Focus on welfare: why is Australia the last man standing on spurs?

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

Banned in the UK, France, Ireland and the USA, spurs are still commonplace in Australian racing, raising questions about both welfare and perception. Exploring the issue, we spoke to two industry insiders at the top of their games, and draw on evidence from the wider equine world too.

There are two rules governing the use of spurs according to Racing Australia:

- AR 125 Riders permitted to use blunt and approved spurs

Riders may use spurs provided they are blunt and of a type approved by Racing Australia, a PRA, or the Stewards.

- AR 134 Excessive, unnecessary or improper use of spurs

In a race, official trial, jump-out or trackwork, or elsewhere, a rider must not use his or her spurs in an excessive, unnecessary or improper manner.

The Thoroughbred Report reached out to each of Australia’s PRAs to ask about their view of the rules, whether the issue of perception over spurs has been raised within their state and the history of enforcement of the rules. Sadly just two responded.

A Racing Victoria spokesperson said:

“Riders in Victoria are required to adhere to the Australian Rules of Racing that govern the use of spurs. If a rider uses his or her spurs in an excessive, unnecessary or improper manner this will be considered by Stewards.

“We have had no recent breaches of AR134 in which action has been taken in Victoria.”

Meanwhile, Thoroughbred Racing Northern Territory (TRNT) Chairman of Stewards David Hensler explained:

“TRNT Stewards enforce the Rules of Racing pertaining to the use of spurs. We regularly check spurs on race days, at barrier trials and in track work. In the last 10 years we have had no rider breach either AR125 or AR134.”

The inside line

Even for those experienced in the breeding side of the industry, the choice to use spurs may still be a mystery - is it a jockey's preference or a trainer’s instruction? Do they make much of a difference?

We spoke to one of Sydney’s leading jockeys, Tommy Berry, to get an idea of exactly what goes on behind the scenes.

“Sometimes it can be up to either,” Berry said. “I know if I've watched a replay of a horse and he looks quite laid back, he misses the start, just needs a little bit of a wake up before he goes into the barriers, I'll put spurs on.”

“I'm not someone that ‘kicks’ in a race, so if I wear spurs in a race it's really not going to affect the horse at all because I can't use them.

“Myself, James McDonald and a lot of other jockeys are in the same boat - the only time I can really use spurs is to just give them a little bit of a wake up to make sure they're switched on before they go into barriers.”

“Otherwise, they're pretty much pointless for us. Whereas someone like Nash Rawiller, Brenton Avdulla or Regan Bayliss, they wear spurs quite often because they can kick quite well.”

Berry described the tradeoff between jockeys that ride shorter and those that ride longer. In his assessment, whilst three-quarters of jockeys, the likes of he and McDonald included, utilise their balance to be more effective in a finish, others encourage their mounts with a kicking motion.

There’s no clear answer here as a number of elite jockeys fall into each camp, with Berry concluding that different styles suit different horses.

Just how much the spurs are used during this kicking motion in a race finish is hard to discern. Given a jockey’s crouched position, it’s hard to see how a jockey could point their feet outwards to bring the spurs into contact with the horse. And, if they did make contact during vigorous race finishes, surely we would see at least the occasional marking or rubbing of a horse’s flanks, causing an infraction of the rules.

Noting that he’s never once called before the stewards for any spurs-related infractions, Berry added:

“It's not something that you overuse - I've never ever done it to hurt a horse. You don't turn your heels out and give them a big kick up the ribs, it's just running it along their skin a little bit.

“I think it's important to state as well, that breakers often use spurs to help guide the horse along. So, when you get to a race it’s often not the first time they’ve been introduced to spurs.”

Laying the foundation

A former elite event rider, Blair Richardson runs Vantage Hill, a race educating and pre-training establishment utilised by many of Australia’s top trainers. Speaking to TTR AusNZ, he described spurs in the context of his work as ‘controversial’ in the sense that he’s highly selective about using them so early on in a horse’s education.

“We break in probably 250 to 280 horses a year,” Richardson said. “Probably most of them we don’t put spurs on to start with.

“Obviously, we want to teach them to be light off the leg and educate them. The need to go forward off your leg is the main thing in educating a horse.”

“Whether you're riding a racehorse, a cutting horse, a jumping horse, a dressage horse - they all must be ridden off your leg, that's the main thing.”

As Richardson explained, the use of spurs during the initial stages of a thoroughbred’s life is purely about education - an extra tool to teach them something fundamental - as opposed to an aid to get the most out of them on race day.

“There's some that won’t go past a gap or are a bit negative, then we put a set of spurs on and it's all to do with the rider's leg to hand coordination,” he said.

“You’ve got to be careful too, there's a lot of fillies that can be backward and a set of spurs can have a reverse effect, so it’s tricky.

“If you have a horse that won't go, you're often better off to pony it along, look after it to get it to go, rather than using force and an artificial aid.

“When you're dealing with 18 month old horses, it's not about force, it's got to be an educational process.”

The evidence

As in the first piece in this series, we consulted leading equine scientist Dr David Marlin to find out what the science says.

Marlin confirmed that there has been little research on the use of spurs, with a particular paucity around their use in racing.

One study of Danish competition horses points to a picture of spurs being more likely to cause damage (hair loss and in rare cases bleeding) to horses at lower competition levels, whilst another from the UK found that FEI affiliated riders were 10 times more likely to use spurs than leisure riders, but that was still only 60 per cent of them.

It’s hard to be confident, but perhaps this suggests, as Richardson inferred, that the choice to use spurs is not as simple as ‘fine for the professionals’. Regardless, Marlin pointed out an even more salient point, that may in time change the debate in Australia.

He noted that thermal imaging was behind the drive to change whip design towards the modern iteration, and that if the as-yet-unstudied impact of spurs in racing was similarly visible then it could have a big impact on the welfare debate.

A price worth paying?

The question remains: Would Australian racing be missing out much if spurs were banned tomorrow, given it’s the only racing nation to allow them?

“I think it would definitely affect Australian racing in some way and that's because they’ve been around for so long and are obviously working in some way,” Berry said.

“For myself, if a horse isn't jumping out of the barriers properly and they're a bit laid back then it does definitely help to give them a bit of a wake up before they leave the gates, just so they know it's game on.

“It's not about hurting them or anything like that, because it doesn't. It's just a little bit of a tickle to wake them up and say, ‘You're about to go, put your game face on.’

“I find it good as a tool for that, if I know a horse has come out a little bit slow on the pace.”

But, this must surely be balanced against the perception issue that spurs present us with. Whilst their use is little discussed within the industry, and they often pass punters unnoticed on race day, spurs offer a target for animal rights activists, who attempt to frame the metal fixtures on jockey’s heels as a regular weapon of torture against our beloved thoroughbreds.

This view might sound blatantly preposterous to those inside the camp, but it’s easy to see how such framing can be effective to those who don’t know how they’re actually used. Given that racing elsewhere around the world doesn’t seem to suffer for a lack of spurs, we have to ask whether it’s a price worth paying.

If you have any welfare topics that you believe should be explored, or opinions you would like to offer, please reach out to editorial@ttrausnz.com.au and let us know.