I’m typing on a phone. I’m sure there’s something to discuss other than my phones error in autocorrect.
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I doubt it. There will be the usual brouhaha and then back to business as usual. I remember seeing Anky in 1995 La Vegas, I was disgusted. But people clapped and cheered and she won.
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No need to be prickly. It was an honest question. I worked for a TB field hunter breeder and she considered tongue waggers neurotic. Whether this pony’s tongue was wagging from neurosis or necrosis, it should not have been shown.
If the pony’s health required the amputation it should not have been competing.
What an awful thing to do.
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This is an interesting article
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My apologies, tis the prickly season.
I have seen horses have amputated tongues due to injury and they seem to recover and compete fine after. Often it is due to a harsh bit that causes the damage. I can’t say which came first, did the horse damage his tongue due to cruel riding and it was amputated? I would be horrified if a vet agree to amputate a perfectly good tongue.
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No sweat.
The whole thing is so horrible. I have to believe that the pony’s tongue was injured as a result of abuse of the bit and/or nosebands. I can’t imagine a vet amputating a healthy tongue. 
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@skydy I agree with this article 100%.
My contact is with the horse’s tongue, and since my contact is light the horse’s tongue “talks” with me.
I cut off the chin straps on my Micklem bridles. I put the bits in the proper position in the mouth–NOT 1/2" too far up (no more than one small wrinkle, and that only for the bridoon on a double bridle). I a horse gets stuffy about a bit I change the bit to a milder one, NOT a harsher one.
If a horse starts cussing me out about contact I know well and good that it is my fault.
I LOVE that article. Thank you for the link.
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Vets are human and sadly there are some who are willing to be a bit flexible when it comes down to right or wrong.
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How do these people sleep at night?!
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I feel the same way about people who mutilate dogs for the sake of fashion. I’m talking about ear and tail docking. It’s illegal in most civilized countries, but business as usual in the U.S. I makes me wonder about these folks in Denmark who blithely cut off a horse’s tongue, but would be outraged if you docked the ears and tails on their Great Danes.
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When I read about things like what happened to this poor pony, I start to think maybe PETA has a point.
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They know which vet did it. So they know when it was done. The vet records should show who the owner was and who authorized the procedure
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I guarantee you that the vet has also done similar things to other horses or ponies. Unless he was being absolutely truthful about the tongue being necrotic - but how often does that happen? And like really - someone will continue to complete a pony who had been through that kind of ordeal? Wouldn’t most caring people not want to EVER put another bit in that poor animal’s mouth?
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I’ve ridden a horse who had lost a chunk of his tongue when owned by a previous person. I only knew because I was shown after the ride. That damage was caused by a ferocious bit. I had found him light on my hand and no problem at all. Bits and hands.
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Let’s add declawing of cats as well.
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Just sharing my one experience with an amputated tongue. A very valuable weanling was entered in the Keeneland November sale. She developed a fever and quit eating at the sale grounds, so they shipped her to the farm I managed. The fever suggested infection. Her mouth smelled like death. The vet came out next day and her tongue was severely injured; no one knew how. She went to Hagyard where they ended up amputating the lower half of her tongue, from the somewhere around the molars (the injury was well above the bars). The tongue itself healed quickly but she really struggled to learn to eat. She remained at the hospital for two weeks, while dedicated staff members tried to teach her how to push food back to her molars. They fed her soaked mush, shoving it back with a syringe plunger. It was heartbreaking the first few days, she was so hungry but food just fell out the sides and front of her mouth.
I left that job before she came home from the clinic, but I looked her up a few years later and she must have done alright, she had recorded works and was in training. I dont know that she had a racing career, she was extremely valuable as a broodmare.
Just my experience…a severe tongue injury that had nothing to do with a bridle, so it can happen.
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I have never had a cat declawed. I never plan on getting one declawed, especially as a routine get it done when they get spayed/neutered.
However I had a friend that had a cat that was incredibly destructive. Molding, walls, kitchen table top, couch, dressers were all scratching places. Lots of catnip, a real scratching posts but no interest. Truthfully I am 55 years old and have never seen such a destructive cat before or since.
So moral question do you declaw or do you make him an outside cat that kills valuable song birds and may live a shorter life due to cars, disease and predators?
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One of my horses split her tongue in half acrossways (right where the bit sits). She was electrocuted in a lightning storm and the vet believes that she bit her tongue when her muscles convulsed.
She recovered, both from the injury and the strike, but it left a nasty scar that definitely could have raised some questions if it was looked at without context. Poor girl. She was five months pregnant too. I lost her last year to bad colic.
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There are still options you haven’t mentioned. For instance, there are claw covers which help. There is regular nail trimming. I had a rescue cat who did some damage to our moldings. But eventually, with regular nail trims, we got her to stop.
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Is it cruel to crate a cat when you aren’t home, like you would a destructive dog?
Note I am genuinely asking the question. As a bona-fide not-cat-person, I am content with barn cats where the damage is not as significant/important as it would be in a home. I am curious about crating a cat though.
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