A horse race is a competition of horses in which the winner is determined by the first one to cross the finish line. It is one of the oldest sports and has evolved from a primitive contest of speed or stamina into a highly sophisticated sport with huge fields of runners, advanced electronic monitoring equipment, and enormous sums of money paid for betting on the outcome.
In the horse race, a jockey rides on a steed to guide it through the course. The horse must be quick and agile to win, and jockeys are trained to be able to predict when the winning move will be made. They are also encouraged to use their own leg strength in order to gain an advantage over the competition. The game of horse racing is a very complex sport, and the skill of a jockey in guiding their mount to victory is considered to be at the pinnacle of sportsmanship.
Despite the many rules of the horse race, it is a very dangerous sport for horses. Thousands of racehorses die each year due to injuries and the stress of racing. The number of horses killed is a huge source of concern for both animal rights activists and horse-racing enthusiasts. Injuries to tendons, fractured limbs, and bone cysts are common in horses that run for a living.
These injuries can be exacerbated by a horse’s natural gait, which is called the “pacing gait.” In pacing races, the front legs of the horse move forward at the same time. To avoid breaking stride, the horses are given hobbles that connect the front and back legs on each side of their body. The pacing gait is extremely painful, and horses that cannot recover from this damage are usually euthanized.
The earliest horse races were match races between two or three horses, with the owner providing a purse for the simple wager of a bet. These early races were recorded by disinterested third parties who came to be known as keepers of the match books. One such man at Newmarket in England, John Cheny, began publishing An Historical List of All Horse-Matches Run (1729).
In modern times, horse races have become a massive public entertainment business, with huge crowds and enormous sums of money paid out on bets. A horse can be trained to win a race in several ways, including running flat (no obstacles), hurdling over small hurdles, or steeplechasing over large fences. Generally, European horses begin in National Hunt flat races as juveniles and then progress to hurdling and steeplechasing as they grow older.
Although the inauguration of the horse race as a major industry has been rapid, its popularity has since waned. Some critics have pointed out that the sport is not very socially responsible, as it encourages gambling and can result in a significant percentage of all bets being placed on favored favorites. In addition, the sport has been linked to various forms of cruelty.