses one day and looked over to see this old man crouched down picking as much grass as he could to take to her, not because he was doing it to get her to gain weight, but because he knew it would make her happy. It had to have hurt him. Anything he could try to get weight on her, he tried. He did get some weight on her, but he could never get enough. Even though she was thin, she still had a healthy coat and her eyes were bright. She was always happy and never seemed sour or depressed.

The mare loved him. She would just stand there perfectly and let him do whatever he wanted with her. His hands were arthritic and the mare would patiently walk next to him for as long as it took for him to get the walker snap on and off of her. He was very kind to her and in return, she was just as kind to him. They appreciated each other.

I will admit that it probably took longer than it should have for the old man to give up on her racing career. However, when your wife is dead and you have nothing else to do, it's a little hard to give up on the one thing that fills your day. He believed in her and she would often show just enough for him to justify giving her one more chance.

When he finally did decide that she needed a different career, he just wanted her to have a good home. He wasn't asking much money for her, she was definitely worth at least what he asked because of her breeding. Fortunately, I believe that she did find a good home.

I don't know why the mare wouldn't gain weight. She probably had ulcers (her coat was still shiny and healthy) and I think that the hind end issues bothered her quite a bit, even though she wasn't actually lame. Maybe track life was just too much for her. I don't know. What I do know was that no matter how hard the old man tried, she never put on as much weight as she should have. The point is that he DID try. He may have made mistakes unintentionally, but he never neglected her and he definitely never starved her. She was probably fed more than 95% of horses that have careers outside of the track.

While there are a few people on the track that don't feed well, most do. Anyone that is competent at all realizes that the horses need good groceries to perform well. Not to mention, no owner wants to hire a trainer who's horses are thin and nasty looking. It's just bad business and no good ever comes out of feeding a horse poorly.

Does this mean that well fed horses always look good? Absolutely not. There are so many other factors that contribute to weight loss like ulcers, illness, stress, pain, etc. While most people do everything they can to prevent this from happening, sometimes it happens anyway. It can happen fast, too. Anything can happen. Just like with any other horse on the planet.

I understand that people, who's only knowledge of the track is what they've heard through the media, are going to have a hard time believing a horse would be in bad condition for any other reason than mistreatment and neglect. Even people that have been involved in racing might have trouble believing otherwise. It can be the case, but just as often there are other factors involved. There is almost always more to the story and few situations are that black and white.

In the end, all that really matters is that the mare is in a good home where she gets good treatment. I hope that she will continue to gain weight and muscle. If she doesn't, I hope that the people judging the previous owner don't jump to the same conclusions about the treatment she is getting from the current one. I guess I just wish people would question more and judge less before reaching a conclusion.

*I'm sure that some of the horses in these pictures look slightly thin to people who participate in other disciplines. I guess I'd have to ask if you ever see a person that runs track carry as much weight as a sumo wrestler? No? Why do you think that is? Well, that is precisely why these horses don't carry the same weight as a dressage horse does. You're comparing apples to oranges.