Keeneland Yearling Sale: equine welfare concerns
Keeneland in September is the home of horses and money, where yearling thoroughbreds preside: Bidabidabidabidabidamoneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 950, now 1 million it is, do I hear 1 million fifty, bida bida bida bida bida, now one million one hundred thousand, bidabidabidamoneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 1.1, now 2, one hundred more, 1.2 now 3, here we go, moneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 4 bidabida now 5, …and thus goes the auctioneer selling each horse swiftly. Going once, twice, thrice, gone… sold $1.6 million. Men in green, Keeneland green. The blood; blue, the money; green. Out steps 1.6, handed to his groom in waiting at the exit to a strange new world and on the other side of the ring, in steps the next blueblood, this prize, a filly led in by her groom, handed to the ringmaster with shiny black shoes. A brief intro, sire, mare, family money-winning accomplishments, bold-type ancestors noted, half-sibling accomplishments, a smooth-talking personality presenting brief avails, and again, here we go, people sifting about in the hallway that encircles the seats that encircle the elevated ring, many of the inadequately prepared yearlings are fearful. The sales ring setting is poorly designed, the gauntlet to get there is a disgrace, and does not favor the horse. Sedation and chains are prevalent, their vibrissae are clipped, terrifying the youngsters. Temple Grandin would cry for the horses; Here now sir, what do you want to give for this fine filly? bidabidabidabidayomoneymoneymoney 10, now 20, 50 now 75, 100,000 dollars, now 125 bidabidabidabidabidupsomemoremoneynowifyouwantthis runner…
A man’s world, a game painted money green, a dozen or so yearlings going for over a million in session one, more million-dollar blueblood babes to follow. Historically, a quarter of the $1 million horses will never make it to the track, nearly a third will never win a race. How many yearlings are mishandled at this fragile formative age is part of the reason so many fail to ever win a race. The sale process takes the heart out of some of them at their formative stage of racehorse life; no heart, no running by and through horses at speed in tight company. Keeneland green. A horse mill.
Beyond pedigree, conformation is important, anatomical maintenance of soundness. Bloodstock agents appreciate conformation conducive to durability, trainers look for bone. Most seek trending blood, looks and behavior aside, thus the low success percentages. I can see the horses who have been whip broke, and those that have not. One wants the have nots, as the chain-broke are unlikely to prevail. You can see some are broken by the look in their eye. More than a few are sedated, a tolerated practice.
I watch, beautiful horses all, but so many unnecessarily troubled. Unprepared, lip-chain broke and drugged as a shortcut for half-baked Kentucky horsemanship. In Ireland, the horses come through the ring relaxed and prepared, whiskered, softly handled to display their true grace. Halters without chains, soft eyes, beautiful vibrissae with a high potential to become willing partners, unlike most American sales candidates. More troubled horses than not at Keeneland, Kentucky. Their dignity dishonored with the vibrissae clipping and chained restraint. Drugs to sedate, the doping starts when they are a year old. This tolerated medication carries with them to the track, and the drugging needs to stop here, as the American medication mentality needs nipped in the bud.
After a horse passes the content eye, and soft ear criteria suggesting a willing partnership, I scrutinize bone and throat. I seek short thick canons for my clients, a body-balanced hip, with an extended gaskin, thick hocks... true-angled pasterns resting on big hooves, supple coat and not heavy, yet none of these charms matter if the mind is not willing.
I seek horses grown up with a well-tended mind, a mind of flight with an eager tendency to willingly join the herd of man, behaviorist me. I want a horseshoe is taught by other horses how to be a horse, herd-raised stock, yearlings taught the confidence to run by and through horses running at speed by running with horses at speed in tight company. I look for vibrissae, and so many have been savaged. I eye their ears and eyes, their carriage, the ease or unease of their relationship with their handler.
I watch for cooperative gestures. Relaxed by observant, attached to their handler, but free to express their state of mind. I seek potential willing partners, horses brought up surrounded by nature, nurtured in herd settings. Only other horses can teach a horse to win. Humans are simply passengers in this game, needing to re-create natural for the growing runners. It is the mare who provides the winning foundation, the mare and her herd, the cohort foals and yearlings, the huge rolling pastures. Horses teach young horses to run, and they teach them well. Lead changes become automatic, communication with others in the herd is intense and constant.
Watch that yearling walk, watch her perceive her new world. If the money talks and she walks on to a new life, will she be willing to listen, to prevail, to stay sound and healthy under duress, to run by and through horses at speed with confidence and finesse? Not an exact science, but it is clear some of yearlings fighting lip chains and shown into the ring reluctantly chained and medicated are unlikely to be winners. Fillies handled roughly often bail on everything, refusing to fall in and train after feeling what the humans may do to them.
Back in the day, horsemanship and the art of handling youngsters prevailed at sales, today it is face shaving, chains and drugs. Already horseracing is in public disfavor for substandard welfare, and its presence at Keeneland is disturbing to equine behaviorists..
Amateur horsemen have prepared most of these young thoroughbreds. Nearly all of the yearlings’ faces have been clipped clean, much like many the American Breeders’ Cup runners faces. The Jockey Club breeders and Breeders Cup trainers remain a bastion of amateur horsemanship, some of the sorriest on the planet, I am sorry to report.
Clipping vibrissae is abusive, inhumane, unnecessary, and counterproductive. It is contrary to the development of a willing partnership. The Keeneland sale was a display of horsefolk diminishing the dignity of the horse.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989
Pharmaceutical sedation of the yearlings remains prevalent, drugs continuing to replace horsemanship in the racing industry. Disappointingly, the public drugging begins at the yearling sales, prevalent and tolerated by the sale managers, obvious but unnecessary had proper horsemanship preparation been in place. A third, or so, of the yearlings express postures and behaviors suggestive of tranquilization, droopy glazed eyes, sagging lower lip, dropped penises. Inattentive. I know sedation when I see it.
When questioned, some of the breeders admitted to tranquilization use, "a shot of ace in the oats this morning." Injections, 'yeah, doc stopped by early and popped 'em with the stuff that lasts all day.’ Others were in denial. Most didn’t have much to say when confronted about the abusive practice of clipping vibrissae. 9 of 10 facial lacerations I have sewn up through time were on horses with clipped vibrissae. The percentage of yearlings at Keeneland with facial trauma was significant, one after the other with beat up heads because the vibrissae are clipped, their monitors to avoid head trauma when locked in tight places. Vibrissae are utilized for spatial safety. A horse uses her wiskers to protect her eyes, face, and nostrils. With these sensory structures removed, the yearlings are bashing their heads about in the stalls because they have been abusively deprived of sensation by Jockey Club Breeders.
After having their vibrissae clipped, many stalled horses stop drinking and eating, sometimes for days. This leads to colic and sometimes death due to deprivation of the most important horse nutrient, water, because the sensory structures to assess the water have been amputated by the Jockey club breeder. Clipping vibrissae and poor horsemanship are the primary cause of facial trauma in Keeneland yearlings. You should have seen all the banged-up heads, and those were the ones that made it through the trauma inspections.
By my estimate, 98% of the horses has their vibrissae clipped, with men doing 98% of the bidding on the naked-faced babies. A covey of male auctioneers sell the horses, prompted by green-suited bid spotters, all men. Men, men, men in green, money money money, green money, old money, plenty of money, SOLD. Whiskerless thoroughbreds, confused and dismayed at being whiskerless, abusively chain-shanked and drugged.
“A number of international equestrian organisations have banned the trimming of a horse's whiskers. Since 1st July 2021, horses are prohibited from competing in any FEI competitions internationally if their “sensory hairs have been clipped and/or shaven or in any other way removed”. Keeneland needs to follow suit, and now. The United States Equestrian Foundation has banned the disrespectful practice. Kentucky horsemen appear to be the most horse-disrespectful horsemen around. Vibrissae clipping is punishable by law in France, Germany, Switzerland, and some of the Nordic countries.
Perhaps this excerpt will help the Kentucky breeders understand the horse, and their role with horses.
“Dignity is each animal’s inherent worth that humans must uphold in their relationships with that animal. This means that we must respect each animal for himself or herself (including individual particularities, behaviours, and prefer- ences). We must therefore take that unique worth into account and hold each animal in high moral regard, independent of our own impressions, opinions, and experiences. As such, animals’ inherent worth should not be tied to their instrumental usefulness, nor to their sentimental, heritage, or market value.
Strain is a physical or psychological action by a human being to impose a benefit. In extreme cases, the term also includes any violence applied to animals to force them to do something against their will or to prevent them from doing what they want. The definition also covers the negative consequences of such actions. Strain always affects dignity. Dignity is only comprised, however, if overriding interests cannot justify it. This is the case, for example, when animals are subjected to pain, suffering, or harm, or exposed to anxiety or humiliation, or undergo interventions that profoundly alter their appearance or abilities, or are excessively objectified as instruments, also known as instrumentalization (Art. 3 AniWA).
The AniWA (art. 4) prohibits the unjustified 1and unnecessary imposition of strains on animals (injury, pain, stress, restriction of freedom, violation of dignity, overwork, etc.). Implicit in this standard is the need to weigh the different interests of the parties involved (humans, animals, and the environment) to determine whether the strain is justified. If its impact on the horse outweighs the interests of the other parties, the strain in question is abusive and amounts to a contempt of dignity.
The concepts of pain, suffering, and harm are not easy to distinguish, but understanding them helps to clarify any impairments to welfare. Pain is characterised by an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with real or suspected tissue damage (lameness, colic). It is noted that donkeys do not show pain as blatantly as horses do; they remain more stoic. Animals experience suffering as negative emotions that affect their quality of life and impair their welfare. Suffering is expressed through abnormal behaviour and body language (facial expressions, ear position, postures, etc.). Harm is manifested by loss of functionality or behavioural disorders, such as limited responsiveness to stimuli. It appears when animals are pushed to extreme levels of adaptation."
Through the ring the yearlings go, chained and shanked, vibrissae abusively shorn, a sorry affair altogether when viewed from the horse’s perspective, and mine, but few others. In addition to inadequate preparation, much of the unwelcome behaviors when being handled are due to the sensory deprivation. Horses with clipped whiskers become confused and frustrated, they bash their heads into the stall walls and thresholds as evidenced by all the apparent head trauma on many of them, all unnecessary, all due to the deplorable amateur Kentucky brand of sensory deprivation followed by forceful horsemanship.
Banning the vibrissae-clipping practice would save the sale breeders millions of dollars and alleviate some the public concern with horse abuse in the racing industry, yet the incompetent breeders continue abusing the horses so they look clean. The horses may look clean, but they are confused without the full array of sensory organs. And if I am not able to put a stop to the yearling-abusive practice, you know who will be swooping in next, and that will be another black eye for the industry and game, more lost millions if not billions because of a lack of integrity of the breeders. The Keeneland breeders are doping with sedatives, clipping vibrissae to serious detrimental psychological and physical affect, and then lead their horses to the ring with their horses abusive chain shanked.
To be fair, a few of the yearlings had vibrissae intact, and notably, they had no obvious head injuries like too many of the whiskerless. As well, at least one of the ring handlers is female, beautiful hair flowing down her back, pinned down so as not be grabbed a hold of easily by a frustrated sales candidate. Perhaps a thir of the incoming grooms with the horse’s last day at hand, are women with hair tied up.
The auctioneer drone is incessant, sales wear on, thousands of horses, thousands of chain shanks, bidda, biddahererightnow, bidda here, twenty thousand, now 30... lots of withdrawals due to injury and infirmity. Relatives win big races, and value skyrockets. The full sibling to Authentic sells, or was it to Audible? Blue blood, and thick. Money, money, the tempo unfading, stock moving through, live stock, an introduction for each yearling, most unnamed, known by their sire, and dam’s sire, pedigreed bloodstock, bluebloods going for green, flesh disguised as money. Walking money, walk that talk, Mr Auctioneer, Yes, sir. What’ll you give for this fine filly, sir, 50,000? 50,000 is it, now 100, one now two, 300,000, now 350, forty, and a bidabidabidabidabidabida … money flying off chins, fingers, ear taps, computer clicks, cap tips, eyeglass cues, and nods… sweeps of paper, high-handed salutes bidabida, half the action online, it seems.
Chains, the yearlings are brought in seized with lip chains and nose chains, shanks and rubbers, nerve lines and war bridles of all sorts. Despicable handling, and at a critical behavioral development phase. The sales trauma ruins many minds.
Kentucky horsemanship is not dead altogether, but if things don't change soon, it will be. A few arrive with the kinder European style bitted halters, which are preferable, effective, and less harsh. Some horses travel through the ring adequately prepared, much like nearly every yearling at Tattersalls across the pond, all of them whiskered, no obvious sedation, and no harsh shank handling.
Let me make it clear it should not be about effective restraint, but effective preparation, the horses should be prepared for behavioral contemned in hand, rather than fear of punishment. Where sedation is prevalent, amateur horsemanship both precedes and follows the sale. The less prepared, the more chains and drugs, the less likely the yearling is to train up willingly. Keeneland: Shaved whiskers, chains, and sedatives—a poor reflection on the human/animal bond in Kentucky. An ineffectual way to win any future race at all.
Inadequate horsemanship remains perseverant at Keeneland, tolerated and accepted, bidabidamoneymoneynow 50, 100, 150-2, now 250—3. Bida bidabidabidaabidaba 4 resonates, ringing loud as I arrive to restructure the thoroughbred culture conscience, to menace their abuse. Here we go, yet again, first racing drugs, now sales drugs, a lot of pharmaceutically-sedated yearlings. Keeneland sale drug-use of behavior modification drugs goes on without apparent restriction. The post sale drug tests do not offer sedation testing. The yearlings can also be treated before the sale with NSAIDs, masking injury and lameness.
I have a veterinary eye for pharmaceutically-induced behaviors. It is disappointing to see that a significant percentage of the Keeneland yearlings are doped, sedated to manage their lack of appropriate preparation. The clipped vibrissae create varying levels of distress, inciting the perceived need for sedation by so many of the breeders.
Of course, as my readers and students and teachers know, my horse-care criticisms are unbounded. The most significant issue this time is the shaving and clipping of vibrissae, removing the facial whiskers with malice aforethought, amputation of essential sensory organs, which elicits much of the perceived need to sedate and shank the young-minded yearlings, ruining many of them.
The vibrissae clipping must stop, such an egregious outright abuse of yearling thoroughbreds by Kentuckians who should know better. More criticism will follow if it not restricted. Such a simple thing not to do. Behavior would be much more manageable if the vibrissae were present.
Now that we have raceday Lasix use restricted, a practice which engendered and normalized drug use at every stage. Just as horses can be adequately prepared to minimize EIPH incidence, the yearlings could be adequately prepared to avoid undignified drugs and painful chains.
Equine behaviorists are insisting the vibrissae remain intact all through a horse's life. I aim to make the world a better place for horses, the yearlings in particular. The vibrissae clipping, drugging, and chaining of the Keeneland yearlings must be regulated for their sake, and I'd be happy to be the regulator via education of breeders and trainers on the nature and needs of the horse.
Sid Gustafson DVM
Below are the supporting and referenced scientific articles and recommended reading.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7509108/
https://drdavidmarlin.com/fei-moves-to-ban-clipping-shaving-of-sensory-hairs/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989
“Dignity is each animal’s inherent worth that humans must uphold in their relationships with that animal. This means that we must respect each animal for himself or herself (including individual particularities, behaviours, and prefer- ences). We must therefore take that unique worth into account and hold each animal in high moral regard, independent of our own impressions, opinions, and experiences. As such, animals’ inherent worth should not be tied to their instrumental usefulness, nor to their sentimental, heritage, or market value.
Strain is a physical or psychological action by a human being to impose a benefit. In extreme cases, the term also includes any violence applied to animals to force them to do something against their will or to prevent them from doing what they want. The definition also covers the negative consequences of such actions. Strain always affects dignity. Dignity is only comprised, however, if overriding interests cannot justify it. This is the case, for example, when animals are subjected to pain, suffering, or harm, or exposed to anxiety or humiliation, or undergo interventions that profoundly alter their appearance or abilities, or are excessively objectified as instruments, also known as instrumentalization (Art. 3 AniWA).
The AniWA (art. 4) prohibits the unjustified 1and unnecessary imposition of strains on animals (injury, pain, stress, restriction of freedom, violation of dignity, overwork, etc.). Implicit in this standard is the need to weigh the different interests of the parties involved (humans, animals, and the environment) to determine whether the strain is justified. If its impact on the horse outweighs the interests of the other parties, the strain in question is abusive and amounts to a contempt of dignity.
The concepts of pain, suffering, and harm are not easy to distinguish, but understanding them helps to clarify any impairments to welfare. Pain is characterised by an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with real or suspected tissue damage (lameness, colic). It is noted that donkeys do not show pain as blatantly as horses do; they remain more stoic. Animals experience suffering as negative emotions that affect their quality of life and impair their welfare. Suffering is expressed through abnormal behaviour and body language (facial expressions, ear position, postures, etc.). Harm is manifested by loss of functionality or behavioural disorders, such as limited responsiveness to stimuli. It appears when animals are pushed to extreme levels of adaptation."
British law forbidding tail docking from 1949:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/70
