I had this incredible blog ready to submit this morning... It was something perhaps a bit controversial, but good nonetheless by my way of thinking.

It was one of those things that I wrote on the aftermath of reading and hearing things such as the position PETA was taking on the death of Eight Belles at the Derby. The sort of blog that is nearly impossible to recapture the moment of emotion within. However, it happened... The moment I was nearing the submit button for the blog entry, the power outage hit! I was sure I had copied it to my blog editing page in word. But apparently not so, as I checked there confident I would find it tonight... To no avail!

I have to wonder if that is God's way of telling me it would be a bit too controversial and I shouldn't submit it at all. Then again, I'm not so sure about that either. Therefore, here goes nothing as I attempt to recapture the essence of this mornings lost blog!

I had the good fortune of reading it out loud to my Mom and son who thought it was good, agreed with it, but also stated that I was likely going to piss off several different groups of people.

Then again, my writing has had a way of doing that over the years; all but the book "A Love Beyond Time" which is fictional. However, I imagine there will be some who are even offended by it as well. I suppose it becomes one of those situations in which "you can please some of the people some of the time, but you sure are not going to please all the people all the time." I'm okay with that.

My first recollection of the earlier blog was my pondering as to why PETA would have a problem with the jockey who was riding the ill fated filly on Saturday. I simply couldn't help myself from clicking on the article with some thought that perhaps he (the jockey) had done something or said something lacking in compassion after the final fate of his mount. I couldn't imagine what it might have been, but it was a consideration. That was my first mistake, which is considering that PETA might actually do anything reasonable!


For crying out loud people....The riding crop did not break the filly’s ankles! Nor did the jockey! Anyone who knows anything about horses and racing knows that jockeys are in a most precarious position in such riding disciplines. They not only have to attempt to bring the best and the most out of the horse they are riding for the race itself, but for their own future careers! In addition, if a horse in injured in a race it is up to them to stop the horse in as timely manner as possible to protect not only the horses future but their own; as the world or at least the trainer, owner and other trainers and owners who may be interested in them riding another horse in the future, are all watching.

Then consider that many times when a horse is moving at such a rate of speed and stumbles or has a mishap it is not uncommon for the horse to fall or even summersault, not just on a race track! Many jockeys and riders have been seriously injured in such occasions with a horse throwing them to the round and/or often rolling over the top of them in the process. I have seen riders hung up in stirrups, crushed or even thrown into the path of other horses. The jockey's put their own lives on the line each and every time they mount up to ride. If a horse is pulling up, it is in the best interest of the jockey's future well being as well as the horse to stop as soon as possible!

Then their next ingenious idea...They want to strip the owner/trainer and jockey of the money and award for Eight Belle's second place victory. This would be to strip her of her final reward! She ran her heart out for that race! I believe it would be a terrible injustice to strip her of her second place title where she not only ran against the big boys, but beat the majority of them.

And for those who think she was a little filly playing with the big boys...Poo Poo to you too. There are colts and geldings on any number of tracks across the country that pull up or are injured as well as fillies! She earned the right to be there and held her own!

Yes, I'm totally an animal activist in many ways. I have rescued far more horses than I have ever thought of buying! I have numerous dogs from animal shelters and the side of highways and a cat as well. In addition to a turtle that was saved from the fate of being run over too. And yes, I have even cried a time or two when a bird has helplessly flown into the grill or windshield of my car. You get the idea by now? I have never killed anything on purpose and care never to have to in the future. Though I am not against guns, I surely could care less about having one myself, and I do fear them in a respectful sense of the word. I am very much a peace loving person over all and I love animals as much as people! Keep in mind I care for what our society generally appears to see as disposable youth in foster care.

So, when I say that PETA should be looking in a different direction, perhaps you can understand that it is not due to a lack of compassion on my part! I was choked up with the rest of the nation on Saturday and felt the moment of gripping anxiety enough so that I have now blogged on the subject matter four times...

However, this filly was from one of the millionaire horse farms as they are. She has probably lived a better life than you or I have even thought of and her suffering was for no more than mere minutes. She was out of her suffering before the trainer even realized there was a problem. With due respect we could only hope for that good of a response even in the local hospital's ICU!

Did I think it was Sad? Heck yes it was sad! Can the industry still improve? Yes, and with the consideration they are leaning toward synthetic tracks (softer surfaces) is a good start. You already know from the past two days how I feel about not just horse racing but several equine venues in which young horses are pushed harder than I believe they should be... But the reality is that one horse went down after doing what she was not only bred to do, but clearly lived for and loved doing. Let's get some perspective here folks... Thousands of people died in a cyclone on Friday and are still suffering with little emergency response!

But I do have to ask??? What about the numerous small tracks around the nation where horses from sub-standard facilities with sub-standard trainers are running horses without the time, money or emotional investment that the likes of the Derby's high dollar horses have... What about the numerous horses that end up on the back of cattle/livestock semi trailers headed for slaughter houses?

You see, we good hearted Americans got on a band wagon and petitioned our government to stop the cruel slaughter of horses in rural and local areas across the U.S. We knew of good horses that were ending up in the slaughter house and it was so wrong in all of our minds that we jumped right in and got a stop put to it. I was told some time ago there were only two left in the U.S. and a year ago that there were none. I am now of the understanding that every state has now banned from or had banned the slaughter of horses locally. We won the victory...Or so we thought. But now we choose to turn our heads and not see what the outcome of our grave concerns really is.

We did not stop the slaughter of horses! Instead of horses that owners do not have the couple hundred dollars it takes to have them put down by the vet and hauled away by a rendering company or buried by an excavator, instead now commonly stand around in physical conditions that are by far less humane than if their owner could have taken them, in a trailer suited for horses, painlessly to a local slaughter house, where they may be held for a short time in a comfortable holding pen until they were mercifully put away from their suffering. Many times, if they don't finally die on their own, they are sold cheap privately or at auction to killer buyers who many think no longer exist. Ha - that's a laugh! They are still out there and they are still buying horses! But now the horses go to random locations, such as feedlots in pens that are over crowded and many times under fed until a truck headed to Canada or Mexico is coming through town. They pick up the horses, generally adding to those that were picked up in previous locations before arriving there; not in a horse hauler but rather in a livestock double decker semi trailer which is not suited for horses. They arrive out of the country to the unregulated slaughter houses with gashes, broken bones, sick, starved or worse, some never make it off the trailer alive. And if they do make the trip, they face a death in a location that has none of the regulations or monitoring by agencies and private parties to insure a humane ending that once existed in the United States. Really, we can't even imagine what our good hearted intentions have done to these horses! Not just race horses, but family horses, some child's long since out grown friend, a retired show horse, sometimes even young pregnant mares due to foal any day. I know as I personally saved two mares just last spring. One foaled the morning we went to get her and the other foaled three days later, comfortably at our farm. They would not have likely made the trip and if they had, the foals would have been trampled!

So, what do I think of PETA throwing a fit over a filly who has had the best of everything in her life and suffered by far less than even my poor stud who was kicked in the groin by an ill intending mare over the weekend???

I think if they really want to get on a band wagon, why not attempt to put a stop to the event known as "Horse Tripping" which is still done at Mexican Rodeo's across the good old USA, in various states and locations! Now that would be an undertaking worth getting behind and involved in!

Oh yes, and by the way, those precious little prairie dogs (you know, the ones that PETA is so fond of) break far more horses legs with their soil eroding, land destroying holes than any track anywhere in the world has ever thought of breaking!

Maybe tomorrow I will change the rant to NASCAR... You know, now that I think of it, we should find a way to send unwanted bad drivers or should I say drivers (like Kyle Bush) with bad attitudes across the borders instead of unwanted horses!

Okay, that's it for tonight. I think I caught the general essence of my earlier blog that was lost to the power outage. Truly, I hope I didn't step on too many toes here today, but hey... What can I say? My way of thinking has had to change with the reality of the situations we have created!

Have a great night and if you want to think of things in a brighter light... I suppose that filly is running in greener pastures above even as I write. I'm sure she's been seen with my small herd of horses that have gone before us and are waiting for us all to join them!

God Bless Us Everyone!