28/06/2026
The core welfare problem facing horses today — across racing and sport — is over‑production.
In Thoroughbred racing, this begins with breeding policy. Historically, many jurisdictions informally limited how many mares a stallion could cover, protecting quality over quantity. (Fact: Modern Thoroughbred studbooks impose no cap on stallion book size.) In Ireland, stallion income is tax‑exempt, and stallions may cover unlimited mares, creating a system that financially rewards high-volume breeding. (Fact: Ireland maintains tax exemptions for stallion income.)
This level of production inevitably creates wastage. When horses become abundant and inexpensive, it becomes easy for owners and trainers to replace rather than rehabilitate. A horse breaks? Buy another. Too slow? Move it on. Injured? Pass it down the chain. (Fact: Welfare organisations recognise over‑production as a driver of equine wastage; no study quantifies replacement behaviour.)
There is little accountability because the supply never stops.
Unlike sport horse studbooks such as Hanoverian or KWPN, the Thoroughbred studbook has no mandatory conformation, veterinary, neurological, or radiographic standards for breeding approval. (Fact: Thoroughbred stallions do not undergo licensing or conformation assessment.) Breeding is driven almost entirely by pedigree and racing performance, not structural correctness or long‑term soundness.
Genetic studies show that modern Thoroughbreds have increasing levels of inbreeding, with most genetic diversity tracing back to a small number of foundation sires. (Fact: Large genomic studies confirm rising inbreeding coefficients in TBs.) This contributes to conformational faults, behavioural sensitivity, and injury susceptibility — issues that are rarely acknowledged publicly.
The racing industry often promotes the idea that Thoroughbreds are successfully retrained for other sports. In reality, this is frequently a deflection. Many Thoroughbreds are not physically or mentally suitable for second careers due to chronic injuries, conformation issues, or high reactivity. (Fact: Research shows many TBs transition successfully, but no data quantifies how many are unsuitable.)
Retraining competitions often highlight “famous” ex‑racehorses with glamorous histories, reinforcing the narrative of success. Meanwhile, the horses with poor conformation, chronic pain, or behavioural challenges quietly disappear — often ending up in the very places the industry claims to be avoiding.
A government‑imposed cap on stallion coverings would dramatically reduce numbers, improve quality, and force owners and trainers to value the horses they already have. (Fact: No country currently enforces such caps; economic modelling supports reduced foal crops when breeding limits are applied.)
However, racing is not the only sector producing excess horses. The sport horse world also breeds in high volume. (Fact: Horse Sport Ireland and FEI welfare reports acknowledge over‑production in sport horse breeding.)
What the RTE investigation did not highlight is that many horses entering slaughterhouses are low‑value types — coloured cobs, unregistered horses, and elderly ponies who have taught generations of children to ride, only to be discarded when they are no longer convenient. (Fact: No published data breaks down slaughter demographics by breed; welfare bodies note over‑representation of low‑value horses.)
The entire equine industry needs an overhaul. We must ask ourselves: What are we breeding, and why?
This includes examining practices such as embryo transfer. Embryo transfer is widely used in sport horse breeding, yet the welfare impact on donor mares is almost entirely unstudied. A donor mare undergoes full hormonal preparation for pregnancy before the embryo is flushed at 7–8 days post‑ovulation. (Fact: Embryo is removed before implantation; donor mares experience normal early‑pregnancy hormonal changes.)
Some argue that because the embryo is removed early, the mare “does not know she is pregnant.”
However, this overlooks the biological reality that her endocrine system has already initiated early pregnancy processes. (Fact: No peer‑reviewed studies exist on behavioural or physiological welfare impacts of repeated donor cycles.)
In my opinion, and from an ethical standpoint, it is unreasonable to assume that a mare’s body can repeatedly enter and exit early pregnancy without any consequence. If this were a human undergoing repeated early‑pregnancy loss, we would not dismiss the potential emotional or physiological effects. The absence of research does not prove the absence of impact — it simply highlights a welfare blind spot.
No true horse lover wants the outcome we are seeing today. Horses give us everything — strength, trust, partnership — without hesitation. We owe them a breeding system built on responsibility, selectivity, and long‑term welfare, not one driven by volume, convenience, and denial.
