Funny Yarns

Becks Nairn's post             Becks Nairn 5h ·   Why did dog racing go before horses? Firstly I’d like to say, I’m not pro or against anything. I think horse racing can be ethical if they would listen to changes. What I would like to talk about today is my experience with having owned an ex race dog and ex race horses. Dyna varsity was a pretty good dog, he won around 40k on the race track. At the time my daughter tayla was training greyhounds and I am a curious sort so I visited the kennels. I was really impressed at how friendly all the dogs were and excited to see me. I saw puppy’s and young dogs in large paddocks playing with their pack. Throughout taylas career I visited the kennels many times and witnessed happy animals regularly being treated with PEMF blankets and therapeutic devices and all the basic needs. Anyway Vance and I locked eyes, I said to tayla who is that handsome boy!? She said he was likely to retire soon and I didn’t miss a beat, I said I’d love to have him….a few months later I was bringing him home. Did he piss in my house a few times….yes he did. Retraining them to pet life does requires patience but he was worth it. Kiwikiwi hounds organised a fun day for the dogs to all get together at the race track and I was instantly intrigued…..how would Vance react to going back to the racetrack with a bunch of other dogs? He had a blast! I witnessed a bunch of dogs all having a brilliant time, no one that I saw looked to be terrified to be there. Vance’s biggest downfall and what caused his ultimate death was his love of racing things, particularly cars. I’m not going to sugar coat things, dogs naturally chase things, I have a whippet now and she does the same without being trained to do so. Vance was the best dog for our family and we were all devistated after 3 wonderful years with him. He went out doing what he loved, it was instant and for that I am thankful. Dogs are predatory in nature and they hunt for their food so the experience of the race track for them is based more on a more positive basic instinct. Horses on the other hand are prey animals and so aside from playing the only time they would be running as a herd is away from danger or a predator. Anyone who’s involved in racing can argue this but the behaviour they display pre racing is anxious. You only have to look at the incidents of lung bleeds and ulcers to see the results of stress on the horses. Are there good trainers who prepare their horses well and are calm ofcourse! There are also bad eggs in dog racing. But I have taken ex race horses back to the race track and their anxiety is palpable, they physically shake. Obviously some of the older very successful exrace horses are paraded around on race days and they cope fine….they are the exception. I have been to competitions as a sport horse beside race tracks and allot of the ex race horses are losing it. Comparing prey and predators experiences will be called apples and oranges but I’m giving my experiences anyway. Dog racing was low hanging fruit, the public loves dogs….it was easy to gain public support to shut it down. The greyhound industry actually has the highest success rates of rehoming, tracebility and accountability in racing, period! They have been transparent and have done everything the government asked of them. More dogs die annually in pounds than in dog racing. In horse racing they are forced to have zero accountability, no numbers on horse put down post racing are required. Even in rehoming, the rehomers are stifled by NZTR to put down unsuitable horses. They have zero pathways for the rehomers to take unsuitable horses out of circulation. In HRNZ they are spouting 90 percent success rates in rehoming and the other 10 percent retained hy industry, I have evidence this is a blatant lie and they are willfully covering the truth. Horses need to be put down post racing, it’s the ugly truth….there aren’t enough homes. Be transparent with the public and if society decides that’s not an acceptable collateral damage then so be it. It doesnt effect me if all racing goes but its a slippery slope to all animals from there….. think about the biggger picture. The government calls the race industry a sunset industry behind closed doors, they just won’t give it to you straight because that’s what politicians do.

And guess where Aus will supplement theirs from.

People want to know so they know when to turn the lights out.

Licensed ... what a joke!

Really? Can you? What exactly was oncourse based funding?