I used to ride, and enjoyed watching horse racing, but I'm far less comfortable about it as time goes on. The way that everyday "pet" horses are normally trained to be ridden makes me cringe, too; it seems totally unethical to train a prey animal using largely negative reinforcement techniques and often SO much coercion. I'm interested in the use of more modern methods of training (such as Alexandra Kurland's techniques) which are far more humane than traditional methods, but it appears the horse world has far farther to go than the dog world in adopting this as the norm.
That said, I am not educated enough to come out with a strong viewpoint that it should be banned; it just makes me uncomfortable, and for that reason, I choose not to partake in any way these days.
This is an obvious anti-horseracing propaganda video, but also makes an interesting point:
The fact that only four out of eighteen horses finished the National Hunt Race is a serious cause for concern. Something needs to change there.
Race Horse Death Watch reports that there have been over 1,500 deaths on British race courses in the last ten years - 40 already this year alone. For sport? Going back to the video, if there were that many deaths of footballers, or race car drivers, something would be done.
I thought his shoe had just come off!