"Helping
People Know Horses"
Thoughts ....
The Plight of Ponies
By Vanessa.
At an agricultural field day, I came across a small metal pen housing cute young miniature ponies.
Three of them were in a tiny pen and as I got closer I saw they were all for sale. They were grumpy and bored and occasionally one would be aggressive to the other. When they were taken out they pulled on their lead ropes and looked pushy and jumpy.While there I overheard a happy young couple inquire about buying one. They wanted to keep the pony on a large acreage but could only visit them on weekends. They asked if they had to brush the pony.
The owner of the ponies said they were easy to look after and they were great lawnmowers. I could no longer be silent so I interrupted saying that these ponies will easily founder and they require strict care, with regular hoof trimming and need to be checked each day. The couple revealed that they had never been around horses and just thought they were like a dog, luckily the couple walked away no longer interested.
The question I pose is where does the responsibility lie when selling or breeding ponies? How could a breeder choose to sell ponies to a negligent home where they could end up living a life in pain from foundering, often in loneliness and misunderstood? They are not great lawnmowers when many of them end up foundered because they were allowed to mow the rich grasses at will.
Ponies suffer from lack of hoof care.
Here's yet another story of common neglect: I drove to my friend’s house and again passed the little shaggy black Shetland running in a paddock with a ram. My friend was upset at the plight of the black Shetland as she had seen it standing in the common founder stance with all weight on the heels of the back hooves and front hooves. She was reluctant to approach the owner as they'd previously had an argument about her dogs.
We found out that the pony was for sale. I rang and arranged to see the pony and when I arrived my heart sank. Its feet were slipper toed - in other words it had founded in all four feet and had not been trimmed for a long time and were very overgrown. I brought this to the owners attention but she claimed the man that had been trimming him was no longer available. When the daughter arrived with a handful of carrots I talked about founder and tried to explain how serious and painful it was and that too many carrots were his worst enemy - like giving a diabetic sugar.
My friend secretly gave me a 100 dollars and I brought the pony. We took him home and my husband trimmed him and then after a few days of recovery we took him to a rescue organisation as both our properties were lush with grass.
The second question I pose - is it acceptable for a person that knows nothing about caring for a pony to own one and later sell it to another naive and ignorant owner?I have so many more stories of neglect, even one where I rescued a pony that was unable to stand because it had foundered on lush grass that was up to its shoulder. The owner was still trying to breed them even though they were wild and unable to handle them. But they were exotic looking welsh ponies. Is that an acceptable reason to breed?
I also recently heard of a yet another breeder with a large herd of Shetland ponies with the mares in foal suffering severe laminitis. Is this ethically acceptable? Why is this allowed to happen without these people being prosecuted? If someone treated a dog like this or even a chicken then they would be accountable in a court of law. Why can someone cause so much pain and suffering to a pony and there is little said about it and no consequences?
A breeders neglect results in laminits.
The sad story is that a lot of the ponies that reach the RSPCA are then passed on to more negligent homes to repeat a vicious cycle of living in pain and neglect. Just the other day a pony from the RSPCA was passed on to a first time horse owner unaware of the dangers that something as simple as grass can pose a great threat to them.
Are these ponies better off put down once foundered because it takes even more knowledge and care to avoid a repeat episode?A little giveaway miniature stallion ends up in an inexperienced home. They dream of him being a child’s mounts yet this is a ridiculous fantasy as it is crippled, severely foundered and has behaviour issues, yet it is pretty and amazingly I see it back on the grass as I drive by.
I believe every pony and miniature horse needs to come with an instruction manual and a big warning that they require special care.
My heart aches when I see a lonesome pony in a paddock full of grass, or locked in a small dirt yard with no food. Is there much quality of life for these animals? Why does every horse person I know have a sad tale to tell about their neglect?
Let’s lobby for stricter laws in animal cruelty – it should be a fineable offence to allow a pony or horse to founder. Sadly the only way people learn is through their hip pocket. Please help by writing to your local RSPCA or government member to ask for laws to change so we can ensure a brighter future for these beautiful animals.
Spare a thought for the average racehorse
– by Cynthia Cooper
Recently we had Melbourne Cup Day where the whole of Australia comes to a standstill at about 3pm to listen to, watch and cheer on the elite of the horseracing world. A huge amount of money will be won or lost, and the government will be happy about the revenue racing returns.For me, this day is a reminder of the suffering racehorses in general have to endure every day they are in training. While the Melbourne Cup runners are being treated like royalty, the average racehorse back at the stables is facing another day of boredom, lack of exercise and lack of roughage in their diet.These horses will have been fed their grain rich breakfast (a bit like serving us straight chocolate every day for breakfast) after their short workout on the track that is their only chance to stretch out and really run, to breathe fresh air and for their body to soak up some sunlight (if they are lucky to be exercised post dawn).
These horses can only dream of the days when they were allowed to graze in a pasture all day long, without the burden of rugs, able to enjoy a roll in the dirt, roughage when they want it and to run or stretch out in the sun for a nap. They dream of the days when they could play with their mates, help itch that scratch, and be a real horse.
Instead, when they enter the training stables as yearlings or earlier, they are locked away from their friends, can’t touch each other, sometimes can’t see many other horses, and are confined to that 3m square box equivalent to us living in our average toilet room.
They are fed twice a day or if they are lucky, may get some hay in between meals, or are bed on straw they can eat to satisfy their need to chew for 20 hours a day. If they don’t get the roughage going through their gut, they suffer painful gut ulcers that make them cranky and listless, grinding their teeth in agony. In order to cope with this artificial environment they develop ‘vices’ such as cribbing, weaving and wind sucking.
Then we humans try to put a stop to that by painting nasty tasting stuff on the cribbing surfaces, or covering them in metal, or putting a strap tightly around the neck to stop the wind sucking. And so the horses suffer, unable to relieve their boredom and pain and eventually they shut down or breakdown and are ‘turned out’ for a spell.
But if their racing days are over quickly (80% of racehorses bred never make it to the winners circle) because they are not fast enough, able to cope with the un-natural regime, are injured or go mental and their behaviour is dangerous at the starting barrier, they are sold, become breeding stock (if they have good bloodlines) or they are just sent straight to the ‘doggers’ (abattoir).
The average racehorse is an expendable item who needs to bring a return on the money spent on breeding or buying them. They are often owned by syndicates so the cost is shared and more people are involved at the racetrack to bring in more betting revenue.
Many syndicate members know nothing about horses so rely on the trainers to do the right thing. They think they are doing the best they can for the horses by providing them with ‘good’ food, locking them up in a box or small individual yard so they can’t hurt themselves. Covering them in rugs so they don’t catch a chill (but hardly ever taking them off so the horses can itch and roll, or escape the heat), and buying all the latest gadgets to treat the injuries that inevitably occur.
Most trainers employ a minimum number of often under-experienced staff to ride, educate and care for these horses because they have huge feed, vet and farrier bills.
Little do they realise if they were to start racing them as 3 or 4 year olds (instead of 2), change the confinement and feed, and employ a good hoof trimmer instead of nailing horse shoes onto undeveloped hooves, their vet and farrier bills would be greatly reduced.The horses would benefit and live longer, sounder lives and perhaps be worth keeping as someone’s show hack, eventer or jumper at the end of their racing career. Its sad to hear people referring to a 6 year old racehorses as an ‘old’ horse – when they haven’t even completely matured, not usually until they reach 7 years of age.
Even the better racehorses who make good money for their owners can face a life of further abuse and neglect when they become broodmares or breeding stallions.
The broodmares endure year after year of producing foals and while they live the majority of that time in the pasture, they often have their hooves and nutrition neglected. If the pastures are too rich, they suffer hoof abscesses, laminitis, splits and long flared hooves that are painful to move around on, especially when heavy in foal.The stallions must endure a life similar to the racehorse in work, often confined especially the more valuable they are, overfed and under- exercised, bored and socially deprived.
Due to the way they are kept stallions often become un-manageable and suffer cruel restraints like chains and severe bits, being beaten with poly pipe or a whip, every time they are led out of the stable to breed a mare who is nose ‘twitched’ and sometimes hobbled so she can’t kick him or resist.
Their breeding lives could be doubled in many cases by giving them a more natural existence, better hoofcare, roughage and regular exercise. Surely that would bring in a greater return for the investment over many more years?
However tradition is a hard habit to change. While there are some trainers/breeders looking for an edge and willing to try new things, many see them as fads that will pass and stick to their old ways, happy to settle for mediocre results and a high turn over of horses.
Perhaps the only way out of this rut is for some to set a good example such as the Horses First Club in the UK who give their horses a much more natural lifestyle, handling and training routine. Their website is www.horsesfirstclub.com - they are the future of racing.
Whichever way racing goes, only 20% of the 20% who make it to the winners circle are likely to be treated with anywhere near the respect and understanding these amazing equines deserve.
So spare a though for the average racehorse on the big race days, and don’t support them!
Instead, do something for the horses out there that just waiting for you to feed, understand, exercise and care for them that little bit better, starting with your own!
Enslaved
by Glenn Wilson ©
WARNING! Some people reading this article may think I'm taking an unfair swipe at various aspects of the horse world and those people who are involved with horses in one way or another. My only intention in writing this piece was to have a good, hard look at "what is" and compare that with the now outlawed, and rightly so, industry of human slavery; then ask you, the reader, if you can help the horse.
Once it was considered 'right' to own another human being and to have them do all manner of things as slaves. This allowed the owner to further themselves in financial, material, or aesthetic ways. The law then allowed such arrangements and indeed entrenched attitudes and regulations that today we are only legally allowed to apply to our animals.
Aspects that usually go hand in hand with slavery are abuse, cruelty, denial of rights and denial of natural justice. Of course there were many examples of slavery where these things did not occur, but the concept and reality of slavery is well associated with atrocities of all types. Over time, slavery was abolished. This, I feel, was a great step forward to a fairer, more understanding and compassionate humanity. Civilisation is on a journey. We are generally moving forward. We demonstrate time and time again the goodness that exists, that can exist and that is capable of being created, especially in times of need.
However if we closely examine what and how and why we do the things we do to our animals, especially in this case our horses, such scrutiny may reveal that, sadly, horses do, often and regularly, suffer in their enslaved relationship with humans even today. The horse community now has a great opportunity to 'free the horse', or at least make an acknowledgement that they are indeed enslaved to us, and if that overall situation of enslavement isn't going to change then alter the conditions of that enslavement to give the horse dignity and a life that meets its natural horse needs.
- Spare a thought for the average racehorse.
-
Enslaved - a call to action for horses.
-
To Bit or Not To Bit - by by Janene Clemence
This article details the damage bits can cause to horses.
Sign
up for my
free monthly news blog featuring the latest info on horse care, nutrition,
horsemanship, barefoot, bitless and new products.
Privacy Note: Your email address will not be used for anything other than the service you subscribe to.
Visit
the Natural Horse World Store
for quality 'horse endorsed' products
 |
|
Disclaimer: The information contained within this website is soley the expressed views and opinions of the author, unless otherwise stated, and the author accepts no responsability for the way this information is used by viewers. The information is provided to help PREVENT problems, not to replace veterinary advice.
Contact:
Cynthia
Cooper -
Natural Horse World
46 Wattle Lea Lane, Golden Valley. Tasmania, 7304. Australia.
Ph.
0419 372279
| Home | | | About | | | Photos | | | Resources | | | Links | | | Newsletter |