Investigation into Newbury Tragedy (horses drop dead after electrical shock)

Originally posted by hardamber
It doesn't take much to kill a horse with electricity. A friend's horse dropped dead by a lightening strike more than a half mile away. They have a very sensitive nervous system.

Edit to add: Ever since that happened, I bring our horses in when there is a threat of lightening. I have no electricity hooked up in the horse barn. We run a huge light with an extension cord that gets unplugged when I leave the barn. I would never want to go through the nightmare of finding a horse that died by something that could be prevented.

edit on 12-2-2011 by hardamber because: added another sentence.

Their nervous system? What happened with the old: 'you're as strong as a horse' motto?

Could their sensitivity to electric be because of their horseshoes (that I just learned/remembered today) though?

reply to post by Human_Alien


I don't think their shoes are a problem. Wild horses get struck too. It is easy to keep horses in with an electric fence because they are so sensitive. Cows can be kept in with an electric fence, but not hungry cows. They are not as sensitive and have no problem going through a fence if they have to.

Originally posted by Human_Alien

Originally posted by andy1033
They have to pretend horse racing is fair, lol.

Still say more likely to be non lethel weapons, and who would know and how they are used.

Horse racing already knows about weapons being used in there sports, and the sport is full of alot of shady characters.

Really? You think it was deliberate to maybe, get them out of the race?

Man, I don't ever think along those lines (so I guess I'd suck at being a detective) but I s'pose, that's possible. However, some people said they felt a 'shock' when they were near the horses.

Man, I hope they weren't killed on purpose.

You see, I don't like animal exploitation be it, zoos, an artificial safari, race or an aquarium etc so I am very removed from the goings-on in these arenas.
But if this was fixed and the killer caught then as punishment, they should be forced to don a saddle, mounted by a 300 pound jockey and chase a rabbit around 8 hours per day for a year (horse shoes optional!)

I used to work in horse racing never would they purposely kill them in the paddock area in front of everybody.They do illegal things but it would not be like that.It is odd though because most paddock areas(where they are saddled before the races)are layered with a rubber tartan ,but then again I've never raced at that track.Some horse owners really take good care of them and then you have the ones that are in it just for the money,for instance if their horse isn't very fast and won't get much for breeding they somehow find a way to cash in on the insurance,so the horse ends up being worth more to them dead.Whatever happened it was accidental and a freak accident at that.

reply to post by Human_Alien


My thinking was along the same lines. What you need to consider is that Magnetism and Electricity are interchangeable. A moving magnetic field will induce an electrical current into any conductive surface....such as any metal that might have been on or around the animals. It could even conceivably cause a current in the bodily fluids of a horse itself if was a strong enough magnetic flux. Much of the electricity that we use is made by spinning a magnet within a coil of conductive wire. This is almost all generators work, whether powered by the wind, or by gasoline or nuclear power (most, perhaps even all, Nuclear facilities use the nuclear energy to heat up large tanks of water into steam which drive such generators). And by the same process in reverse, all electrical current creates magnetism. To make an electromagnet all one needs to do is drive current through a coiled wire.

Their shoes were aluminium racing plates,I didnt think aluminium was a good conductor and magnets are not attracted to it ,One of the trainers also felt a tingle after touching one
www.telegraph.co.uk...

reply to post by Human_Alien


Or possibly its because the jockeys had rubber soled shoes and the horses had metal shoes on. Maybe the shock came from underground...

reply to post by TWILITE22


Who knows what happened. Remember just because you would not do something, does not mean someone else would not. Uk horse racing has alot of shaddy characters. I am not talking about the plenty who love horses and love to look after animals that work with them every day.

Its just a fact of life that shaddy people would be associated with horse racing especially uk as this is also world wide shown, sort of like the premier league.

I think if you where a science person with engineering skills there would be plenty of ways to stop a horse, if you had imagination, and i am sure plenty out there do. You can be sure all types of things are doen to try and win, and most probably are never known to the jockey club.

I posted this comment in another thread wich is locked as of now

looking at the footage I'm having a hard time explaining this as electrical shock... The horses never had the moment where you'd expect them to "jumpstart" from a electrical shock... they seemed agitated alright but anybody who is familiar with the effects of electricity on an organic body will know that a response from being shocked is alot more intense and acute AND shorter then what is being shown in the vid... Any type of shock will make an organic literally jolt. If the ground was conducting a current this jolt would have still been evident. also the men handling the horses are not jolted either...

From where Im standing this could not have been electrical in nature,...

Guess we'll have to wait...

Originally posted by TWILITE22
I used to work in horse racing never would they purposely kill them in the paddock area in front of everybody.

Just because they died does not mean they tried to kill them. If they used non lethel weapons, it may of been to have an effect on the horse but not to kill it. Non lethel weapons being used on any animal including humans kill sometimes. But i doubt they tried to kill them, thats just what happens sometimes.

Its like how the police sometimes kill a person with a non lethel weapon, they are not used really to kill, but sometimes they do, as like animals all humans are different and we all have different bodies in terms of things that may be wrong with us etc...

I would think non lethel weapons probably are used alot in the paddock areas, as the horses are all close, and its a perfect time to make a horse sick or something with them. These people probably never wanted to kill them, just to stop them or what ever.

I reckon the paddock is probably a good place to use these weapons as like i said the horses are just walking around, and people are not that suspicious really, until the horse goes out into the track.

UPDATE:

investigators have removed the peice of cable running under the track at newbury..BUT THEY MAINTAIN THAT THERE IS NO DANGER TO THE PUBLIC.


yea wanna keep the money flowing...i rekon that most horses are attached with a small electricuting device that allows them to fall on hurdles....hmmm! u rekon someone leant on the button

reply to post by thePharaoh


I think that is a big subject, not saying your right(never know), but most definitely weapons are used on the sport.

Where human beings are and money, they will find anyway to fix the outcomes as best they can.

Like i said above, the paddock really would be a good place to stop a horse, and how would the horse tell anyone, it cannot.

All i am saying if you had engineering skills and a little knowledge on electricity and good imagination, you could figure out plenty of ways of stopping horses. Who is ever going to be able to say.

Drug testing is easy to test for, but non lethel weapons(that could mean any real weapon type system that is not meant to really kill), zero chance of really stopping.

It didnt look like electecution to me....but saying that ive never seen a horse electecuted.
I find it hard to believe that these 2 horses were the only things effected if it were an electrical fault of some kind.
They didnt seem to go rigid...they jumped about and then died. Doesnt AC make you muslces spasm and become rigid?
How many other horses crossed the same bit of land prior to these 2? Why were they uneffected?

Theres a LOT of money in horse racing...it would not surprise me if they were fed something in their feed to kill them....kill off the competition.
Vets that work in the horse racing business are as corrupt as the owners....so anything is possible i think.

The Mainstream News have announced that an old underground electrical cable has now been removed from the Paddock at Newbury.

Further investigation points to electrocution as some of the lead bridles had scorch marks on them.

Having reviewed the images of yesterday's events, I am not 100% convinced it was down to underground cables. As previously stated throughout this thread, the sport is full of shady characters and maybe some other device was used.

very strange

This is not the first time I have heard of this type of unfortunate accident. About two to three years ago there was
an article in Horse Illustrated or Equus that was very similar in someone's arena. It would take me two hours to
look for it. Metal detectors can locate these underground cables. Farm accidents are alot like factory accidents, they happen. Safety First... Top priority

here is the video.

i noticed that whatever it is,,,is comming from the left of the screen....though its blurred...hmmmm

Hey ( big hello first time poster here ! )

I think perhaps what happened is a damaged cable in the ground
that has not unfortunately blown the fuse/circuit breaker
and has instead been charging an area of soil / grass where the horses were walking.

Now when i did my apprentice electrician training it was explained
to us this way ( it is a shame i cannot post a drawing to explain better but here goes a description so please bear with me guys )

a downed power cable on the surface or under the soil
emits a number of ring shaped poles
( a bit like when a stone is thrown into the a pond circular ripples
spread outwards ) ie, they if could be seen are close together near
the break spreading further apart further away.

now with 4 legged animals , cows , sheep pigs etc can suffer terribly as a result when in a paddock or field where a over head cable drops onto the grass. Even several yards away it can be lethal.
As when their front feet touch one pole and their rear feet touch
another ( the current flows through the heart )
ie between poles is the highest voltage.
i am guessing this is a cable of 11,000 ( HV )
cannot see ordinary mains of 240volts but i could be wrong

Anyways as an heads up,
if you are out walking in the countryside,
and say you see a downed 11,000 volt over head cable!

take very small steps AWAY keeping your feet as close together
as possible. ( or take great steps so only one leg is on the ground at anyone time )

kind regards all
Bish

reply to post by bishy


It is extremely unlikely that the ground would electrocute anything! Yes, lightening can do it, but it has millions of volts to work with, and makes quite a show of it as a result.

Electrocution almost always the result of providing the path to ground from a higher voltage or potential, these horses were touching only the ground… Birds survive setting on a high tension wire because they are only on the wire – at only one potential – they don’t provide a path to any other potential (like the ground) which is necessary for current to flow.

So what would be needed here would be a very high voltage line, very near the surface, in contact with the ground, but not faulting out or burning, with not sparks of smoke at all – NOT very likely…

Oh, and I forgot, this very high voltage line which is live somehow near the surface in a public place is abandoned and forgotten about.

It will be interesting to see if they can actually sell this story to anyone…

Originally posted by andy1033
reply to post by TWILITE22

 

Who knows what happened. Remember just because you would not do something, does not mean someone else would not. Uk horse racing has alot of shaddy characters. I am not talking about the plenty who love horses and love to look after animals that work with them every day.

Its just a fact of life that shaddy people would be associated with horse racing especially uk as this is also world wide shown, sort of like the premier league.

I think if you where a science person with engineering skills there would be plenty of ways to stop a horse, if you had imagination, and i am sure plenty out there do. You can be sure all types of things are doen to try and win, and most probably are never known to the jockey club.

I couldn't tell you what happened in this case but I will say that why kill them in the paddock?this area has all the crowds watching,security cameras,judges,trainers,and loads of other people.Why not do it in the stables where there are no prying eyes?I believe what happened was a accident,to me that's the only thing that makes sense.

reply to post by Human_Alien


Ok, we all know there's LOTS of money in horse racing and betting on the races.

The post about the horses metal shoes made me think..

(I'm not saying this is what happened, but rather what could have happened)

How difficult would it be, knowing there are multiple Millions $/£ etc at stake, to 'rig' a horse race?

Noble the horse, has *always* been a firm favourite to rig a race, but modern standards make that too difficult and quite easy to detect, so what's the next best alternative to fix a race?

Think metal shoes, and underground cables...

You're getting it...aren't you!

Electromagnetic underground cables, if carrying a current, will act like an electromagnet..right?

Electromagnets attract metal..especially the iron used for horses shoes..see where i'm going with this?

Lay a grid of these 'electromagnets' around the whole of the course, and control the whole grid with a computer, turning individual EM on and off at will...you can choose to turn on a series on EM right when the horses you want to slow down, are over them.

It wouldn't stop the horse, but make it much heavier going, and a lot more work to run fast...just leave the EM grid free for the horse you have your money on.

Perhaps, a faulty EM cable caused a shock to the horses, when it shorted out and killed them.

(I had a similar theory regarding the tennis ball that didn't bounce on a famous tennis court recently)

Stranger things have happened.