Disgusting.
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And look at how tight the noseband and flash are. No wonder he stuck his tongue out.
Gross.
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The Danish Federation has big problems at present. There seems to be a need for some heart searching and some culture change.
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Sickening! I’m sure there was dead/necrotic tissue!!
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Actually, there might have been “dead or necrotic tissue” if the poor horse has been consistently ridden with such a very tight nose band that it can’t express it’s stress and unhappiness. And look at the way the bit is being pulled out of the mouth in the photo. Those, to me, are signs that the pony was trained through domination rather than empathy. So a damaged tongue is quite likely.
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This makes me ill.
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It makes me furious. This is beyond disgusting. I can’t imagine mutilating your horse for a ribbon. Insanity.
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Look at the tension in the shoulder. That should never be rewarded. I would not doubt that there is some atrophy there as well.
1 Like
Having had a biopsy on my own tongue, I can only imagine the pain that poor thing went through. All for someone’s ego/vanity. Hideous.
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At least something is happening – for this pony, at least. Although unfortunately he’s already been through the suffering.
How many other horses and ponies are in a similar situation, and there is no help for them?
Will this action change anything for them?
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The vet should lose their license and any riders, owners and trainers found to be involved should receive a lifetime ban. That would be more effective.
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I do think that animal welfare needs to be taken more seriously in this sport.
I mean, our first mistake was involving an animal in competitive sport, I think. Some people are so competitive that they’ll do whatever it takes to win, and animal welfare goes out the window.
This sport and riding horses in general is a selfish endeavor, and we need to be aware of that and try to find a good balance. Part of the issue is that some people are very unaware of what harm they are causing and some just don’t care. So we have an education piece missing and a lack of compassion.
Since I took a bit of a riding break with leaving my ridden horse in another country, buying a young horse (too young to be ridden), and trying to navigate a new to me area, I’ve had more time to step back and reflect perhaps. There are some things I will be doing differently with this horse, I’ll be more thoughtful or conscious about things, and not let certain pressures get to me.
It can be discouraging when there aren’t any like minded people around (locally, anyway), and I think that’s also why people get “swept away” and follow what the crowd is doing or are afraid to be or think differently on things.
I find it unsettling what happened to this pony, and agree that bans are necessary.
This sort of ties in to another thread…it’s fine to be concerned with the legality of bits or equipment, but we need to look more at the use of equipment and the overall picture of animal welfare.
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What stood out to me is the headline. They banned the pony. Why wouldn’t it say the vet, trainer and anyone else involved was banned. Oh, and how about had their tongues amputated as a penalty.
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The pony has done national competition with 9 riders and internationals with 4. It would be hard to identify which set of connections did the amputation. By banning the pony it at least protects the animal to some small degree.
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Ok that is a good point.
How can you even get a vet to amputate a tongue that has nothing wrong with it?
How certain are they that the tongue wasn’t neurotic? Neurotic from what would be the next question.
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With almost any industry you almost always have the “dirty” crowd. There are certainly “dirty” vets out there or ones that can be influenced. They’re absolutely the minority though.
Not sure what exactly happened in this case.
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If it was necrotic, whoever owned him at the time should be able to provide details of what happened. It’s hard to imagine there wouldn’t a substantial gap in his show career if it was done after he started competing. It’s also hard to imagine it was a secret-- a lot of people handled this pony and most of them must have noticed that there was something different about his tongue, even if it was well-healed by then.
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Neurotic or necrotic?
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I wonder what will happen to the pony now.
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