The information I want to gather is whether horse people here eat meat. Not asking for opinions about it, where context might have some value.
I’ll ask you the same question I asked Simkie: Would context change your answer? If yes, why? If no, what value would it have?
It’s a simple yes or no question. Why all the angst?
Wow, that sounds incredibly judgmental. I think it’s interesting to discuss people’s food choices who have a common interest and lifestyle, but there’s more than enough combative threads about this subject on a variety of forums.
Growing up, my mom LOVED steak and my dad was a big fish eater (and just a big eater). I never really liked what my mother would call “real food.” In other words, I’d happily gobble down pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, McDonald’s (but not regular cheeseburgers), and fried clams, but didn’t like healthier types of meat like chops or roasted chicken.
When I was 13, I was vegetarian for a year, but my mom hated to cook and I had no way to really learn, so that was very difficult, and I began eating meat again, mostly junk food.
In college, there were a number of vegetarian options I liked better than meat, and I began to eat more vegetables because I realized that it was possible to eat veggies other than watery boiled Green Giant vegetables poured from a can.
I transitioned to vegetarian when I was 23, after a horrific experience with chicken (not food poisoning, just gross and underdone, and it put me off). I was vegetarian until I was 36, at my healthiest in the UK where there were so many Indian and dairy options, and unhealthiest in the US where I basically ate a lot of vegan and vegetarian junk food.
I went back to eating meat, and experimented with many different ways and proportions of meat in my diet. I currently am a pescatarian, eating fish. I’m a very serious runner (training for my third marathon currently), and my ability to recover from my long runs is SO MUCH better now that I eat some meat. When I was vegetarian, I was running fewer miles per week and what would be a short run for myself would take me out.
But I eat a lot of fruits, veggies, and whole grains, in addition to meat. I also use plant-based dairy, but that’s mainly because of stomach issues. I do have qualms about factory farming–I always have–and I feel better eating fish ethically as well as physically.
I think it’s best to eat minimally processed foods, meat and otherwise, and I think it’s very difficult to be vegetarian or vegan, truthfully, without relying upon a lot of soy hockey pucks, unless you really love beans. I do not, and they mess with my stomach.
This is why I didn’t ask for opinions or information about food choices or lifestyle. Just a simple yes or no.
My husband is trying to get to this point on our new farm. We’re trying to “homestead,” as it were.
He processed his first two chickens last month. It traumatized him 
I knew it would. He thinks he’ll be able to keep doing chickens, we’ll see, but since then we’ve found a local processor that’ll do the pigs and goats when that time comes.
I do, but not by choice at this point. I was primarily whole foods plant based from 2008-2018. I would make exceptions while traveling to @endlessclimb point.
As my Ehlers Danlos and autoimmune diseases have progressed, I’ve experimented more with animal products because I could not, for the amount of calories I eat in a day, get the amount of protein that makes my body feel more functional as I’ve gotten older. It was ok in my 20’s, my 30’s was when sh*it hit the fan with diagnosis’s and plant food sensitivities, but my 40’s have been a little better so far.
I would prefer to do plant based, but it just doesn’t work for my particular circumstances anymore.
Have you tried protein powders? Since I don’t eat meat and am picky in general (beans are a no), I put flavored protein powder in my coffee every morning to make sure I’m getting enough protein. My twin sister uses a non-flavored protein powder in many food dishes she makes, if they have a sauce.
I do a Kachava shake every day for breakfast or lunch!
Awww It is tough. How is he doing the actual act? It took me a bit to settle on something I was really comfortable with, that I felt was fast enough to be as humane as possible. I immobilize in a cone, tying the legs together, and take the head off with a very sharp set of 18" loppers. It is instant, requires no particular skill, and with the legs tied, minimizes the post death kicking.
I also don’t raise meat birds. That’s a whole nother level and just doesn’t feel very humane to me with their fast growth & issues.
While the actual act of butchering isn’t fun, I do feel good that my birds have a good life, and as little stress as possible before the end. There’s a lot of satisfaction there.
How do you feel about your husband’s plans with this, not eating meat yourself? I could see that potentially being a friction point?
My dad raised a bunch of chickens for my mom while he was eating plant based and she wasn’t. When it came to butcher day…one of their dogs “helped”.
VERY glad I was not there to see that mess 
I wanted to go deer hunting with my dad when I was a teenager after he got his first deer and I helped field dress/get it in the truck. It never ended up happening because we learned the hard way with my then undiagnosed connective tissues disease, my elbow cannot stay out of the way of the string when releasing the arrow from a bow. I walked around school for WEEKS with a very nasty bruise.
I don’t know that I could hunt/butcher anything myself these days, but there was I time I probably could have.
Haven’t eaten meat in 15 years.
I have no problem with responsible hunting, raising and slaughtering your own animals, or supporting small local farmers.
To me it is unfathomable that someone could love animals and support mass farming. The life a chicken lived for someone to grab a quick bite at McDonald’s is something that would destroy anyone with a heart to see in person. I think it is truly the cognitive dissonance and distancing from the realities of how the mega meat industry operates that lets most people continue to engage in the same behaviors.
Once I knew I couldn’t forget. Same for dairy. If I feel outrage at the idea of someone weaning a foal and putting it in a dog igloo with a little 4x4 square for convenience, why would i support big dairy? It’s just cheese. I can live without it.
Nope, I have no problems with meat eaters, nor the idea of processing or anything. It’s the circle of life, as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t like meat, myself.
He did basically what you said - immobilized with a cone (bucket), legs tied, but he used a very sharp 10" blade knife. I’ll suggest the lopers to him when he’s ready to try again, that sounds much easier.
We agree with the good life thing, ours are free-range and the funniest little characters; it makes us feel much better about the meat, knowing how most commercial chicken houses are run.
We got our first set of chicks from Tractor Supply - we got two meat chicks with six layers (and three ducks). Those meat chickens grew so big so fast. They were hilarious and so sweet, but yeah, we won’t be doing meat chickens again. The layers are quite big themselves, should be plenty of meat for one person.
People are full of fun contradictions. I recently met a whole vegan, like staunch vegan, who hired someone to hunt deer on his property because they were getting into his vegetable gardens.
Oh. Sure. That makes sense.
Oh absolutely. We all have our contradictions and seemingly arbitrary hills to die on. It’s just very hard for me to understand how you could know and continue. However, someone could likely say the same about other behaviors I engage in that seem completely normal to me.
I am a pescatarian. Is fish considered as meat in your poll?
Or are you asking specifically about the flesh of mammals?
Do you suspect it would differ from the general population?
I wouldn’t think so. I mean, most of us ride in a saddle made from animal hide. No reason to suspect that love of riding = love of animals in any other way than other people.
I think for many, cost and accessibility are very big factors. I live in an area where I can get local meat from butchers or meat lockers, and the grocery stores carry organic/grassfed options. They are more expensive than conventional options though.
Yeah, I also tried a knife–basically a scalpel with a longer blade–and honestly just didn’t feel like I had the skill to make it as fast as I wanted. I know some people are very adept, but I wasn’t willing to muddle through the learning curve. Loppers are great. I have a set just for this.
Are you guys planning on hatching any of your own? It is GREAT fun. All through covid I hatched & sold chicks. The extra boys are fab to raise for the table. And there’s nothing quite like a coq au vin made with an actual cock rather than a young meat bird!
I’d hope most of us would say it’s a love of horses, not just their ability to be ridden. As a collective group we are sensitized to the incredible nuance of these 1200 on animals that can look “big and dumb” or “pretty and stupid” to someone who has never been around them. We have the experience to understand the stresses of weaning, trailering, close confinement, rapid feed changes, etc. We recognize that their value isn’t any less just because they can’t sit on our couch or go on a walk around the neighborhood like a companion animal (although questionable considering the number of horses in houses videos circulating). It seems very logical to me that horse people and those around livestock would have heightened sensitivity to at a minimum the need for humane practices in the meat industry. It doesn’t seem that hard to take a cow crammed into a transporter and think, how would that be for my horse, or at least it isn’t for me.
Yes! We’re dying waiting for some little chickies 
We have two roosters (only one that acts like a rooster) and six hens (I know we need more hens, but as of now, no one is getting too pushy). We had ten hens but had a couple feral dog attacks. We seem to have sorted that out, finally.
We’re collecting the eggs right now, none of the hens have been sitting on them, no one is broody yet I guess. They JUST started laying a few weeks ago, we got them as babies in July. Fingers crossed they get broody soon!
We’re working towards building a little farmstand on the corner of our property by the road, to sell eggs and veggies and stuff. But we just moved here in July so, all things in time.
I especially can’t wait for little duckies I got lucky with a mallard drake and hen in my random pick of three ducks from TSC (unsexed, no breeds specified). The third is a runner hen, I’m planning to get a drake runner for her this spring. Though I guess the mallard drake might also breed with her too, idk, this is all new to me.
We’ll also be getting a couple geese and turkeys.
You want to control the way people answer you, yet you still refuse to give a reason behind your poll 
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