[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.20.1″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.20.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”]<\/p>\n
I<\/span>n\u00a0<\/span>March, screams erupted in the crowd of thousands at the annual Carolina Cup as two horses in separate races stumbled and fell. \u00a0While both horses survived, falls like these highlight a larger controversial topic about the safety of horses.<\/span><\/p>\n The Carolina Cup is one of two steeplechase races that happen every year at the Springdale Training Center and Race Course in Camden, South Carolina. \u00a0Steeplechase racing is a type of horse racing where thoroughbreds jump over fences at a fast pace along a course.<\/p>\n Toby Edwards, the executive director of the Carolina Cup Association, is a former jockey and trainer and now helps manage the training center and race course. He says the safety of the horses is the number one priority during the races.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything about the sport is made up to make it safe. The horse is to all of us… more of a pet to us in steeplechasing. It\u2019s still a sport, it\u2019s not a business. The people involved love their horses, and they\u2019re not about to put them at risk,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n While Edwards acknowledged the sport can be dangerous, he says there are multiple safety precautions put into place to protect the horses. He said improvements will continue to be made.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll never sit on our laurels and think that we\u2019ve finalized it, we\u2019ve figured it out. So every year there are more protocols that have been put in place to make sure it is as safe as it possibly can be,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n On the day of the race, several veterinarians are on site, and each horse is examined before the race begins. If the horse is injured during the race, there are several state-of-the-art ambulances on the property.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is every bit as good as and probably better than your average human ambulance.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically an ICU for a horse on wheels,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Witwer, owner of the South Carolina Equine Associates, is one of the veterinarians who helps with the race horses, and says while they mostly deal with torn ligaments and tendons, sometimes they see more serious injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the jumps we do unfortunately see broken necks, broken shoulders, long bone fractures sometimes because of the impact hitting the ground at that speed. A lot of times those have to be euthanized,\u201d Witwer said.<\/p>\n While these injuries still happen, Witwer says they save a lot more horses than they used to, and the overall safety of the horses has improved.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a more thorough and more uniform examination before the races so horses with problems and lame horses are not allowed to run. So that helps a lot, and the medical, the veterinarian attention at the races I think is better than it used to be,\u201d Witwer said.<\/p>\n Edwards thinks it’s important to understand why people get into steeplechase racing and how the health of their horses is always their priority.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at the owners of steeplechasing, they tend to be in it for the love of the horse. They\u2019ve been in it generationally often, and they like to see their horse come off the race course strong, healthy, fit,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.20.1″][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.20.1″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Steeplechase racing is a popular type of horse racing along the Southeast, but the safety of the horses is a concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":21479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" Earlier this year in March\u2026thousands of people throughout the Southeast came to watch the Carolina Cup at Camden, South Carolina. This is one of two Steeple Chase races that happen every year at the Springdale Training Center and Race Course. Steeple Chase racing is a type of horse racing where thoroughbreds jump over fences at a fast pace along a course.<\/p> This year two horses fell during the race. While both survived, it highlights a larger controversial topic about the safety of the horses during races.<\/p> Toby Edwards, the Executive Director of the Carolina Cup Association, is a former jockey and trainer and now helps manage the training center and race course. He says the safety of the horses is the number one priority during the races.<\/p> \u201cEverything about the sport is made up to make it safe. The horse is to all of us he is more of a pet to us in Steeple Chasing. It\u2019s still a sport it\u2019s not a business the people involved love their horses, and they\u2019re not about to put them at risk,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p> While Edwards admits the sport can be dangerous, he says there are multiple safety precautions put into place to protect the horses and improvements will continue to be made. \u201cWe\u2019ll never sit on our laurels and think that we\u2019ve finalized it, we\u2019ve figured it out. So every year there are more protocols that have been put in place to make sure it is as safe as it possibly can be,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p> On the day of the race, several veterinarians are on site, and each horse is examined before the race begins. If the horse is injured during the race, there are several state-of-the-art ambulances on the property. \u201cIt is every bit as good as and probably better than your average human ambulance.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically an ICU for a horse on wheels,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p> Jeffrey Witwer, the owner of the South Carolina Equine Association, is one of the veterinarians who helps with the race horses, and says while they mostly deal with torn ligaments and tendons, sometimes they see more serious injuries. \u201cBecause of the jumps we do unfortunately see broken necks, broken shoulders, long bone fractures sometimes because of the impact hitting the ground at that speed. A lot of times those have to be euthanized,\u201d Witwer said.<\/p> While these injuries still happen, Witwer says they save a lot more horses than they used to, and the overall safety of the horses has improved. \u201cThere is a more thorough and more uniform examination before the races so horses with problems and lame horses are not allowed to run so that helps a lot, and the medical, the veterinarian attention at the races I think is better than it used to be,\u201d Witwer said.<\/p> Edwards thinks its important to understand why people get into Steeple Chase racing and how the health of their horses is always their priority.<\/p> \u201cWhen you look at the owners of Steeple Chasing, they tend to be in it for the love of the horse. They\u2019ve been in it generationally often, and they like to see their horse come of the race course strong, healthy, fit,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p> \u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[42,71,39,1],"tags":[808,435],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21031"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21513,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21031\/revisions\/21513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}