Historically speaking, criticism of barrel racing (and associated riders) has been met with widespread denial of abusive riding, excuses and dismissals of such behaviour from riders, and of course let’s not forget the name-calling, insults…
The PAST Act has been endorsed by virtually every animal health and equine group in the United States but is opposed 100-percent by the Republican representatives from Tennessee. Roy Exum, Columnist for The Chattanoogan Despite…
How often is it argued, that a human cannot force a thousand pound animal to do something it doesn’t want to do? An argument to defend against an accusation of abuse. But the physical comparison…
Not just a felony, but a Class-A Felony. That puts horse abuse on par with assault, homicide and arson. That’s the exciting part. The motivation behind this change is to gather data on animal abuse nation-wide….
The use of horse tack has some interesting parallels to the use of recreational drugs, including the abuse of both. Before your panties get in a bunch, read me out. For some equestrians the use…
Let’s get brutally honest … This is not Dressage. It’s abusive riding. It’s unharmonious riding. It’s riding with physical force and coercion. But the one thing it is not is Dressage. Dressage is French for training …..
From time to time (sometimes more often than others) I receive comments or remarks along the lines of, “how dare you to criticize person-x for abusing their horse, if you’re so great then post a…
A video of Monty Roberts in attendance of a brutal beating of a young horse being broken to ride (and I mean broken), standing passively by while his film crews record, is making the rounds. Was he right in this situation or should he have stepped in to show a different way?
I avoid purchasing from major tack stores anymore, even from many local ones as they too carry very abusive items. I don’t want to support that kind of thinking in the industry so I look to buying items used from acquaintances and if not from them then from other individuals who aren’t in the business of retailing products to pain-train horses.
Just looking through the bit selection is enough to make you throw up. But they also offer ginger salve to “aid in maintaining a proper tail set,” and in case you’re a professional they sell it by the case…
It seems unnecessary to me to say that success in sport does not equal sound motivations, or actions… But it is necessary as people still go about under the illusion that it does.
By remaining silent, by accepting these empty excuses, by quietly accepting this behavior in public we are indirectly helping extreme Animal Right’s groups prove their point. That equestrians are incapable of humane treatment of the horses in their care and their community and shouldn’t be allowed to own horses.
If you’re an equestrian it’s hard to be unaware of the web-presence that the Fugly Horse of the Day blog commanded. Often referred to as FHOTD, by far it was the most popular horse blog on the internet, even as the content quality took a nosedive while being shuffled around from one blogger to another. A majority of posts earning a thousand comments or more, it was obvious that people were not only ready Fugly, they were engaged.
Then it was gone.
When slavery was legal and the norm in the south, just because you treated your slaves well didn’t extend any freedoms or rights. It just meant that they experienced a level of captivity which was better than many others’ in captivity. Still, they were slaves, captives, subject to the whims of any white person around them. According to most accounts slaves were considered the same as livestock.
In that context let’s look at our horses. They are subject to whatever whim we should have. We buy/sell/trade them as we wish (or the market will support). When they are no longer useful we can put them down, send them to auction or the slaughterhouse. If they misbehave there are torture devices to deal with that – from whips to spurs, harsh bits and even some trainers have been found to use electric cattle prods on their horses.
I am owned by an exquisite mare. We call her ‘The Diva’. She is opinionated, fiery, smart, and thinks people are pretty darn fun to hang out with. One sunny August day, seven years ago,…
Rolex has come and gone for this year. I am in awe of riders and especially horses that can endure such an athletic feat. There is a heady excitement at show grounds at such a…