Tough Questions August 2010 - Should Chuckwagon Racing Continue?
Since its inception at the Calgary Stampede in 1923, the sport of chuckwagon racing has become incredibly popular with both participants and spectators. However, a large number of horse deaths due to crashes, breakdowns, and heart attacks have critics demanding that chuckwagon racing be banned at the Stampede and other rodeos.
In chuckwagon racing, before mounting up, four outriders throw two tent poles and a barrel representing a campstove into the back of a chuckwagon hitched to a team of four horses. The wagon must then do a figure eight around two barrels before careening down the track in the so-called “half mile of hell.” Each wagon is followed by its outriders, and the first wagon across the finish line wins, subject to penalties for knocking over a barrel, not loading the tent poles or stove, or if an outrider crosses the finish line too far behind his wagon.
Between 1995 and 2005, there were 21 horse deaths at the Calgary Stampede’s Rangeland Derby, which offers a prize purse of $1,000,000. According to the Vancouver Humane Society’s website, “the considerable risk of injury and death to horses has made this event highly controversial but it remains one of the main attractions at the Stampede.”
However, the Calgary Stampede has introduced many new rules over the past three decades to reduce the chance of collisions and injuries occurring; though four of the six horses that died during the 2010 Stampede were chuckwagon horses, none of the deaths were due to crashes.
Chuckwagon drivers also point out that they often use horses that would have otherwise gone to slaughter after their track racing careers were over. Drivers say they love their horses and treat them well.
What do you think?
Should chuckwagon racing continue?
Comment below or email news@horsejournals.com.
Yes, chuckwagon racing should continue
I am a horse owner and have been to and worked at the Calgary Stampede.
I am in agreement with all the new rules that have been implemented into chuckwagon races, just as I am in agreement with any rules that protect horses, riders and drivers.
One needs only to be in the barns before and after races to see how well cared for these horses are. Yes, horses die at the Stampede, but horses also die in boarding barns,backyards, pastures and showrings despite top notch care and attention.
None of the deaths at this year’s Stampede were due to collisions, and the unfortunate death of the penning horse would have happened in the field or barn. The horse died immediately of a heart attack, unfortunately his rider (not wearing a helmet) was hospitalized.
The chuckwagon horses love to run, were bred to run, and I believe they are, like all horses, happier with a job that they do well. There is no cruelty involved in making them run. They are cared for, trained and worked all year round by competent, experienced horsemen and women.
As in all sports, rules and regulations regarding safety and heath are important, but let them run!
What are you talking about!
What are you talking about, that injuries like this occur in boarding barns and backyards? Are you NUTS? People do not harness 4 horses together then race them at top speed in circles in boarding barns and backyards. I have owned horses for more than 40 years and have NEVER had a broken bone or life threatening injury. It’s a cruel sport filled with “wanna-be cowboys” and no respectable horse owner would put their horse in this kind of harms way.