This is the most recent editorial from one of the best online horse training/interest sites available today. It is available by subscription, or you may subscribe, of which I am a subscriber. The site is available for viewing what the contents are on an abbreviated version. As more comments are made to the full story, and it is "brutal", I will try to keep you posted, or subscribe if you are interested. These a people who make their living with horse, and truly love them and all disciplines. Maybe the honestly addressing of the issues, and formating change, like the rodeo, the race horse industry, the Olympic dressage world, etc. etc. has done has shown that they are truly concerned for the animal and the animal only.
Sadly the equestrian community has been rocked at many different levels by the shocking deaths at both the Kentucky Derby and the Rolex Three Day Event. We share in the sadness that so many are feeling with a discussion in Three Dead Horses. A disturbing article that continues that discussion in the article Eventing: What Can We Do Better, where we invite you to share your opinion and your knowledge in our Add Your Voice Feature - on how we can improve things for the horses. Many are calling for the complete halt to any sport that pits one animal against another on everything from racing to the Olympics. These deaths undeniably are having a profound effect on the possible future of our equestrian endeavors. We might quite possibly be approaching a crossroads of incomparable significance on what horsemanship will be in the future as those who are committed in truly making the horse our first responsibility, voice is perhaps finally being heard.
Warm Regards,
Nadja King
Editor
Horses For LIFE Magazine
http://horsesforlife.com
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5 comments:
Wade, I don't pretend to fully understand the equestrian world. My mother was in the horse business and my brother Lew is quite successful as a trainer but I guess none of that rubbed off. What I do know is that the horse industry is a multi-billion dollar business. I'm sure that the debate to which you refer is since and honest and heartfelt. But given the money involved I wonder about any kind of "reform" that ultimately impacts the bottom line. For example the cessation of any form of competition that creates a market for $100,000 living Christmas presents given by adoring parents to their talented Junior Rider daughters would I think ultimately be fought tooth and nail by those who train and sell such horses, those who coach and instruct, and by the riders themselves who are chasing their dreams in Ocala, or Augusta, or Santa Barbara, or Pebble Beach. Fifteen years ago you'll recall the scandal involving George Lindemann the talented rider and instructor and heir to a billion dollar fortune who was convicted of insurance fraud as a result of his part in a scheme to kill horses. After his conviction sand ban from competition by the AHSA he had the gall to sue AHSA claiming they ought not have the authority to discipline him. (Kind of sounds like some circus people.) Whenever there are large pools of money involved it's hard to convince people that change is absolutely necessary.
Ben
Ben,
That's where you are right and wrong. Because there are so many people making a living with horses, it is of concern, as it affects "everybody's" livelihood. If the "buying" public perceives your product as flawed or dirty, they will quit buying it. If you have no market for your product, you have no business. The breeder(big and small) have no buyers, so they quit breeding. The trainers have no clients because they don't buy horses, so they quit training. The trailer manufacture shuts down, as nobody buys the trailer, to haul the horses, that nobody trains, because nobody breeds, because nobody buys. Hay, grain, leg wraps, saddles, etc. etc. etc. Their is a reason they are a multi million dollar industry. Remember the circus was at one time also. Bigger then movies, bigger then rodeo, bigger then wrestling, bigger then most forms of recreation. I have been trying to address what has happened as I have seen, looking at other like industries, and to this day only a few can see it.
Of just these mentioned industries, which one did what it wanted, how it wanted because thats the way it was done in the old days. And which ones regulated and set some type of standard, good or bad. I think the success of the industry answers that. They were all with it and for it, as long as they "all" gained. When the vet did what he did, and incidentally he was our first vet when we built the winterquarters, Ross Hughie or something similar, they shut him down and out. They didn't hid him,or protect him or blame him on something else. They erased him from their "collective" world.
Wade
Wade, you're right about the trickle down in the equine economics. What I was getting at, or what concerns me is that in some specific areas of the horse business it's success in physical competition -- rather than competition within a breed -- that determines an animal's value at resale. If the difference between a hunter selling for $30K and a made horse selling for $150K is predicated on the later animal's success competing over fences the sellers, trainers, and riding instructors who each make a buck along the way have a vested interest in continued competitive events. You argue perhaps rightly that if specific kinds of competition are viewed as cruelty or overly hazardous to a horse's well-being, the buyers will leave the market or go elsewhere. Maybe you're correct. You'll recall when buyers fled the Arabian market no so many years ago and you literally couldn't give some Arabs away. But for better or worse many of the buyers of made horses, whether Jr riders with well off parents or slightly older riders don't seem to be thinking of much beyond instant gratification.
By no means am I slamming horse people, but rather I question whether some narrow subset are all that troubled by ethical questions.
Ben
Wade, you're right about the trickle down in the equine economics. What I was getting at, or what concerns me is that in some specific areas of the horse business it's success in physical competition -- rather than competition within a breed -- that determines an animal's value at resale. If the difference between a hunter selling for $30K and a made horse selling for $150K is predicated on the later animal's success competing over fences the sellers, trainers, and riding instructors who each make a buck along the way have a vested interest in continued competitive events. You argue perhaps rightly that if specific kinds of competition are viewed as cruelty or overly hazardous to a horse's well-being, the buyers will leave the market or go elsewhere. Maybe you're correct. You'll recall when buyers fled the Arabian market no so many years ago and you literally couldn't give some Arabs away. But for better or worse many of the buyers of made horses, whether Jr riders with well off parents or slightly older riders don't seem to be thinking of much beyond instant gratification.
By no means am I slamming horse people, but rather I question whether some narrow subset are all that troubled by ethical questions.
Ben
Ben,
You misunderstand. It is not a small subset, it is the "whole" industry that "buys" the product. I also did not mean to infer that "any" equine discipline is cruel or overly hazardous using a horse selectively breed for the discipline. Spurring a Clydesdale to win the Derby is cruel, as is asking the Thoroughbred to pull the beer wagon. When something does happen with every precaution taken, similar to Gunthers teeter board elephant, you address what happened and how it can be prevented from happening again, by changing something, doing something different, etc. You do not keep doing it the same way and and justify it by saying that's the way it's always been.
In Bosses case, as an individual he could say "never again." A successful industry address it, fixes it and address's the next unfortunate incident that occurs, and the next, and the next. At no point to the hid, and hope it will go away, because it won't, just the people who by the product. Also because the rodeo makes their horses buck, and the circus makes their elephants dance, that has absolutely nothing to do with a horse falling over a jump, and gutting it's self on a piece of wood. That's why they are a multi million dollar industry, and we used to be. Of course you don't stop the sport, you fix it. If they don't fix it, given a reasonable amount of years and research, then you stop it.
Wade
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