Quote:
Originally Posted by billethius
I'd argue that the specific use of steroids isn't the problem. Rather, the weakening of the breed over the past half century thanks to the American thoroughbred being bred purely for speed - along with other breeding practices I've chronicled elsewhere on this board - combined with the use of medications that create genetic dependencies (bute, lasix, etc..) has done far more damage than something like Winstrol.
On the other hand, plenty of improvements have also been made. Better diagnostic equipment and practices allow trainers to catch injuries earlier and prevent many breakdowns that previously would have gone unnoticed. Theraputic medication has advanced that allows horses to recover from problems that previously would have led to death.
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I'll preface this post by saying that I don't know a whole lot about horse racing or horses in general. But I do have a strong background in animal genetics, and I am in charge of genetic matings of 700 dairy cattle. I believe this post is spot on.
I can't speak for horses, like I said before, but in dairy cattle we've seen a lot of problems arise in the past 10-15 years due to breeding philosophies that fit only specific desires of the humans making selections. Inbreeding has run rampant.
Anytime humans are making decisions on how to mate animals, they are making the decisions to fit their purposes. In the case of these race horses, they focused on speed but seem to have neglected other aspects.
I am curious, how much inbreeding goes on with these race horses?
It's too bad that humans outside of West Virginia have figured out that inbreeding doesn't work amongst ourselves yet continue to do so with our animals. In the case of my cattle, selection for insane amounts of milk production has been the norm, but now I've hit the emergency brakes on that theory and my philosophy is now centered on survivability. It'd probably be hard to back off selecting for speed in horse racing, but I think it's clear that they could use a little more genetic diversity.