Wild Horses In California beneath the distant peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Picture: San Francisco Chronicle)
The Paulick Report
Letter To The Editor: Would Horses Be Better Off In The Wild Than Racing? Stats Say No
Animal rights activists often try to claim horses would be better off free-roaming than domesticated, but experts say otherwise
Letter to the EditorAug 23, 2024
Because of the tragic, and high-profile deaths in two Grade 1 races at Saratoga last summer, our industry is being scrutinized even more. An outside observer might conclude that a horse left in their natural environment in the wild live a long and threat-free life as compared to a Thoroughbred. Research shows that’s not the case.
Just getting to one year of age is a struggle for a horse born in the wild. In a 2019 article presented on the site HorseTalk New Zealand, the author summarized his five-year observation of foal survival rates in NW California. He observed that just 5% of foals born in the wild survive to be a yearling.
Contrast that statistic to the survivability of a Thoroughbred during the first year of their life. I spoke to breeding farm managers and a veterinarian of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital regarding this. They all provided nearly identical percentages, approximately 90% to 95% of Thoroughbred foals live to be yearlings.
In 1983, the peer-reviewed journal Science published an article that underscores the difficulties horses in the wild face for survival. The author (Joel Berger of the Smithsonian) studied wild horse bands in Nevada. Berger studied a horse band that grew from 58 to 129 horses over three years (1979-1982) and noted that 15 or nearly 12% died. They were young too, as seven of the 15 were less than six years old. Even more striking in the article was that a studied band suffered a 50% death rate in the winter of 1977 in Nevada.
On the NYRA circuit, at any given time, they draw off a population of approximately 2,000 horses stabled on the grounds or nearby. NYRA reported, for 2022, just 23 died when racing (from 14,000 starts), yielding a safety rate of 99.83% for their races.
To the previous data, the industry makes every attempt to minimize racing fatalities. Which, when given the large number of total starts made by Thoroughbreds, is much rarer than one would think. Since 2009, the fatality rate has dropped 34%, to the point where, in 2023, the survival rate of a thoroughbred in a race in North America was 99.87%. Amazingly, Santa Anita did not have a single racing fatality on dirt in 2022. The Oklahoma training track in Saratoga reported zero fatalities for all of 2023 from 9,000 timed workouts.
The efforts that have resulted in these marked improvements in racing survivability come via many sources. For example, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research foundation has spent over $40 million since 1940 on projects to improve the health and welfare of horses, especially thoroughbreds.
Also, once a Thoroughbred’s career is over, the industry has a variety of options for them to live out their years. Organizations such as the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, The Bourbon Lane Retirement fund, and the Finger Lakes (NY) Thoroughbred Adoption Program are just a few of the many agencies that aid in retirement.
From the second a Thoroughbred is born, industry professionals are working 24/7/365 to ensure that a foal lives a long and prosperous life. Those who are under the impression that our industry is hazardous to a Thoroughbred’s life, should instead focus their attention on improving the survivability of wild horses.
–John G. Veitch
Owner, breeder, and lifelong fan
