Posts Tagged ‘money money money’
What’s in a word?
Great article and very thought-provoking!
The article contains a quote from pro-slaughter veterinarian Dr. Tom Lenz: “Unwanted horses are defined as those no longer wanted by their current owner because they are old; injured; sick; unmanageable; fail to meet their owner’s expectations; or the owner can no longer afford to keep them”.
Using Dr. Lenz’s logic, everyone who is single or in the middle of a breakup is an “unwanted person.” Are you unemployed? You must be an “unwanted employee.” I can see you all rolling your eyes at those comparisons because, as we all know, having one person or one company not want us is, well, part of life and something we all experience, and those unwanted statuses can change in the blink of an eye – the next thing we know, we’re in love with someone else or going off to start a great new job.
It’s the same thing for horses, of course. Owner A cannot wait to get Horseykins out of the barn whereas the next owner acquires it and thinks Horseykins is their dream that they have been searching for all of their life. My favorite horse of all time – my 30 year old who I still own – was literally thrown at us in 1985 because she’d just broken someone’s collarbone and had become equus non grata in that barn! I loooooved that mare – played arena polo on her, jumped her, even ran barrels and poles on her. To label a horse as unwanted because one single individual, the current owner doesn’t want it, is ludicrous. But as John Holland observes in the article – it’s all semantics. It’s all to avoid the word I would use, surplus horses, which is about the same thing John says with “excess” horses.
That pretty buckskin pictured is a classic example of an “unwanted” horse. She was a broodmare, got dumped to kill, “rescued” by CBER, off to a hoarder haven (remember that picture I posted a long time ago of the trashy chick’s myspace pic with all the guns? … that one), wound up back on the lot, re-rescued by Save A Forgotten Equine, who finally after a couple of tries found the right trainer for her and now here she is with her owner, who loves her. Happy ending. No longer “unwanted” but a happy, contributing member of equine society who now has a good home because of it. The difference was simple. Training.
As I’ve noted hundreds of times before, the reason we have a problem is that our supply of horses exceeds the demand for horses, and a contributing factor is that the demand is for trained horses, whereas much of the oversupply is untrained horses. It is like unemployment – it’s not that all of you who are without a job suck, it’s that the supply of employees currently vastly exceeds the demand for employees in many fields. As a result, some of you are going to have to go back to school and retrain for a field there’s more demand in. I know many people doing this already. Sometimes you gotta adapt. Horse breeders, you gotta adapt. STOP OVER-PRODUCING IN A DOWN ECONOMY. Instead of having 10 foals, have 2 that you train. Or buy back some of your previously produced horses that are in trouble somewhere, put training on them and take them to the shows so that people want to buy more horses from you.
Do you know who can drive your horses’ value up to pre-recession prices? YOU! Do you know how people who are still getting awesome prices for horses get it? Well, they show up at a horseshow or other competition with a good looking horse that kicks ass. It’s like magic – people clamor around trying to find out where they can get one just like it. Stop sitting around pouting and talking about “snobby horse show people.” The show horse people aren’t snobby, they’re using common sense, proven tactics to drive up the value of their horses. If you think western pleasure is stupid, you don’t have to do it. There are a lot of other events. There’s a vast variety of equine competitions out there – something for everybody. All of them, short of crazy shit like horse tripping, drive your horse’s value UP.
Now, are there some horses I would classify as unwanted? No, but there are some horses I would classify as difficult to place. These include unsound horses, older unbroke horses, and horses with some kind of major mental issue/vice. I do not think there is anything wrong with euthanasia, as most of you know, as a solution here. That said, I have seen everything from 35 year old toothless Appaloosas to bat-shit panel-jumping BLM mustangs find fabulous homes and be very much wanted. I myself have a particular liking for old ex-broodmares and have supported quite a few for the last few years of their lives. There is a not-so-small element of the horse world that truly enjoys having old coot horses to pet and spoil, and it’s a good thing because there’s also a not-so-small element of the horse world that likes to dump those horses.
All in all, I agree with John. Unwanted is a meaningless term and a way of putting a spin on the situation without having to admit that it’s time that everybody drastically reduced the number of horses they’re creating and put more emphasis on training the ones that are already here. But fewer horses means less work for the registries and, oh yeah, the veterinarians – so that does explain some of the very self-serving opinions here! Sheesh people, we can all follow the money and see what’s driving your remarks. Not a single one of you can or has effectively argued with my logic that fewer, higher quality and better trained horses would almost completely solve the problem here. There is no reason for not supporting that solution that is not self-serving and related to your own greed. When I hear that some of these ding-dongs with the registries are still encouraging people to breed, breed, breed, or some of these pro-slaughter state Horse Councils having incentive programs to breed, breed, breed, I want to fire up that Bitchslap World Tour Bus and get it on the road. And we’ll stop at the home of any breeder who wants to simply sit on her butt and pimp out her completely unaccomplished stallion(s) and put no training on the foals she creates. Ridiculous. And that’s a word that does apply!
Who needs coffee this morning?
I am sending out a $25 Starbucks gift card to whoever can solve this mystery!
I am absolutely positive that some reader of this blog knows who this horse is. Here is what we know.
– He was rescued from the December 2009 Enumclaw Auction, so he probably came from Washington or Oregon.
– He is a true 17 hands (we sticked him) and is a tattooed Thoroughbred gelding. We are having trouble reading it. He is in his 20’s.
– He has had white line disease and his right front hoof has been resected. The farrier did an excellent job.
– No sign whatsoever of any abuse or neglect. A bit thin but we believe this horse has been living in a barn.
– We are positive he is an old show horse. You can clip his ears without a twitch and he loves being bathed and fussed over.
– He has not, however, been shown in a long time as his bridle path has been allowed to grow out fully and his whiskers were very long.
– When he arrived, he was aggressive and it seemed to be pain related/defensiveness. He bit Ron the kill buyer in the shoulder at the auction. What a good pony! 
Now, he is a SNUGGLE BUNNY. Someone has taught this horse to give hugs – if you hug him, he wraps his neck and head around you and squeezes. He is particularly affectionate with petite women and children.
– He has some pushy behaviors on the ground and will try to whap you around with his head if he doesn’t want to stand still.
– Even lame, he is an AMAZING mover. AMAZING. If he wasn’t an A circuit horse, it was not for lack of talent.
– Ringbone (obvious) in hind right.
– VERY playful. When you turn him out, he pulls stuff off the walls to play with, knocks over my trainer’s stuff, anything he can reach is fair game.
I want to know who this horse is. If not for Second Chance Ranch, he would have gone to kill. Ron marked him as “kill only” thanks to the bite.
I also suspect that he has an old owner who loves him. I just have a feeling about it. I also have a feeling that the other people at the barn he came from have NO idea that he went to auction.
So get your week’s worth of coffee and out the asshat(s) – extra credit for proof, i.e. pictures of him at his previous location or with whoever dumped him! Who the hell sent this awesome horse to die in a slaughterhouse? They KNEW where he was going with that hoof. And why? Sick of paying the vet? What? This is a Ferrari that was nearly crushed into a cube, and I want to know why and who was responsible.
Click below for even more pictures.
Fun Friday Topic: How much better does your horse live than you?
I have to talk about this! My horse now has an appointment for a massage. Last week, he went to the chiropractor. This is to correct a stiff neck from getting cast in his stall. Now he has a sniffle, so he is being seen by the vet for that. All told we’re looking at about $400 in little extras this month.
When I sleep wrong on my neck, I have to chug Advil and keep on going. I had a cold last week – I just got some extra sleep and waited for it to be over. He had a dental in April, I haven’t seen the dentist since 2000.
I know I am not alone so let’s just have a bitchfest…tell me, how much better are your horses living than you are?
