Georgia Quinn, a work rider for Chris Barber Racing & Hartpury University student doing a degree in racehorse performance does “understand” the reason behind horse racing protests.
Horse racing protests happen all year round but come into focus when big events like the Cheltenham Festival take centre stage.
"My Grandfather has won this race so many times. To do it with Will, I can't believe it"
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) April 13, 2023
An emotional win for Chris Barber in the Foxhunters'#ITVRacing | #GrandNational pic.twitter.com/tjVMXXpTgq
“I do agree with some of the points they’re making, I understand where they’re coming from, obviously the whip is a very controversial piece of equipment and I think we do need to come to some sort of compromise almost to keep everyone happy.
“I understand why it looks bad and understand that if you don’t work in racing that you wouldn’t understand the need for the whip and the safety reasons we carry and you wouldn’t understand the mechanics of the whip.”
THIS IS WHAT WE WERE TRYING TO STOP FROM HAPPENING.
— Animal Rising (@AnimalRising) April 15, 2023
Several horses fell during this race – how many will be killed due to their injuries?
Absolutely heartbreaking chaos for horses that never got a choice in the matter.
MAKE SURE THE GRAND NATIONAL NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
Sign… pic.twitter.com/DFMnR5nBZC
Despite agreeing with some of the points these protesters make, Quinn believes that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that proves racing isn’t a horrible experience for the horses.
“I do understand how it does look from an outside perspective, I understand why people would think we didn’t treat the horses well, obviously you’ve got these big massive yards, hundreds of horses and people are going to think that we aren’t treating them well and like we don’t have time for them or whatever.
“I think we need to do a bit more as an industry to highlight the good bits and take people into the yard to show them around.
“The national racehorse week where they open up all the yards is very good and it’s done a lot for getting people into racing, it’s showing them that we don’t actually abuse our horses and we do actually love them.”
Working within the horse racing industry, I asked Quinn what she would say to a racing protester in a one on one conversation.
“We need to get people like this who have doubt into yards because they would see how much we love the horses.
“I have my horses that I ride every day in my yard and I absolutely adore them, like I come into work every morning, say hello to them, like I would spend all day at this yard if I could with all my horses just brushing them and stuff, they are looked after like kings and queens, they are so well treated and we do everything in our power to look after them because at the end of the day we put so much work, time and effort into these horses, why would we want to be horrible and abuse them and stuff like that?
“We absolutely love them, you spend every day with these animals, it’s like having a dog or something like that, they are genuinely are your whole life.”
It is very common for horses to fall or pull out of a race, which gives protesters more and more evidence into why they want to ban the sport, but Quinn explained the process horses go through after sustaining an injury.
“I’d say the most common injuries in race horses will probably be tendon, they can be overuse or the horses can stretch out too far.
“The best way is to just warm them up, make sure they’re getting their physio and all stuff like that and then they’re moving properly and they’re less likely to do a tendon.
“If they do do one, it basically just gets scanned, we see the severity, have a bit of box rest, go out in the field and let it heal up properly and then they can come back into work gradually.
“The more we do to prevent it, the better it is really because it’s not ideal horses usually do a tendon and they’ll be out for the rest of the season, so we do everything we can to prevent that.”
A work rider is responsible for looking after racehorses, keeping them fit and ready for race day, Quinn showed us what a typical day in the life looks like as a work rider.
“Up at around five, get to the yard for six and muck my horses out, usually about six horses to muck out, then I will crack on tacking up and we usually pull out the first lot for about seven o’clock. Then we hack up to the gallops depending on which one we’re on, we have a deep sand and we’ve got woodchip hill gallop, so crack on, ride our lot, come back in, wash them off, check them back in and we can usually have between five to seven lots, could be more, could be less depending on what jockeys are in and then when I’ve ridden all my lots usually just help out around the yard and get done for about one o’clock and then I go home, i’m quite lucky I don’t have to do the stables, we have a girl that comes in and does the stables every night so that’s not one of my jobs and from one o’clock onwards the day is sort of my own which is quite good.”
