Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
The false claims vary from Black Caviar being bred too often, that she died too young, that she was too old to be breeding, that laminitis isn’t that bad, or that racehorses don’t get it (only ponies), and even some wildly incorrect claims that she was mistreated because she lived in a paddock with other broodmares.
“I think all these articles need a veterinary point of view in them. I think they need like a little box with a vet’s comment, a specialist in the area, maybe a medicine expert from Scone, an expert’s opinion to be added to these articles. If you put the experts in the room, (myths) are squashed pretty quickly,” Dr Ben Mason told RSN.
Anthropomorphism and social media
One of the key reasons that some of these myths gain traction is our urbanised society. The majority of people, even the majority of racing fans, live in urban areas and are not necessarily familiar with horses, equine biology, and what needs horses have. Trainers spend a lot of time educating owners and organisations like Kick Up exist to educate the public on why horses have certain behaviours and how best to keep horses healthy.
It seems obvious to those of us who work with horses, or have experience with horses, that a racehorse will only run if it is happy and healthy. Olympic athletes only win gold medals when they are at their peak physically and mentally. And by extension, broodmares, like Black Caviar, only get in foal when they are healthy.
But it’s more than just urbanisation, and a lack of basic horse knowledge. People without horse knowledge tend to assume that horses are like people; therefore they ascribe human qualities to horses instead of learning about horse behaviour.
The late Black Caviar when racing | Image courtesy of Race Images
In the 2007 paper, “On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism” Dr Nicholas Epley, et al, wrote, “people are more likely to anthropomorphize when anthropocentric knowledge is accessible and applicable, when motivated to be effective social agents, and when lacking a sense of social connection to other humans.”
In other words, humans on social media, who are seeking social connection to other humans, are more likely to see human characteristics in animals (and objects). Further to that, a 2020 study done by Dr Manfredo, et al, which surveyed nearly 50,000 American people, found a “cultural shift due to modernization increases anthropomorphic attributions which leads to seeing wildlife as more human-like.”
“Cultural shift due to modernization increases anthropomorphic attributions which leads to seeing wildlife as more human-like.” - Dr Manfredo
People are trending towards seeing animals with more human-like qualities, but this leads to misunderstandings around what animals need and how their bodies work, because they are not human.
The key differences between equine and human reproduction
One of the biggest discussion points around Black Caviar was that she’d had 8 live foals. Claims of overbreeding quickly grew online into claims of greed, despite the fact that none of Black Caviar’s foals had ever been sold at auction.
“A fundamental truth is that one of the most basic biological drives is to reproduce, it’s what everything is meant to do. And then there are a lot of cultural factors on top of that. There are two key aspects of the differences between horse and human pregnancies. One is basic biology and then there is the layering of how people and horses live now,” said Dr Meta Osborne, veterinary expert in equine reproduction. Last year, she completed a Masters degree in Animal Welfare at the University of Edinburgh.
“A fundamental truth is that one of the most basic biological drives is to reproduce, it’s what everything is meant to do.” - Dr Meta Osborne
“Horses have around an eleven month gestation, and they are seasonal breeders. The birth is timed to coincide with maximum grass growth, so the mare has access to feed. In humans, the season is irrelevant.
“Horse broodmares are polyoestral breeders, that is she has a series of heat cycles during her fertile period, in which she is receptive to the stallion. Generally for 5-7 days every three weeks, starting in spring and finishing in summer, with the idea that the mare will be mated and 11 months later when it’s spring/summer again and there’s grass, she will foal at the optimal time.
Dr Meta Osborne, Masters in Animal Welfare at the University of Edinburgh | Image courtesy of Emma Berry
“Outside that time, the mare is not receptive to the stallion. ‘I will kill you if you come close’. In feral horses, eg brumbies, the same applies. It’s basic biology from a survival of the species point of view. Further, horses are designed to move and graze - in the wild, they spend about 16 hours a day walking and eating. Humans now tend to lead a sedentary life. Pregnant mares are constantly moving.
“When she foals down, and unlike her human counterpart, the whole process takes 20 minutes and then within two hours that foal is ready to flee a predator. The maximum bonding between mare and foal is within the first two weeks, after that the foal spends more and more time playing with other foals.
“When she (a broodmare) foals down, and unlike her human counterpart, the whole process takes 20 minutes and then within two hours that foal is ready to flee a predator. The maximum bonding between mare and foal is within the first two weeks, after that the foal spends more and more time playing with other foals.” - Dr Meta Osborne
“The human situation is very different. There can be protracted labours and then the mother has a baby who is totally dependent and can’t do anything for at least two years. Motherhood, or the maternal experience, for humans and horses are very different.
“Then there are the cultural issues that can lead to anthropomorphism. ‘Poor Black Caviar, she should’ve been allowed to rest’ but broodmares just don’t do that. You couldn’t make her (rest) if you tried.”
Should a mare be bred every year?
“In nature, with feral horses, they would be (breeding every year) as it’s imperative for survival of the species. But domestically there’s an ethical factor to this (which complicates the decision). Without breeding there would be no horses. There’s a circle of life factor here, and the joy that animals bring to humans is special.
“If you accept that horses can be bred every year, should a mare be put in foal every year? Yes. On a case by case basis if the mare is healthy and well, and there’s no issues, then yes. I’d only say, ‘don’t breed this mare this season’ if there was a very good reason. Besides, if she’s not ready, she simply won’t go in foal. We can’t make her get in foal unless she is fit to carry.”
“If you accept that horses can be bred every year, should a mare be put in foal every year? Yes. On a case by case basis if the mare is healthy and well, and there’s no issues, then yes.” - Dr Meta Osborne
Stud Book statistics show that broodmares only have a foal on average every second year. Of the 19,439 broodmares at stud in 2022, 2742 were not served, and the remainder produced 12,362 live foals in 2023. The other broodmares missed or slipped. What are some of the reasons that mares miss or slip?
“Things happen along the way, and not every covering results in a live foal. The standard of reproductive vet work globally is very high and is improving all the time. When I started, the mare got in foal, then we saw the foal once it was born, but now we monitor pregnancies on the way too. It’s better than leaving things to chance where a mare might slip in a field and both mare and foal die.
Mares and foals in lush Australian paddocks | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“I often joke with clients when we found a mare that missed – mare is a four letter word – a lot of us who work in this field still don’t know all the reasons. Up to 30 days, infection is the most common cause of pregnancy loss, and we can help prevent that with the right care. Later on, we can look at the (slipped) foetus and work out what happened in about 50 per cent of the cases.
“There's really interesting work going on with a study led by Dr Mandi de Mestre, head of the equine pregnancy laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College, looking at genetic reasons for why mares slip. An interesting sidebar to this research is that pregnancy in the mare can be used as a model for pregnancy loss in humans.
“The other thing is that a mare’s fertility naturally declines after 15 or 16 years old. There are textbooks written on this subject. And researchers spend their whole careers investigating it. But many times, you are left scratching your head, and all you can do is do the attention to detail stuff to keep the mare as healthy as possible. It’s what makes it fascinating. 80 per cent of mares get in foal without drama, and the rest will have you up at night reading the textbooks trying to figure it.
“Black Caviar had six in a row. If we accept that we are breeding horses, then we shouldn’t be breeding indiscriminately. We should be breeding with the aim of improving the Thoroughbred. If you want to improve the breed of the racehorse, you are going to use the best, like Black Caviar, and hopefully produce something as good as her. Every type of domestic animal breeding is about that, improvement. In racing’s case, it’s success on the racetrack.
“She’s the perfect type of mare to achieve that. She had 25 starts. If breeders, as a whole, concentrate on breeding sound horses, you’ll have fewer injuries across the board, and Black Caviar was sound and durable and the best of the breed. It would actually be greedy to breed numbers (of mares) without a strategy. In her case, she’s the absolute ideal.
“She’s (Black Caviar) the perfect type of mare to achieve that (improvement in the breed). She had 25 starts. If breeders, as a whole, concentrate on breeding sound horses, you’ll have fewer injuries across the board, and Black Caviar was sound and durable and the best of the breed.” - Dr Meta Osborne
“You don’t have control over their future and whether she’ll produce something as good as herself. It’s in the lap of the gods, but as a breeder, starting with the best is the best.”
Black Caviar raced from April 2009 until April 2013 with 25 starts. She had some athletic-related injuries but recovered from them to race again and is what many would consider to be the ultimate racehorse.
Meta Osborne with Black Caviar | Image supplied
“There is a fundamental issue with critiques of racing, that is, maybe, coming from an anti-elitism perspective, where they see racing being all about money and that overlays the criticism of it. They don’t see the jobs, and they don’t see the money spent on the horses who don’t make it. There seems to be this subtle thing about it being the sport of kings. But there’s a lot of really good people working at a lower level in this industry, and many of them are losing money but they keep going in the hope of producing something like Black Caviar.”
Laminitis – a nasty disease for all horses
Black Caviar isn’t the first famous horse to die from laminitis. Secretariat (USA), Sunline (Desert Sun {GB}), Sunday Silence (USA) and Thorn Park are just a few of the many examples of racehorses who’ve been diagnosed with laminitis and needed to be euthanised on humane grounds.
“(Laminitis) is a case by case basis. I don’t think there’s actually percentages on how often it affects horses. It’s condition of the horse’s feet, sometimes the back, mostly the front. It’s a painful condition which affects their feet and it’s due to the lamina, which is the glue between the hoof capsule and the bone, becomes inflamed initially and almost the indigitation between those rings which holds it all together basically falls apart and you get separation, and the bones sink within the hoof capsule and rotate and that’s an extremely painful,” said Dr Mason in his RSN interview.
“Let’s just talk about the gestating mare, who are about to give birth. They are generally heavier than normal, they put on 10-20 per cent of weight, obviously the foal is 50kg inside them, then you’ve got all the fluid as well, so let’s say they are putting on at least 80-100kg at this time of year. So they are heavier than normal and mechanically they are putting more weight through their feet which therefore puts more pressure on their feet. … But most mares would go through that (without laminitis) but what’s the trigger? Sometimes it’s an endotoxic episode.
“In a big horse, and (Black Caviar) was probably big since she was big on the racetrack, that’s a huge amount of weight. But they would’ve done everything to help her. Everything. She was in the best place possible, she was in the centre of reproduction in Australia, the smartest people would’ve been there to help her. She would’ve had everything possible done to help her.”
And that’s the key takeout. Black Caviar was racetrack royalty. She was given the very best of everything, the best pastures, the best paddock mates, and the very best veterinary care that it was possible to have.
We were all blessed to have seen her grace our racetracks with her athleticism and speed. A true champion. The best of the breed.
