equine ethics | Horse Racing Free Tips

Editor's note: Ethics is a critical reflection on how we should act and why from a moral point of view. Animal ethics studies how and why we should take nonhuman animals into account in our moral decisions. Because of public pressure and increased understanding on the sentient nature of animals, use of animals in sport and entertainment is being questioned in a way like never before. In this new series, Equine Ethics, Diana Pikulski, a former criminal defense attorney and Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, takes a look at the ways that people in racing are changing long-standing practices for the betterment of the horse.

Savvy Racing was launched by Rhett Fincher and his late wife Theresa in 2018 as their concept to train and race Thoroughbred racehorses to success in an ethical manner. Fincher is not new to racing. In fact, he was born into it. His father, Leroy Fincher, was a jockey and now trains racehorses and his mother, Leslie Fincher, was a trainer. His brother Todd rode races for several years and is now a successful trainer.

“I always enjoyed being an exercise rider and rode the tough horses that other riders couldn't manage,” said Fincher. “My goal was to be a jockey. I rode some races, mostly Quarter Horses, but then I realized that I was going to be too big to do that. So, I needed a new plan.

“I figured I would work for different trainers and put together the best of what each of them knew, but that was disappointing because no one really knew the answers to the 'why' questions. Why do we do this? Why do we do that? Why do we use that bit? So, I did what they did. I tied the horses' mouths shut. I shortened my reins. But I realized that this was bad and not going to get any better.”

Fincher then started looking to trainers in other disciplines where the horses were performing and competing but who seemed more relaxed in their jobs.

“I looked to rodeo clowns whose horses were doing tricks at liberty, and watched sessions in natural horsemanship where horses were loose and willingly engaged with people and other horses,” said Fincher. “I thought this must not work with Thoroughbreds or these trainers would be in racing where all the money is.”

Realizing that he was going to have to apply his efforts full time to learning a better way to communicate with horses, Fincher devoted himself to training in natural horsemanship, which can be defined as training horses through communication based on how a horse interacts with others in a herd, horse behavior, horse anatomy, and the evolution of how horses came to be partners with humans. Contrary to what Fincher first believed–that natural horsemanship would not apply to Thoroughbred racehorses–he found every indication that it would.

Savvy Racing is a racing partnership based on horse training methods that can resolve the ethical dilemmas that can plague the sport. While it is still in the experimental stage (its first homebreds have just turned two but will not race until they are three), Fincher is finding success in the mature horses owned by Savvy that are training and running with the speed and over the distance required to win races.

Horses at Savvy Racing | Courtesy of Savvy Racing

Savvy's website reads, in part: “[Savvy Racing] programs are based on a foundation of principles that puts the horses' needs first by developing a connection with the horse, mentally, emotionally, and physically with the long-term welfare of the horse in mind. Hence our mission is to race our horses with no whips, chains, or performance-enhancing drugs while always keeping the horse's dignity intact.”

“It is about the relationship,” said Fincher. “In the relationship, the horse has four responsibilities: don't change gaits, don't change direction, look where you are going, and act like a partner, not a prey animal.

“Our responsibility is to act like a partner, not a predator. And, to have independent feet and independent seat. Sit and stand in neutral and be part of the flow of energy, not an impediment.”

When the rider and the horse are in sync in their relationship, the horse wastes no energy on fear and runs with confidence and fitness as opposed to adrenaline. In Fincher's mind, emotional and mental fitness are vital to success.

“Horses that are running in opposition to the rider are wasting energy,” said Fincher. “Their energy is not being used in a productive way. They are not using the muscles that they need to run effectively in a race.

“Unlike a horse that is running a race off adrenaline, a horse that is connected to its rider as a leader stays in its bubble with its rider and looks to the rider for its cues. No energy is wasted by taking cues from the other horses in the race. And no energy is wasted by pulling against the rider's hands.”

Continued Fincher, “Racing and training for a horse is just a pattern. Horses know that they come out of their stall, do this pattern, get the hard part over and then go back to the barn. Our horses are trained to be in a herd with the rider–connected to the rider and the rider is the leader.

“When the horse knows his job, he or she ignores all other stimuli and waits for direction, how fast, how slow. You set the throttle and then change speed accordingly. Pulling on the horses face constantly to keep the horse in control is the worst thing that you can do to a horse's performance.”

Coady

When it comes time to race a Savvy Racing horse, Fincher said he would hire a jockey who is trained to ride and communicate in harmony with the program's principles.

“He or she will learn,” said Fincher. “We don't pull. We need a rider who is in the program because riding different horses, not trained this way, will be difficult. A rider on one of our horses can't just pick up the reins and apply pressure.”

Veteran exercise rider Valerie Buck, who worked for Hall of Fame trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Todd Pletcher, among others, rode sets with Fincher in Ocala this past spring.

“It's definitely different,” said Buck. “We walk to and from the track on a loose rein. When the horse gets up and going, we have contact and we work like we do with any other horse. But it just feels much more balanced and when it's time to slow down, I just stop riding and the horse relaxes. Then the horse blows out and is totally relaxed again for the walk home.”

Savvy Racing has some initial investors and Fincher is hoping to attract many more. One Ocala couple, Claudia and Bill Parkhurst, who know Fincher from his connection to natural horsemanship training, have joined the syndicate and spent mornings this spring watching the horses work.

“We really enjoy horses,” said Claudia Parkhurt. “We believe in the world of natural horsemanship training and we are curious to see if will transfer to Thoroughbred racing. We love to see the relaxation and the confidence in the horses on the track.”

“Technically, this is still an experiment,” said Fincher, now back at his home base in Arkansas. “Once we realize, as a society, that animals–in this case, horses–deserve more attention to their brain, and we treat them in a way that makes them thrive with confidence and curiosity, there will be no turning back. Racehorses will be happy, well-adjusted and the people who work with them will have positive relationships with the horses, never confrontational and abusive.

“If you love horses, and love racing, this is where it is going to go.”

For more information, visit savvyracingllc.com.

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Editor's note: This column is the first in our new series about the strides horse racing is making to advance the ethical treatment of racehorses.

On many levels, those in horse racing and breeding are working to ensure the sport is humane and ethical. New studies and standards about track surfaces, stress, medications, diagnostics and more, shed light on how to ensure the safety and comfort of racehorses. Enforcement of anti-doping regulations has reached a new level with better use of surveillance, hotlines and other anti-crime tactics. And in the U.S, there is a major attempt at regulation uniformity and centralization of enforcement efforts.

Good horsemen will tell you it's important to have a horse in a positive mindset no matter what you ask of him or her. The use of force, fear and intimidation to make a horse comply are not only seen as inhumane and unethical by today's moral standards, but are ineffectual.

But one big question remains: how do we ensure that horses are treated humanely and ethically by the people who handle them every day at the barn and on the track?

A good groom can be the companion that a horse needs in its unnatural lifestyle on the track. But a frustrated, fearful or untrained groom or hotwalker can be a daily living nightmare for a horse.
In more than one way, the starting gate is where the 'rubber meets the road' as far as the relationship between humans and horses on the racetrack. To successfully enter the race, a horse must safely enter the starting gate, stand quietly (sometimes for several minutes) and then break from the gate efficiently. This process is often done on television in close-up where millions of people can see it go well or go badly.

In the not-too-distant past, horses were often dragged, pushed, punished or tricked into going into gate, after spectators witnessed an unfortunate battle of wills between the assistant starters and the fearful, reluctant horse. When a horse is in the wrong mindset, the gate is a dangerous place for the horse as well as the rider and the assistant starter. If the horse does get through the process of being forced into the gate, it will likely break and race on an adrenaline rush, the least optimal way to perform in the race.

We asked retired New York Racing Association (NYRA) Head Starter Robert (Bob) Duncan, renowned for his success at transforming starting gate protocol, to talk about his experience in running the gate-schooling and starting-gate program at NYRA and how he came to be a proponent of natural horsemanship at the gate and throughout all elements of the training, racing and breeding process.

TDN: You are credited with revolutionizing the starting gate process. What about your experience on the gate caused you to go on that quest?

RD: During my early years as an assistant starter, we had been following traditional methods of gate work that often called for more insistent ways to get horses into the gate with the intention to mimic the pace of the race day experience. When coaxing failed, we would, at times, resort to using force, fear or mental intimidation. This caused the horses to become fractious, and at times explosive. So, we found various ways to restrain and contain them. We were treating the symptoms but not the disease. Frustration led to anger and escalation as we had no understanding of the instincts or needs of the horse.

I liken it to being a five-year-old entering school for the first time only to find out that everyone there spoke a different language than you. The school is spooky and the classroom is loud and crowded with threatening-looking people who speak gibberish. When you don't respond to their instruction, they get frustrated and speak louder and louder at you. Now they are surrounding you with angry expressions on their face. Now they start pushing you then slapping you while you struggle to figure out what they want. You feel like your life is being threatened and you want to escape.

TDN: What changes did you first implement in your experiment?

RD: While still a foreman, I was given the freedom to take a fresh look at our gate procedures with an eye toward finding more horse friendly ways of preparing horses at the gate.
Traditions die hard, especially in the insular world of horse racing. For instance, when I started on the gate, the wisdom of the day was that horses had to be wound “tight as a watch” to give their best efforts at leaving the gate. Horses were drilled from the gate with bells ringing, doors slamming and a slap on the rump if there was a moment's hesitation. Truth is, horses are taught to react to the movement of the front doors. All the other commotion is background noise. If the horse needs to react to the bell, he missed the break because the bell rings a split second after the doors open.

Duncan in his early days at NYRA | Coglianese photo

The changes started with us slowing the schooling process down and allowing the horses the time and environment to learn the gate process in an unthreatening way. We also broke from the old “one size fits all” regimentation and concentrated on each horse as an individual needing particular care.

We started to see improvements. The atmosphere at the gate was calmer, more conducive to learning. But we were still stumbling along like a blind pig searching for an acorn.

Also, in the early stages much thought was given to making the gate more habitable. More padding was added to the stall space at the horses' hips to stabilize them as they reset their feet at the start. The extra padding reduced stumbling. It also prevented knee injuries that were so common among gate crews. (When a horse broke awkwardly, it often drove its hip into the assistant's calf, torqueing the knee.) The Japanese Racing Association had an interesting schooling gate at its Mijo training facility. Stalls were graded from a large walk-through stall down to an actual racing stall, allowing their horses to acclimate to the constriction of the small racing gates. All our schooling gates now have a similar adaptation.

Later, as I learned the natural body language of horses and how to establish oneself as a leader worthy of a horse's trust, we changed our approach and steps to gate schooling. We no longer needed buggy whips, forceful loading from behind or even, except in the rarest of cases, blindfolds.

TDN: Were those initial changes acknowledged and well received?

RD: Word of our changes started to get around and we found trainers to be less resistant when asked to school a problem horse. Joanie Lawrence, a friend of mine who worked at The Jockey Club offices in NYC, called one morning, to ask if she could come out to Belmont to write an article about what we were doing.

Joanie's one page article was read by Stu Kirshenbaum, a television short films producer for Winner Communications. He brought a crew out to do a short piece on our “new” methods and the ball started rolling. To this day, I credit Joanie for opening up a life-changing world to me that I didn't know existed.

Later in that same summer of the short film, the legendary horseman Monty Roberts sought me out at the races in Saratoga. At the time, his book, “The Man Who Listens To Horses”, was on a long run at number one on the New York Times best seller list. Monty was in Saratoga for a book signing but he had seen the piece we did and he was impressed. He complimented the crew and proceeded to invite me out to his Flag is Up Farm in Solvang, Ca. A couple of weeks later, in early September, I received a letter from the University of Arizona, asking me to participate in the Symposium on Racing. Tom Durkin moderated and Monty Roberts was also on the panel. Directly after the Tucson panel, I went to his ranch to be a part of his work with a horse that was having 'severe gate issues.'

TDN: What were some of your “aha” moments as you developed this knowledge and plan?

RD: The first of many aha moments occurred the next spring after the Tucson conference. Monty called to invite me to a demonstration he was doing in Topsfield, Massachusetts. My 15-year-old son David was with me. Monty had us placed in the arena in the front row of a small group of people that surrounded a round pen. The arena behind us held a couple thousand people. Monty explained that the horse he invited was a 14-year-old mare who had never loaded into a horse trailer without being staggeringly tranquilized.
A step-up trailer was backed into the opening of the pen. It was easy to see that the mare was on edge in these unfamiliar surroundings with a fairly vocal crowd. Monty held a coiled line that was snapped to the mare's halter. While he spoke, he asked the mare to step backward and then forward, using only as much pressure on the lead line as needed to get a response. The second she responded, he released the pressure. With each ask, he became lighter, eventually just barely leaning towards her and she quickened in her response until it seemed they were connected with an invisible thread.

He paused for a moment and asked someone in the immediate area to note how long it took to load the mare. With that Monty turned, dropping lengths of the lead to the floor, and walked briskly toward the trailer. Even before the slack went out of the rope the mare hustled up behind Monty following him directly into the step-up trailer, turning inside and hanging her head over Monty's shoulder. It was a show stopper.

He finished his demo by asking the crowd not to applaud just yet. He then unsnapped his lead and walked back to the far side of the arena. He said when I tip my hat you can applaud. He did so and at the burst of applause the mare hopped out of the trailer and ran over to Monty hanging her head over his shoulder again. It was all about the mare accepting Monty as a leader and finding safe haven with him. With his technique of creating a connection with her, she found a leader she could understand and trust. He was speaking her language.

This was exactly what I had been searching for. This was an unspoken language that all horses understood. David and I drove back to Belmont late that night. We went straight to the starting gate and napped until the first two horses showed up to school.

We snapped a lead on each one and mimicked the moves that Monty used. It worked so well that both horses almost jogged into the starting gate. We were on our way.

In Wednesday's TDN: Part II of Ethics: A Case for Teaching the Language of Horses

Diana Pikulski is a partner at Yepsen & Pikulski Public Affairs, and a former criminal defense attorney who served as the first Executive Director of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. She is married to Bob Duncan.

Watch Alayna Cullen's 2017 interview with Duncan below:

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