the 7th blog assignment

In her essay, “The Horse Racing Industry: Issues and Reforms”, Christa Kurman proves her claim that Thoroughbred horses should be treated better, with series of evidences and information. She argues that the reality of the horse racing industry is nothing more than just a cruel abuse of horses and should be changed to create a more favorable environment for the horses. First, Kurman starts her essay off by presenting an example of Eight Belles’ accident at the Kentucky Derby. Then, she goes on with some facts on how body to leg ratio are tampered during breeding to make the horse run faster and look more beautiful, resulting in frequent chronic soreness and lower leg injuries. The claims are supported by statistical evidences in the next paragraph. The genetics of Thoroughbred horses are used to prove Kurman’s point that the genetic pool is artificially shrunk in order to keep only the horses with good traits in the pool. Problems are not only created from the horses themselves but also from the ground they are forced to run on. Horses are physically featured to run on fields covered in grass rather than on dirt tracks, which is responsible for a huge portion of physical injuries of horses. Kurman spends almost half of her essay on how jockeys use drugs that are both legal and illegal to boost up their horses’ performance despite the fact that the drugs have seriously detrimental consequences on the horses. She concludes with the fact that people do not pay the matter enough attention because they think of horses as nothing more than “objects of human amusement.” She refutes the claim by quoting Gandhi’s saying. I found this essay very persuasive. The logical sequence of information supports her claim effectively and the conclusion is precise, helping the readers to easily sum up what she has said.