i will admit that in days gone by some jockeys did flog their...

i will admit that in days gone by some jockeys did flog their mounts with the whip but those days are gone. if you have ever ridden a horse you would realise that they are extremely strong animals and weighing around 500kg and sometimes more the whip is more of a gentle reminder than any form of torture. more like someone hitting us on the bum with a fly squat. on top of that most animals have a much higher level of tolerance to pain than any human.
recently trainers and jockeys have realised that there are better ways to get the best out of a horse than use the whip extensively , they use the whip as a quick reminder to the horse there is job to get done and some trainers forbid jockeys using a whip on a particular horse because it does more harm than good regarding its performance.

i really get sick & tired of all the so called "do gooders" coming out around this time of the year protesting about animal cruelty just because racing gets a lot of media coverage over the spring carnival. Thoroughbred race horses are bred purely for the racing industry they wouldn't exist if not for racing. they are not found in the wild and in fact their constitution makes it that they couldn't survive in the wild. their extincts are of a pack animal who love to run, i have yet to see an uninjuried horse who once dumped the jockey has not chased and followed the rest of the field. they love racing.

a lot of race horses get treated better than many human beings over the world. they get the best living quarters, diets, medical treatment, constant attention from handlers etc. of any other animal in the world. in some cases some stables have someone sleep in the stables with them . Trainer Clarry Connors use to sleep in the same stall as his horse Redoute's Choice in the lead up to any big race. 99% of the people in the racing industry love their racehorses and only want the very best for them.

I am not naive and i'm sure that there is mistreatment of racehorses much the same there is mistreatment of a percentage of any animal kind all over the world. being an animal lover i know that these mistreatments do not happen with the use of the whip on the horse but like normal it happens away from the public eyes. having said that, i have been overseas and had a elephant ride and seen the handler on another elephant smash the animal over the head with a wooden pole that a steel prong at the top of it. i have also volunteered at the dog pound and seen mistreated animals there and innocent dogs be put down because some moron parent bought their kid a dog just to keep it happy without thinking about the long term consequences of owning an animal. unfortunately there are injustices to some animals including humans happening all the time.

there are plenty of mistreatments of animal all over the world. the use of a whip in a horse race isn't one.

sorry for the long winded lecture but this is for me than any HC reader.