And that is why horses freak me out. I’m amazed they can even get them all in the starting gate at one time.
Broomstick. your post reminds me of a girl at a stable I used to ride at…she was about 16, not very tall, but reasonably fit. She was grooming the horse with the calmest reputation in the barn - the one they put brand-new-never-been-near-a-horse-5-year-olds on for their first lesson. He was in cross-ties, and, per usual, the 18+ year old fat gelding was dozing. The girl had been riding since she was a toddler, and knew this horse very, very well.
Then someone knocked over a stepladder at the other end of the barn.
This horse freaked. Reared repeatedly, twisting in such a way that he cut his head on the edge of a vent near the ties, thereby freaking him out even more as he splashed blood around the barn and this poor girl. Somehow either one of the cross-ties broke or his halter gave…I’m not sure, I wasn’t there… but he got untied on one side, so now he’s trying to spin in circles as he’s held back by one tie and blood runs down his face and fills his nostrils. He knocked this girl down and ended up breaking one of her arms and one leg and bruising the crap out of her.
I’m not sure how they got him calmed down - certainly he freaked again when the ambulance arrived, sirens blaring - but the eventually were able to quiet him enough and tie him in his stall while a vet came.
Poor horse had a brutal scar down the rest of his face, and would never again accept being tied in cross-ties - he had to be groomed and saddled in his stall. He was suddenly a skittish, spooky horse that only very experienced riders could handle, as he’d turn and run from the slightest thing - shadows, wind, someone coughing, etc.
They are beautiful animals, but they can be so dangerous!
FWIW, this horse was part thoroughbred… though he’d never seen a racetrack in his life.
Wow, worst thing that ever happened to me with a horse was that I was cleaning his hooves and he decided to lift his back one a trifle quickly, got me right in the boys. Yow that hurt. But I’ll second it, racehorses are twitchy, scary animals. Beautiful, but I stay a good bit away.
Don’t get me wrong… I love horses with a passion, but I respect them. If you are around horses, it’s not a matter of IF you’ll be injured, it’as WHEN and HOW BADLY.
I have been bitten, kicked, stepped on, thrown, fallen off, run away with, had a horse fall with me… I carry scars, had a broken arm & hip from a fall. And still I keep going back. To me, they are worth the risk, 100 times over.
With suitably gory pics.
Just to weigh in with a few comments. These are made in realtion to Australian racing rules, which are based on what existed in the UK. I always thought the USA had similar rules- that they were international, but maybe not so.
From what I know, I don’t agree with Reality Chuck re no penalty for being under weight. Here, the horse is disqualified. If a jockey weighs in light, he can ask for the bridle to see if he can meet the weight. It is rare that it makes any difference.
I repeat a- a jockey who weighs in light has his horse disqualified before correct weight. (It would make a mockery of a handicapping system for anything else to happen).
Re female jockeys. They are now a fact of life and have won premierships in various states here. I am not sure there is any refusal of trainers to use them due to their sex- it is more due to their ability. If a jockey is good enough, irregardless of sex, that jockey is employed if suited to the horse. One point that should be remembered: female jockeys who succeed have more of a physique than a figure. Australia’s most prominent female trainer (Gai Waterhouse) has male jockeys contracted. She had a huge battle to get her licence in the ffirst place so if anyone was sympathetic to fighting sexism in the industry, it would be her. However, she is also a total professional.
Finally, jockeys and protection. They do use skull caps and protective vests, which are mandatory. They help, but if a bloody big horse travelling at top speed comes down on you, something will give. (And of course this will not help a barrier attendant who might get kicked in the cods by a racehorse at the barrier).
Gai Waterhouse’s battle to get her licence had nothing to do with sexism but rather the fact that her husband was warned off after the Fine Cotton scandal. At the time Betty Lane had been training and winning premierships out west since the 60s. At the time she had held a number 1 city licence for a decade. Kim Moore (now Waugh) had moved from training and driving trotters to training thoroughbreds before Gai sought a licence.
And if Gai Waterhouse had not been married to Rob Waterhouse she would have got her licence. If she had been the brother of Waterhouse rather than wife she would have received a licence.
It was sexist.
Betty Lane, Kim Waugh and others (such as Barbara Joseph) have been fine trainers but have never been in the same league as Waterhouse.
Nor did they display such a fine set of legs as did Gai Waterhouse when she appeared in The Young Doctors when she was quite young.
Nothing of which has any bearing on the points I was making.
I was told - by several riding instructors - that you can’t consider yourself to be a good rider until you’ve fallen 100 times and still got back on.
My count stopped at 12. I’ve been lucky, I’ve only gotten severely bruised, though in one fall had things gone slightly differently I might have broken my neck. I was so mad at that horse for bucking after a jump because she was my favourite mare to ride at that stable and how dare she?! I broke my glasses, but I still got back on, cleared the jump again, then handed her over to the instructor to take care of while I went home and got cleaned up. I was about 13 at the time. 
We just watched Secretariat last weekend, and at the end it mentioned the jockey who rode him at Belmont – the race where the horse won by 31 lengths – ended up breaking his spine on the job in 1978 and is still in a wheelchair.
That would be Ron Turcotte. Perhaps of interest to the OP, is that Turcotte is involved with the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund (PDJF). (Cite.) Link to the PDJF.
One thing you don’t see when you watch a horse race on TV is that an ambulance is following, at a discreet distance, the pack of horses around the track. In other words, being a jockey is hazardous enough that you’re followed by paramedics when you do your job.
Choc Thornton is far above the norm for jockey injuries, but it shows just how dangerous riding can be. Spoiler because of some graphic images of injuries.
I remember in the late 1960s when some women were fighting for the chance to become jockeys, some male jockeys argued against it saying that 86 jockeys had been killed in racing accidents and women were too important to risk being killed.