25/07/2025
Tristezza...
I almost laughed out loud at this caption because it so aptly illustrates the disconnect many people have from what their horses behaviour is saying.
The irony of this caption is that it was intended to be read as “look at how luxurious the life of a top class racehorse is” but for people who look at the lip chain and the very clearly stressed horse, it reads very differently.
The OP is not a horse person, he just happens to own a racehorse. He really doesn’t play much of a role in normalizing this type of equipment and the behaviour of racehorses.
Sandman is 3 years old, a baby who is still growing.
He’s been shipped around the country for big races and has been in strenuous physical training for at least a year.
He’s won people a lot of money.
Yet, he’s so stressed that he can’t even cope with standing for a bath without a gum chain.
It’s time that horse people all collectively ask ourselves:
“How is this justifiable if this is what it takes?”
If a horse cannot safely be handled for basic care practices without painful equipment, why are they being pushed to compete for the benefit of people?
Any behaviour that “justifies” needing to lead horses around with the threat of a chain against their gums is the product of unmet needs and stressful environments.
There wouldn’t be so many racehorses “needing” to be led around in nose chains and lip chains because they can’t walk 20ft down the aisle way and stand for basic care because they’re stressed out of their minds if people didn’t create the environments that caused this.
The “need” for equipment like lip chains speaks for a greater issue of the welfare of horses.
This isn’t just about racing either, the same issues are present across the horse world.
This 3 year old c**t is being pushed to his physical max, shipped around to different tracks, all while being stabled for the majority of his day.
Most of these racehorses are in a stall for anywhere from 18-24 hours a day.
That factor alone is behind much of the explosive behaviour many people try to play off as “just being a racehorse.”
It happens with show horses too, the explosive “quirky” behaviour that people try to claim is the result of just being a really nice and successful competition horse.
In reality, the reason why many of these high end horses have similar behaviours is because of their shared trauma and unmet needs.
If you go look at the lifestyle of the horses who are the most reactive, many of them are missing the same needs.
Confinement and isolation for a social herd animal is incredibly stressful.
When you then pair that with painful equipment to control them when they react outwardly, horses have virtually no choices.
They’re gagged in their reactions at every turn all while people do nothing to address the reasons why they’re behaving in a way that would make a lip chain “helpful” for control.
“But he’s a stallion!”
I don’t care. He wouldn’t behave in a way that makes a lip chain necessary if he wasn’t so stressed and if handling for basic care practices was prioritized.
In literally every other competitive horse discipline, it’s much more common to expect stallions to behave like normal horses. Yes, even around mares.
If they cannot be safe in a public setting without a lip chain, why are they there? Especially as a 3 year old. They haven’t even hit sexual maturity yet. They’re an adolescent.
“You’ve obviously never worked with racehorses!”
Oh but I have. I worked as a gallop rider for a number of years.
The difference in stress behaviour I saw when working for a barn where horses got turned out vs ones at the track full time speaks for itself.
This is further proven by all of the studies on racehorses and stress behaviour.
Stereotypic behaviours (stall vices) like cribbing and weaving are extremely common in racehorses for a reason. The stress.
There are decades worth of studies on top of what you can witness in real time at virtually any racetrack.
And it doesn’t have to be this way.
Racing and all other horse sports could be so much more ethical if people would just implement the changes and stop putting their own desires first.
Instead, they deny factual information showing need for change and defend status quo. 
Then, they try to use the fear of the sport being banned to quiet any discussion of welfare.
The greatest risk to the horse industry is horse people.
Publicly flaunting how out of touch we are with what we’re doing to horses in the name of competition while refusing any discussion of reasonable welfare protocol changes just gives those outside of the horse world more reason to want a ban in the first place.
A ban would be the result of people believing the horse world cannot be fixed and salvaged in any way.
Want to know the quickest way to make people believe that?
Refusing any change and making excuses for all behaviour while sharing highly public evidence of what is going on in the horse world.
Welfare organizations and people like me would have nothing to post about if people started implementing changes.
The fact that imagery that makes the horse world look bad exists in such prevalence speaks for the lack of change.
The writing has been on the wall for decades and people have continued to ignore it and stick their heads in the sand.
People have continued to prioritize their own interests and refused to make needed changes.
If a ban ever does happen, it will be the result of the refusal to change.
Not the result of people advocating for horses.
Lip chains are not necessary equipment for regular handling.
They’re the result of people trying to subdue horses that are going out of their minds because they’re so stressed.
And it’s frankly inexcusable for people to try to normalize the regular use of them for basic tasks.
If a horse cannot cope with basic handling, why are we pushing them to do much more on behalf of people?
If we want to claim that horse sports “always put the horse first” then people need to start proving that through their actions because so many people are seeing right through those claims.
I frankly don’t blame people for having a bad impression of horse people if these are the types of things that are being normalized.
Horse racing could be so much more ethical.
It would be astonishing how much behaviour of racehorses would change even if the “simple” fact of the lack of turnout was addressed and nothing else.
All horse sports have the capacity to improve welfare for horses but it requires for humans to put their ego aside and recognize the fact that putting the horse first might involve them having to change the way they do things.
If you love the sport and want to preserve it, start with no longer defending practices that are only made “necessary” due to the stress inflicted on horses.
The writing is on the wall.
The facts are well documented.
Studies are highly public and accessible.
The general public can see this.
They can also see horse people denying it and refusing to change.
If we keep doing that, we will be the ones who kill the industry, not those who stop supporting it because they don’t like what they see.
Anyone using horses for sport has a responsibility to provide their basic needs.
If the sport cannot be done while providing those needs, the ethics deserve to be called to question.
But, the reality is, the capacity to better horse welfare across all sports is there.
It just requires humans to care enough to reflect and do the uncomfortable work of admitting where we’ve gone wrong.
