The Omak Stampede Suice Race hs been called 'The Deadliest Horse Race in the World.' Here's the reality!
Watch 2017 OMAK STAMPEDE SUICIDE RACE
Each year in mid summer, a small town in Eastern Washington State, called
Omak, proudly promotes an event named “The World Famous Suicide Race,”
considered the marquee event at the four-day Omak Stampede rodeo.
Omak straddles the border of the Colville Reservation, home of almost every
racer, horse owner, and trainer.
Town officials claim this event (created as a draw for the town’s annual
rodeo) is a celebration of history and tradition. In reality, it’s murder on
horses. The race seriously injures and kills horses.
Over a span of four days and nights, riders repeatedly run their horses off
Suicide Hill with a 120-foot galloping start. At breakneck speed, the horses
then meet the Okanogan River. Entry into the river is narrow, causing
bottlenecks and horrendous multiple-horse spills. Horse and rider then face
a treacherous and often panicked swim about the length of a football field
to reach the other side. The final grueling sprint is a 500-foot uphill
climb to the finish line.[1]
Always the second weekend in August, each race awards five points to the
first-place finisher, four to the second, and so on; the overall winner
clinches the King of the Hill title on Sunday.
FIRST LEG — DOWNHILL DEATH DROP
Anyone who has ever watched a Western movie will have noticed that when a
horse is asked by his rider to carry him down a steep decline, even in hot
pursuit, how carefully the horse proceeds, measuring every step.
After a galloping start in the Omak Suicide Race, horses are whipped to make
them “charge” down “Suicide Hill” an almost complete vertical drop of
approximately 225 feet at a 62 degree angle, much like a steep staircase.
Studies carried out regarding equine vision show that because of the
position of the horse’s eyes, which are set wide apart on either side of the
head, there is blind spot directly in front of the forehead. Researchers
believe that this “blind field” is the width of the horse.[2]
This means when a horse is catapulted down a sharp decline such as “Suicide
Hill” he cannot judge where to land his feet and will not realize where the
ground is until it comes rushing up beneath him. Horses are also known to
lose their footing and somersault head over heel down the hill.
Since he cannot see the horses ahead of him he may crash into them. Others
trip over or collide with falling horses.
The numerous any injuries that occur in pile ups on Suicide Hill are the
leading cause of death in the Omak Suicide Race. These include a broken leg,
fractured knee, fractured pelvis, broken shoulder, and heart attacks from
overexertion. It is also a mentally terrifying experience for the horse.
The above are not only expected in the Omak Suicide Race, but also heralded
as part of the excitement.
Omak Suicide Race horses plunge into rivier. Image / Fark.
SECOND LEG — THE SWIM
At the bottom of the downhill death dash, the horses who have survived the
first leg are immediately faced with the rocky Okanogan River and a frenzied
swim across it.
Horses who have already sustained injuries, panic or get caught up in the
reins, and drown. Some horses land in the rocky waters sideways having lost
their balance and direction, and in an attempt to right themselves so they
can swim, wrench their necks and backs, sustaining further trauma.
Horses are not natural swimmers and tend to panic temporarily when they
cannot immediately feel the ground beneath them.
When horses swim they will employ a trotting motion and “a breathing pattern
characterized by brief inspiration and prolonged expiration.” The difficulty
in breathing when swimming is probably due to the pressure applied to the
chest and abdomen of the horse by the water and the fact that the horse does
not have the rhythm of body and abdominal movements that serve to help the
breathing process” when he is on land.
“[It] should be noted that swimming also results in relatively high blood
pressures compared with galloping and that some horses have experienced nose
bleeding after bout(s) of swimming. As such, swimming is not recommended for
horses with respiratory disease and it is also contraindicated in horses
with back injuries.”[3]
Because there is no support from the ground and there is little or no
resistance from the water, the amount of energy required to move forward in
the water is significantly greater than that required to move forward on
land. It takes approximately four complete swimming strokes to cover the
same distance as one galloping stride on land. Based on this approximately
500 yards is about equal to a one mile gallop.
As stated before, notwithstanding the physical dangers, the experience is
mentally harrowing for the horse.
Horses whipped across deep waters in the Omak Suicide Race.
THIRD AND FINAL LEG — THE UPHILL SPRINT
Already terrified, exhausted and possibly injured, the horses face the third
and final leg of the Omak Suicide Race which is a punishing and backbreaking
uphill sprint.
When a horse’s gait quickens to a gallop, his breathing is linked to the
rhythm of his hoof beats. During high-intensity exercise, this rhythmic
breathing lowers oxygen intake, producing a buildup of lactic acid and
carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, causing fatigue and cramping, much like
when a human athlete gets a “stitch.”
To bring the body back to normal, CO2 moves to the bloodstream and is
expelled from the lungs. Lactic acid is neutralized in various organs,
including muscles. With continuous overexertion, the recovery process is
disturbed. In this situation, acid buildup, called acidosis, further reduces
oxygen flow to the muscles, creating long-lasting fatigue — and [permanent]
muscle damage.[4]
MENTAL PUNISHMENT
The Omak Suicide Race takes place in four heats over four days.
Like humans, horses are imprinted with every experience they have
encountered since birth. They are highly sensitive, instinctual animals, and
much like us, think about not only what they have been through but also
about what they may be about to endure.
Horses have sharper and broader hearing ranges than humans. Loud noises are
painful to a horse’s ears. Their sense of smell is also acute. Horses sense
or “smell” the fear in other horses, which further perpetuates their own.
Their sensitivity to sound and smells is why they become hard to handle when
they are subjected to surroundings and activities they are unaccustomed to
and receiving conflicting messages from their senses. The tumult of such an
occasion as the Omak Suicide Race must be an assault on their senses that is
debilitating and petrifying.
MARKETING GIMMICK OR TRADITION?
First run in 1935, the Suicide Race was the brainchild of Claire Pentz,
publicity chairman for the Stampede, after failing to attract big crowds
with boxing, trained zebras and stock car racing.
Stampede organizers currently contend that the Suicide Race has roots in
Native American tradition and claim it is a customary rite-of-passage, but
as you just read, an Anglo conceived the race as a publicity stunt.
The race wasn’t the only thing “created” by white man; the very invention of
a Colville Tribes unit is recent.[5]
The races that used to occur among Native tribes of the area were
longer-distance, cross-country races on horses bred to thrive on the hard,
rocky, desert terrain of Eastern Washington. This is not comparable to
flinging a long-legged thoroughbred or quarter horse down a 62-degree slope
in the dark of night.
A native rite-of-passage traditionally refers to a ritual or ceremony
indicating the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Historically,
Suicide Race rider’s ages range from 18 to well into the 30’s. Many have
ridden in the race year after year seeking cash and popularity, not cultural
fulfillment.[6]
DEATH COUNT
Animals 24-7 report that at least two horses died in the 2018 Omak Suicide
race, bringing the known toll since 1983 to 25, “with many more suspected
but undocumented”, and no record existing of injuries and deaths from the
first “Suicide Race” in 1935 through 1982.[7]
IT JUST WON’T STOP
PeTA has run letter-writing campaigns. HSUS has documented it but unable to
accomplish anything past that. That was dangerous enough.
In 1993, the Northwest’s PAWS, or Progressive Animal Welfare Society, tried
a more robust tactic, filing a lawsuit that alleged organizers harm horses
for profit, but a Superior Court judge threw out the case. In 1996, a PAWS
member sued the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office and the rodeo for roughing
him up when he videotaped a horse being euthanized; the suit settled for
$64,500.[8]
From 2005 to 2009 The Horse Fund ran a campaign to end the Omak Suicide
Race, initially focusing on its sponsors. When they went away, Omak got
more. Our investigators were harassed, hotel rooms broken into and trashed.
Mrs. Farrell received numerous death threats, all which were reported. Not a
single law enforcement agency took it seriously — or took any action.
That was then. This is now. Social media has revolutionized advocacy. There
have also been changes (for the better) in the law. We are prepared to take
this on once again. And we will win — for the horses.
WHAT ABOUT TRADITION?
No caring society subjects another living being to such blatant cruelty and
death in the name of culture or entertainment.
There comes a time when we as a people must move forward, and leave behind
those acts and events unacceptable in a civilized society, regardless of how
steeped in tradition. In this case the tradition so-called is manufactured
tradition and means nothing to anyone at all.
CONCLUSION
Horses forced to take part in the Omak Stampede’s Suicide Race suffer
enormous physical pain and suffering by way of broken bones, irreparable
tendon damage from falls and collisions, and long-term muscle damage from
overexertion. “Suicide horses” die from broken necks, strokes, heart attacks
and gruesomely by drowning.
These horses do not participate willingly. It is not their intention to
suffer. It is not their intention to die.
The Omak Suicide Race is murder on horses.
FOOTNOTES