I am a vet, and I read Elle Hunt’s article with great interest (‘The horses don’t choose to take part’: should equestrian sports be removed from the Olympics?, 31 July). Hunt notes that at the Olympics, routine vet checks exist, but they are not necessarily failsafe.
Veterinary schools producing equine and farm vets of the future inculcate their students with sympathy for existing practices in these industries. The No 1 way you will be considered a troublemaker on your equine and farm placements as a student is if you question standards that would be considered completely unacceptable in dogs and cats. Only the most egregious cases of neglect or direct abuse would inspire action from a visiting vet.
For example, racehorses have for many years been subjected to a surgery – laryngeal tieback – that improves their performance by opening the airway (larynx) if their airway muscles collapse due to a nerve condition. Vets doing these elective surgeries argue that it is uncomfortable for a horse to gallop at high speed without a wider airway. Wild horses with this condition would simply run less, whereas those expected to play human sports go under the knife.
Up to 75% of horses that race also suffer exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (bleeding from the lungs during exercise), and up to 90% of thoroughbred racehorses suffer with gastric ulcers due to abnormal diets that are high in concentrate foods, intense exercise and the lack of grazing. These rates are much lower in non-sport horses. This is accepted as completely normal, including by vets.
Matt Dickinson
London
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