I hate these types of blogs. There isn’t really a point, unless it’s fear mongering. :rolleyes:
Do bad apples exist in the horse world? Absolutely. Are they common? No.
We are a phenomenal subset of people who care about our animals. Even horse people who make a living off of their animals - carriage drivers, riding instructors, farmers, etc - care about their animals. There are very, very, very few people who want to intentionally cause undue harm to horses.
This type of article makes it easy for bystanders to clutch their pearls and complain about the abuses of the industry without ever understanding it. Why would anyone who enjoys horses sit there and spend the type to collect stories and put them all together to spread malicious gossip? Way to make an easy target even bigger, blogger.
I don’t know - I think it mostly pisses me off that people are so black and white about things. There are definitely incidents of clear abuse, but then there’s also this grey area that seems to be getting more and more obnoxious every week. I grew up riding hunters, so I’ve seen their shit. I spent the last decade riding at breed shows and learning western pleasure (the horror) and two summers ago I learned to drive carriages with a friend so I’ve seen all of their shit, too. :lol: I have a handle on most of the “abusive” industry practices. Most of the time - they’re without merit.
Have I seen a hunter get aced before hacking? Yep; on that day it seemed to be the better alternative to lunging his legs off for hours or dumping the rider. Have I continued riding a “lame” horse? Yep. He’s actually one of mine who always comes out of the stall a little stiff and after a few minutes of trotting around on the buckle, he’s fine.
Have I seen a horse bloodied by spurs? Yep. He was being a pig and his owner had him spoiled to the point of sulling up and getting dangerous if you asked him to do something he didn’t want to do. Do I advocate going after one with spurs to the point their sides are bloody? No - but do I understand it happens sometimes? Sure do.
Have I seen drivers whipping a carriage horse? Yep. A distracted driver was about to back into them and they needed to move, NOW. Do I think you should be running down the road beating a horse? No - but every jackass with an iPhone these days wants to record and take things out of context. I’m sure video of the poor gal hitting him to move him quickly was posted on the internet.
Have I witnessed drugs and alcohol in the sport? Yes. I’ve even done some light riding after mimosa brunches on the weekend in my day. Luckily, my horse is a saint and just jogged around while I thought it was the funniest damn thing in the world. I realize it’s not the same as cocaine, but my point is - context is important.
The line varies for everyone. Personally, I want more people in our industry. I want more people to share these amazing animals with. Harping about the bad shit that occasionally happens is like giving ourselves a black eye and then telling the world that “no, no - everything is fine - i just tripped into a door knob!” I wish, in 2019, we could work towards being more inclusive and sharing the “bright side of the horse industry” versus gossiping about the shit that you know will get an emotional rise out of people. Everyone can do that, in any industry; it’s super easy. What’s more difficult is lifting people up and bringing out the best in others and ourselves, but it’s the path that’s worth it in the end.
