Racehorses face significant welfare risks from training intensity, racing injuries, and slaughter after retirement. Reform efforts focus on injury prevention, aftercare, and reducing the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Horse racing presents a complex welfare landscape where high-profile acute harms (on-track breakdowns) sit alongside less visible chronic concerns (training injuries, respiratory disease, post-career welfare). The industry's financial structure creates incentives to race horses that may not be physically ready, and to mask pain or injury with therapeutic and illegal drugs. Reform movements within racing have produced genuine improvements: surface testing, pre-race veterinary inspections, and aftercare programmes have measurably reduced injury rates in some jurisdictions. However, fundamental tensions remain between racing's commercial pressures and horses' welfare needs. The aftercare problem is particularly severe: large numbers of horses exit racing each year and the industry's investment in retirement and retraining programmes varies enormously by jurisdiction and individual track.