Why don't greyhounds and horses complete stretching exercises before they compete?

Question

Thanks to all who answered. I definitely learnt something. There were so many great answers that I couldn't choose so I will open it up to a vote.

Answer 1

Horses never get sore or stiff in any parts of their bodies and have no need for some "stretching exercise". The head and neck serve the horse primarily for balance, and the more you interfere with it via the reins the more you will offset the horse's balance and his natural (inbred) movement.
Source: http://www.horsemanpro.com/articles2/rollkur2.htm

Greyhounds achieve their incredible speed in one all out sprint, and do not have a lot of endurance. A Greyhound is quite content to be a "couch potato" and spend most of the day sleeping. Since they don't have a lot of endurance, a Greyhound actually requires less exercise time.
Source: http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/breeds/greyhounds.html
Stretching is an empty gesture for sports success, can be the reason.
Source:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-398450,00.html

Answer 2

I don't know about horses.

Greyhounds do stretch. I own two retired racers, and they often stretch. First the front, dropping their chest to the ground, feet extended foreword. Second, they stretch their back legs, extending them behind themselves, lowering their pelvis to the ground.

Racing greyhounds also have cool downs after races. At some tracks, there are tubs into which the greyhounds are placed. The dogs can also be wet down with a gentle stream of water sprayed over them from a hose.

Answer 3

You are not supposed to STRETCH muscles BEFORE exercise. Before exercise one is supposed to WARM UP, which greyhounds and horses do and Humans should.
Stretching exercises are for after exercising and I'm not sure if greyhounds and horses do them?

Answer 4

Watch horses in the paddock as they are being saddled. Often trainers will stretch their legs as part of the saddling routine. What you won't see is anything done back at the barn before coming over to the paddock. Very often a horse is walked and/or stretched to loosen them up.

Answer 5

With horses they do strech befroe they run.
When they are in the paddock saddling them you will see some trainers lift and strech the horses legs. Also they warm them up as the "post parade" out to the gates. They are walked and trotted and that warms up the muscles and gets them ready to run.
It takes very little to warm up a Tohroughbred horse. They are ready to run most any time.

Answer 6

good question...never thought about that one. Heres my guess. Humans must stretch out muscles to pervent injury. This is because were biologically not designed to run as much/often as horses and greyhounds. Since its in their nature to run, stretching will be ineffective in animals because theyre born to run, where we are not.

Answer 7

They do. This is to avoid injury. You may not notice but they generally walk before the race as well as afterwards.

Answer 8

because they're not human.