Fatality Rate in Thoroughbred Horse Racing

I admit that I love reading about the champions in the horse racing industry such as Sea Biscuit,

Race at Churchill Downs Wikipedia

Phar Lap, and Man O'War.  And there is just something awesome about watching the footage of Secretariat pounding down the back stretch.  However I recently came across the statistics published by the Jockey Club of horse fatalities per 1000 starts.  Hummm, when the stats are reported as 1.61 deaths per 1000 starts that does not sound nearly as bad as the 484 horses who died in 299121 starts in 2015.  Another study indicates that the fatality rate is double if one includes injuries during training.

 If you check the charts, 790 horses died in 2009, 727 in 2010, 713 in 2011, 709 in 2012, 643 in 2013, 583 in 2014. The number of starts have declined steadily over the 8 year period also from 395897 in 2009 to 2999121 in 2015. My personal opinion is that 1.6 horses die from fatal injuries every 1000 starts is still too high. Can you imagine if we said 1.6 horses were going to die every 1000 dressage classes? Or every 1000 Icelandic horse classes? Or barrel racing starts? 

Here is a link to the report

.http://jockeyclub.com/pdfs/eid_7_year_tables.pdf
Jockey Club Table of Fatalities per Year

Blessi Has an Easter Carrot Hunt

I hid carrots and cookies under a drum, saddle pad, 2 fly masks, 6 Easter napkins, bucket, salt block holder, and my straw hat in Blessi's paddock.  Blessi found them all in less than 30 minutes.  As you can see by the highlights on this video, he moved from one "egg" to another in a seemingly planned search pattern.  I swear this horse is part Labrador retriever.   He seemed to immediately recognize that anything new in his paddock would conceal a carrot (or a small quarter size peanut butter cookie).  Blessi was in an absolutely blissful mood for the rest of my visit.  Happy belated Easter to everybody!
Sorry the audio on this production is a bit out of sync with the video.

Saddlebred by Icelandic Cross

Here is Iceman, an Icelandic by Saddlebred cross, owned by Bo Wright Stables.  Wright is riding Iceman in a number of speed racking and single footing competitions (all seem to be kegshod or wearing horses shoes of usual weight) and winning blue ribbons.  Considering the competitions are in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and other speed racking states,  Wright and Iceman, 14.2 hands, are doing a fantastic job competing against the Saddlebreds and other, bigger  gaited breeds.   Go Iceman!  Note I don't recommend cross breeding Icelandics but this is a successful cross, which is probably why Iceman is a breeding stallion at Bo Wright Stables.