The Original Purpose Of: Horse Racing

So, this is an idea I just came up with approximately two seconds ago, but hopefully, it'll be a good idea for a series on the blog!

Horse racing is quite likely one of the oldest sports in the world; back before the ferarri was invented, Equus ferus caballus was the fastest thing that mankind had. It's likely that testosterone-charged men were showing off with their own speed long before they ever encountered four legged vehicles but when our ancestors saw the horse, they probably thought the following:

"Wow! That animal is fast! If I rode it I could get places faster!"

The problem here, as with any animal is that most animals don't domesticate themselves. I mean, cats did, but cats are sort of weird. I'm not exactly sure how horses were domesticated and it's likely that they started out as a source of food (sadly) but soon enough our ancestors realized that there was a far greater worth in its flight friend E. f. caballus. Eventually, after people had gotten over the macho-ism involved with 'HAHA look I rode the wild horse! Bet you can't do that!' and after people started breeding horses to be ridden (or to pull things first as the case may have been according to anthropology) instead of eaten, people started wondering who had the best horses and there was only really one way to find out:

Horse racing.

The thing is, back in the day when racing horses first became more than just a thing people did for fun amongst buddies, racing was really not about money or riches at all, but about finding out who had the best equine bloodlines to breed to. This, of course led to wealth as Sheikh #1 toted the fastest stallion which Sheikh #2 wanted to breed his prize mares to and Sheikh #1 wasn't about to let his precious stud horse get laid without some compensation, if he let it happen at all.

Horse racing still remains to be, at its heart, a game about deciding and finding out whose horses are the best of the best. The sport probably evolved from tiny local races to long distance 2,000 mile jaunts in Arabia to the sport we know today here in North America. The Arabian horse has without any question dominated horse racing as it has given rise to the thoroughbred, the quarterhorse and all other swift breeds that we know today. However, people seem to forget the serious purpose of racing and that once upon a time, our ancestors may have depended on these competitions to breed faster horses which could help them in their very survival. In a sense, competitions like horse racing are a way of replicating natural selection, since only the very strongest, fastest, most enduring animals get to breed - just like in nature. This artificial form of natural selection is what produced the domestic horses we see today and not just thoroughbreds, but also heavy draft horses and all around farm horses. On top of that, these concept of competing domestic animals has created our original working breeds of dogs - no, not the pathetic show dogs we see today - the border collies, the german shepherds and the hounds and the terriers who once had purposes far more important than that of being just 'house pets.'

The purpose of horse racing, that of finding the best survives, however, in modern day people have abused the power of these animals through want of money. A racehorse a hundred years ago could run for far longer than a mile; four mile races were not uncommon. Today's horses cannot equal that, but of course, today's horses are also ridden before they are ready, before the baby hairs have completely fallen from their tails.

In my series, real horse racing is preserved in Rimer's Escavian society. Horses are not raced for money, but for the right to be bred and they are raced over great distances over rough terrain and over obstacles - an Escavian horse race is much like an endurance race but crossed with a steeplechase. Horses have to be not only fast, but agile, surefooted and they must have lots of stamina, because Escavia's society demands that of its saddle horses. Horse racing is deadly serious again. Escavian Animal Husbandry Laws state that an animal must not be bred unless it has been proven in sanctioned competition to prove that it can provide for the purpose that it was bred for. There's no such thing as backyard breeding in Escavia. If your animal has not been proven and if you don't have a government issued permit, you can't breed anything.

This is the way that I think society should be; it would certainly cut down on the instances of overpopulation in domestic animals and if people had to take a course about proper breeding practices (such as why inbreeding/'linebreeding' should NEVER be done) before they could breed anything, there would be less suffering in the world off our beloved animals. There is a country in Europe, (I believe Sweden,) which has already put into place a law which states that all pet companion animals must be altered to be infertile unless they are for certified breeding.

If only this law was everywhere!