BLACK CAVIAR – BRED TO DEATH
Poor Black Caviar didn’t “die peacefully,” as the headlines claimed. She died in pain, just hours after giving birth to a colt who also didn’t survive. [We first wrote about her story a year ago here.]
Black Caviar was a racing legend — unbeaten in 25 starts, with nearly $8 million in prize money. Fans assumed she’d enjoy a long, peaceful retirement. Instead, she was kept on the relentless breeding treadmill, expected to produce a foal every year.
She had a foal most years since retiring to stud. Even in years when she didn’t give birth, she was still “served” by a stallion multiple times, sometimes just weeks after foaling.
If she didn’t get pregnant, she was sent back again — year after year. Her record lists eight foals, but with the colt who died uncounted, she actually carried nine pregnancies.
We are going to repeat what we just stated: Black Caviar did not have a foal every year but she was “serviced” by a stallion every year in an attempt to have her get pregnant. When a broodmare doesn’t get pregnant, as you’ll see below it’s referred to as “missed”.
Black Caviar missed several times, and one year she missed twice.
Media reported she died from a milk infection that turned into laminitis. In reality, pregnancy exacerbates hoof problems, and pushing a mare’s body year after year takes a toll.
Her dam, Helsinge, died from a reaction to medication after breeding — a grim family pattern.
The racing and breeding industry is a numbers game: breed enough foals and eventually one might win. This “production line” ignores the welfare of the mares.
A foal is often taken from its mother too soon, and the cycle begins again — some mares produce 10 foals in their lifetime.
Others as many as 16.
In the wild, mares generally foal at most every second year, in their natural herd – with a stallion they know.
In the industry, they rarely meet the stallion; teaser ponies are used to detect heat, and humans control every aspect of a forced breeding that does not resemble the way horses breed in the wild.
It is important to note it’s not uncommon for handlers to use a device called a “twitch,” during breeding. It twists the soft part of the mare’s nose to maintain control while the stallion mounts her.
Video above from Changing Rein: Professor Madeleine Campbell on the ethical aspects of horse breeding.
BLACK CAVIAR EARNED $8 MILLION &
WAS NOT DESERVING OF A PEACEFUL RETIREMENT?
Australia has 30,000+ active racehorses. Every year, 8,000 leave racing or breeding, and most are discarded unless they’ve won or produced winners – and even referred to in the industry as ‘wastage‘.
Sadly, even top winning and producing horses end up in the slaughter pipeline.
The racing industry is all about not getting attached to horses and the ‘need’ for ‘fresh legs’.
Once a mare becomes infertile, many are sent to slaughter or used to feed greyhounds.
Although Black Caviar did not end up in the slaughter pipeline her fame didn’t save her from the system. She was a national treasure, but to the industry, she was a money-making machine — bred until her body gave out...
Black Caviar’s story illustrates the sad, brutal – dare we say – barbaric reality behind the glamour – behind the so called “sport of kings”
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