Opinion | These Horses Are Too Young to Die

Horse racing is an industry, and industry vets aren’t obligated to see the whole picture. Elsewhere, horses in training enjoy ranging motion — walking for miles before breezing, the way they do in Europe, exercising on grass, running hills. In most of America, horses stand in a stall, and they race on dirt, which yields faster times. When they do get handled, it’s just the hustle to the track, the jog and then however many furlongs they’re running that day, 12 seconds per. And let’s not even get started with the drugs at American tracks, of which Lasix (furosemide), administered to give a breathing advantage, is only one.

In a New York State Senate hearing in Albany, a respected veterinarian, Kraig Kulikowski, posited the ideal age for horses to race. Three or 4? Nope: 6. But there’ll never be a sample big enough to prove it, not when horses like Justify are retired at 3 after only five starts.

Out on the old Rutland Railroad bed in the Hudson Valley, now covered with grass, I watch the landscape between Spot’s wise ears. We build muscle on hills, we gallop on yielding turf. When the footing is hard, we go slow. When something hurts, we rest. He’s the only horse I have, and I protect him.

Every racehorse has this potential, providing we don’t wreck them first. Few Thoroughbred farms bring every horse home after a career. More retraining programs such as the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s in Maryland and Take2 in New York are necessary. Abolishing racing altogether would maroon thousands of horses without any support.

This industry needs a stronger and more unified governing structure to rigorously enforce drug and animal welfare rules. People need to know what horses are capable of, given the right conditions. And the right conditions include a fair crack at life, starting with a chance to grow up. As for the extra flash it takes for a horse to become a legend, Spot may be slow, but he’ll get there.

Just wait till next year.

Sally Eckhoff is the author of the forthcoming memoir “How Horses Get Their Names.”

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