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Horse welfare, use not abuse PDF

185 Pages·2015·4.145 MB·English
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wTheilsf baAor Poe Mk ics gC vooiyeT,sa M lTu olTt oTip haleel C lhh ewaamhproiTo lno oJfuvm eTph hJeooc mrkesayeTTse –r horse w huosres ne owTe albfuarsee, e haTlohlve easrerd ewu leeo,l alod uceThdso TwsaeniTndh i wneogxrplyde rsci reoanff ccTehe .rd..i swTThooirpsk hl.e.o.rn g lfare Sir Peter O’Sullevan , u foreword by hrh The princess royal se n o T his book is dedicated to the protection of horses, ponies and donkeys and is based on T first-hand international experience from a lifetime spent with horses – hunting, racing a and welfare – whether with The Pony Club, The Jockey Club or international horse charity. b Horse Welfare, Use not Abuse is about all equines from The Pony Club to the highest u levels of performance – racing, show jumping, eventing and endurance riding. In his s travels, Christopher has met the leaders of most of the equestrian sports both nationally e and internationally. From a position of authority, he provides an insight into the high stakes world of racing where winning is everything and calls for tougher measures to fight drug abuse, condemning outright all those who use drugs to achieve victory. Horses are beautiful animals that can work with their owners to the best effect; it is c h only right that they should all be cared for with respect so that the partnership is more r equal, one of working together and free from abuse. i s T aHDoA ffoibo sRrorcsmuaiepct eS litinrhhn gCoea wWrhay,ua e OitClrhfmloaoymrrmae:n m Cpa onihiatfdrt aWie asnet o;fdo ora ptlr dhhfmo eeHrer Sm roHo Sreuasrttele lhC w,W hOoaeafrB lidEfrE amno,r gfeTa lt.naD hn eo,d fDJ oAtLhcg,ke rS eLioyco luCincltldiuutoobrnra,, lc I whSnaoatesicrr iainen tTagytr ;iut oahsnnetaedirel opher Picture of the author with his wife Susanna, and Bushranger winner of 11 races ha l l £18.99/$27.95 World Horse Welfare will benefit from the sale of every copy of this book Whittles Publishing chrisTopher hall horse Welfare, use not abuse Christopher hall Whittles Publishing Published by Whittles Publishing Ltd., Dunbeath, Caithness, KW6 6EG, Scotland, UK www.whittlespublishing.com © 2015 C. Hall All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. ISBN 978-184995-163-0 Printed by ‘I can hear the creak of the saddle and the clop and clink of hoofs as we cross the bridge over the brook by Dundell Farm; there is a light burning in the farmhouse window, and the evening star glitters above a broken drift of half-luminous cloud. ‘Only three miles more, old man’, I say, slipping to the ground to walk alongside of him for a while.’ (Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Siegfried Sassoon) Contents Contents .......................................................................................................... vii Introduction .................................................................................................... ix Beginnings ............................................................................................. 1 The professional circuit ....................................................................... 9 At the races .......................................................................................... 19 The Jockey Club .................................................................................. 36 The Disciplinary Committee ............................................................. 43 The Appeal Board ............................................................................... 56 Another world ..................................................................................... 62 Europe ................................................................................................... 76 Into Africa ............................................................................................ 86 Latin America ...................................................................................... 95 The law and education ..................................................................... 102 Where are we now? .......................................................................... 109 Our farms ........................................................................................... 122 Horses and us tomorrow ................................................................. 135 A brief history of World Horse Welfare ................................................... 145 Index ................................................................................................................ 147 aCknoWledgements I now have a chance to thank many people for their help and encouragement in the writing of this book. My wife, Susanna, was advised by one of her flat mates before we became engaged, ''Why not marry the man, look after him and be a mother to his horses?'' What a result, and thank goodness she did because we have been able to do so many of the things referred to in this book together. I have been very fortunate. While I was the Jockey Club Disciplinary Chairman I worked closely with Nigel McFarlane who was in charge of that department and knows the rules of racing so well. He has been invaluable in correcting a number of errors that I had made. Horse racing is a great sport but it is not immune from problems some of which I have taken the liberty of raising - I hope in a useful way. Roly Owers has been highly effective since becoming Chief Executive of World Horse Welfare in 2008 and I must thank him and all his team, in particular the Field Officers, the Farm Managers in UK and the HQ staff who were always ready to help and advise. There is a great feeling of personal involvement both in the UK and across the world and I pay tribute to all those who carry out the charity's work, in particular in Central America, South Africa, Lesotho and Senegal. I am very proud to have been part of it and thank all those that I worked with for their support. Bob Whittington has helped me collect my thoughts and kept ''my nose to the grindstone" as I worked on the text, Without his advice, interest and involvement the book, much of which is based on the diaries that I kept at the time, would never have been written. Finally, I must thank my publisher, Keith Whittles, for his interest, enthusiasm and tolerance waiting for the finished manuscript. There are so many other people that I may not have named but who have influenced me about the essential goodness of those who care for their horses and donkeys and for that I will always be grateful Christopher Hall vii introduCtion It is hard for me to think of a more satisfying pastime than riding my horse across beautiful countryside. For some, though, it seems hard to consider working with horses without breaking all laws of compassion and inflicting cruelty in a drive to make money. My life had revolved around two things – the law and my love of horses – until, in my second ‘career’, the two became inextricably linked. Working with the leading charity World Horse Welfare, I applied what I had learned as a lawyer to my all-consuming passion for the protection and welfare of horses in the glamorous worlds of show jumping and racing, and then to the desperate plight of ordinary working horses at home and around the globe. I would not have traded for anything my time with the Jockey Club, which was in complete control of racing when I became a member in 1990. There were daily challenges, complaints, furious rows and accusations from all quarters: if we weren’t incompetent amateurs, we were defending the indefensible – cruelty to the very animals we claimed to cherish. We interfered too much in the use of whips, or didn’t interfere enough. We were portrayed as cowards in the face of criticism from professionals with vested interests. One thing, though, is certain: for better or for ill, depending on one’s point of view, we were, at least, in control. As different nations become more dominant and different types of racing become more attractive to the public, what organisation, if any, has that same grip on British racing affairs today? While the jockeys, trainers, show jumpers and eventers I have encountered have a great love of horses, there are always exceptions who hit the headlines, breaking the rules, even resorting to drug abuse to gain that extra yard, and who are prepared to offend repeatedly, dragging the sport’s reputation down with them. The only way to beat the drug abusers is to make the penalties so severe that it is not worth taking the risk; plans to increase suspensions and to prevent those convicted and their horses from ever associating with professional competitors, even banning offenders from teaching or producing competition horses, must surely be welcomed. But make no mistake: we are playing a catch-up game as the drugs masking the abuse become ever more sophisticated and the rewards for the ix

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