Some horses - genuine or not?

[jinnyj]

I read a great many posts on here and appreciate that the vast majority of posters have zero experience with horses (and there's nothing wrong with that!) But equally some label horses as ungenuine, "gone at the game" etc. and few of you actually stop and wonder why.

This article by Henrietta Knight in the Racing Post is excellent:
https://www.racingpost.com/news/12-...-and-how-well-is-a-more-complex-matter/357871

Horses are pretty simple creatures most of the time and are willing to please. I'll wager that 90% of horses who lose their form do so for a reason invariably physical that the trainer/jockey hasn't spotted yet. Because they can't talk, they can't turn round and say "you know what I feel lousy today", "my leg hurts" etc. It has to show you in the only way it knows how - hanging away from the bad leg if there is tendon damage forming/weakness in the bone which could result in a fracture for example. Horses at home, starting to play up about going on the gallops, refusing to start. All these are invariably indicators that something is amiss. I have ridden countless horses that have started to show such "quirks" only for them to get an injury. I remember in my early days working for Cumani telling him I thought the lovely Ardross filly I was riding wasn't happy. I couldn't pinpoint it but she was starting to get mulish going to the gallops where she had been a very happy willing filly. So instead of believing me he took me off her and stuck Jason Weaver on to work her - she never came back from the gallops as she suffered a broken pelvis (fortunately she was saved and became a broodmare at Fittocks Stud).

So next time you write off horses such as Might Bite, Samcro etc. remember there is very likely a problem which has caused that formerly top class horse to be a shadow of its former self.

 

[Grey]

A point well made, jinnyj.

But would you accept that some horses are more prepared to battle than others?

 

[Danny]

Great post and a good read from the Mad Hatter but Dance and dance, Harchibald and Single Farm Payment have all definitely been completely un-genuine barsteward's, capital woofers and no excuses .

 

[Desert Orchid]

In the past I have happily admitted being hardly able to tell the difference between a racehorse and a clothes horse and vividly recall hanging on your every word one day, jinnyj, watching the horses parade at Newbury.

I'm hopeless with greyhounds too but walk a few domestic dogs past me in the street and I reckon I can tell a good specimen from an ordinary one.

I do believe animals have a kind of 'personality' about them. And I do think horses have theirs too.

Watching racing, I think you can see which horses appear to really enjoy racing to get to the front and which are happy to be pack members. I can accept that the majority of the 'ungenuine' ones may be hurting but I agree with the others who say some are simply unhappy in a racing environment.

Would a horse that refuses to start be hurting? Would it just have bad memories of a previous painful experience?

Coincidentally, I watched Seabiscuit yesterday and it is a genuinely fascinating story how it was a reformed character under the care of Tom Smith.

 

[granger]

Hen Knight was a decade ahead of herself in hindsight

He some wonder horse to win 2 good cups now let alone 3 in a row

 

[redundant pal]

I've always liked Hen and some of her horses formed part of a golden era of steeplechasing.

However the kid glove approach to training that she advocates the Dreaper method of intensive schooling has become outdated.

Owners at the top table want proven talent, rather than waiting around 3/4 years to find out, no different to the owners of Man City or PSG want the best so they go out and buy the best.

Even Trevor Hemmings who has traditionally bought stores or foals and brought them along has come into the modern era and bought several pointers in the close season for big money.

Of course there's going the be a higher level of attrition pushing national hunt types at an earlier age than they ought to be but that is the nature of the modern game.

Anyone who plays the long term game is no longer in operation.

Samcro is running at the wrong trip, nothing physcial.

 

[edgt]

Trevor Hemmings is closing on 80 which will also bring a bit of impatience with it.

Genuine horses Gordon Lord Byron, Denman, Sprinter Sacre, Sizing Europe are genuine despite the vicissitudes that visited them during their careers.

Others alas never were, never are or never will be as genuine even with a clear run.

The benefit of the doubt has to be given of course given the incidence of ulcers, hairline fractures, viruses, fungal infection and bleeding in horses, pundits and punters alike.