Horses and Wild Horses

[Marie2020]

Grab a tissue if you are a lover of animal's

@thistlebloom
I thought of you instantly when I saw this clip. I haven't seen you lately and hope all is well?

 

[seedcorn]

IF this woman is so devastated, buy ground and let them roam. Horses are not a native species to America. The ground they feed on is ground native species could utilize. I sure wouldn’t want horses running free on my place. I leave the deer alone. (Although do whine like a baby when they eat my garden.)

 

[baymule]

In western states, there is much federal land. It can be leased for cattle, mining or oil drilling. Wild horses can over populate the range and about their only predator is a mountain lion and they prefer young foals-easier to kill than a fully grown wild horse. Over population leads to starvation. So rounding up wild horses and selling them is bad? I suppose starving is better?

This is a beautiful story and this herd can now run free at her sanctuary. But what is not said is more than likely the colts must be sold to keep from over populating the available land/grass. I’m sure that she is extremely picky on who buys the colts. Most sanctuaries and rescues have contracts that a buyer must honor. Personally because of their stringent rules, I would never buy a horse from a rescue or sanctuary. If I pay for it, it is mine to do with as I want. Not so with a rescue horse. They often want to come inspect the horse and most contracts have the right to seize the animal if it is not up to their standards. No way I would ever do that.

Much easier to go buy a horse out of a kill pen. It’s chancy, you don’t know what you are getting, but it’s about the same at a rescue.

I am for horse slaughter here in the US. The bleeding hearts were able to close it down in the US, so now horses have a long ride to Mexico or Canada. I suppose the idiots think that is better?

Bottom line is, there is an over supply of horses and not enough buyers. When I go to auctions, there is always fully grown horses that their owners have done nothing with. All of a sudden that cute foal has grown up and will kick the crap out of them and will not submit and ride them around. No training. They sell cheap to kill buyers. There are usually old or injured horses, they also sell to kill buyers. Then begins the long trip across the country to get to the border where slaughter is legal. The bleeding hearts didn’t stop it, they made it worse. Why don’t they go to auctions and buy them up? Why? Because it costs money and lots of it to feed a horse. They do not put their money where their mouth is.

With inflation on the rise, feed costs are rising. Fertilizer costs (think hay and grass) have tripled. Fuel for the tractors to cut, rake and bale that hay, has also tripled. A round bale of hay cost me $65 last year. I expect that to double or triple this year.

With food prices going to the moon, families will be hard pressed to just feed themselves. Horses will start hitting the auctions soon and probably a flood of them come fall when people can’t afford hay.

We’ll, this turned out to be me on my soap box. Didn’t mean for it to turn out this way, but it is reality. Reality is seldom the pretty picture painted by rescues.

I’m very happy for this woman and her band of wild horses. Somebody has to feed them and I bet it isn’t her. Heart tugging videos brings in the cash donations for her to continue. Not a bad job, she gets to hang out with wild horses and somebody else pays for it. She’s brilliant.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Bay, a few of us on the chicken forum have a saying "Where romance meets reality". It's often not pretty.

 

[flowerbug]

In western states, there is much federal land. It can be leased for cattle, mining or oil drilling. Wild horses can over populate the range and about their only predator is a mountain lion and they prefer young foals-easier to kill than a fully grown wild horse. Over population leads to starvation. So rounding up wild horses and selling them is bad? I suppose starving is better?

This is a beautiful story and this herd can now run free at her sanctuary. But what is not said is more than likely the colts must be sold to keep from over populating the available land/grass. I’m sure that she is extremely picky on who buys the colts. Most sanctuaries and rescues have contracts that a buyer must honor. Personally because of their stringent rules, I would never buy a horse from a rescue or sanctuary. If I pay for it, it is mine to do with as I want. Not so with a rescue horse. They often want to come inspect the horse and most contracts have the right to seize the animal if it is not up to their standards. No way I would ever do that.

Much easier to go buy a horse out of a kill pen. It’s chancy, you don’t know what you are getting, but it’s about the same at a rescue.

I am for horse slaughter here in the US. The bleeding hearts were able to close it down in the US, so now horses have a long ride to Mexico or Canada. I suppose the idiots think that is better?

Bottom line is, there is an over supply of horses and not enough buyers. When I go to auctions, there is always fully grown horses that their owners have done nothing with. All of a sudden that cute foal has grown up and will kick the crap out of them and will not submit and ride them around. No training. They sell cheap to kill buyers. There are usually old or injured horses, they also sell to kill buyers. Then begins the long trip across the country to get to the border where slaughter is legal. The bleeding hearts didn’t stop it, they made it worse. Why don’t they go to auctions and buy them up? Why? Because it costs money and lots of it to feed a horse. They do not put their money where their mouth is.

i think it quite ok to be against treating animals poorly but to also not be rich enough to do much other than the common sense things each person can do (if you have a pet make sure it is spayed/neutered and don't let it run around and bother other people).

in the older times great herds of bison ran around the plains and it was able to support millions of them. someone saying that horses are starving in the wild is just pointing out land use issues where rangeland has been degraded. starving horses aren't pleasant but in nature all sorts of animals have boom and bust population swings. if wolves and mountain lions were not hunted out then there would be population controls again.

controlling the population by hunting would be what i would recommend. there's a lot of food there and there are a lot of people who would consider it ok to do if society wasn't against it. rounding them up and shipping them to another country to slaughter is sad. humane would at least give them a quick death instead of torturing them and treating them like concentration camp victims.

 

[ducks4you]

The only crime here is NOT using men/women on horseback to round them up. Helicopters can frighten/kill foals. Horseman galloping behind don't do that.
I, like those above, care about the Mustangs, BUT, I, like those above, have studied the issue.
1) There are NOT vast pieces of land contiguous and available for any wild herd of horses. Maps of their territories show them to be limited circles or ovals. I keep 3 horses on 4 fenced in acres on my land in Illinois, where, in an average year, 1 acre of grass feeds 1 horse for the growing season.
Out West, used to be referred to as "The Great American Desert," it's more like 60 acres of grass/1 horse.
See the problem?
2) "Evil" ranchers often provide water (during droughts) and hay (during the winter) to these herds to keep them ALIVE
3) They are NOT feral, inasmuch as you cannot domesticate a fox, bc it is feral. PLENTY of trainers looks to "adopt" Mustangs, mostly bc they are CHEAP!! May have gone up, but last time I looked, you paid $140.00
I paid $3K for my Mountain Horse gelding, $2,5K for my Mountain Horse mare,, and $1.5K for my QH (not registered and from a "rescue".)
4) Back to "feral", wild horses are like blank slates. As long as nobody has "mucked up" their training, and you are starting from scratch, they train in very well. Living History US Cavalry Groups, located at Forts which are museums, will brag that ALL of their mounts were Mustangs, and they can be desensitized to everything you desensitize a horse to not be afraid of.
5) Did you know that in bad times, like this country in 2022, people who cannot sell their domestic horses will "set them free" with an existing herd. As long as it is a mare or gelding (neutered stallion,) they will join up and become "wild."
6) Therefore, with this type of interbreeding, you don't know WHAT to expect as far as conformation, and that's important for a riding or driving horse.
7) Clinton Anderson (from Austrailia, now, I think lives in Texas,) has shown evidence that "Brumby's," which are their version of the Mustang, can founder. It is often thought that Mustangs were so physically tough that they could live on practically air and never have a hoof problem. Wrong!
The best medicine is to consider going to a horse rescue. Don't throw away your brains and adopt a lame or sick horse. They cost enough$ without adding nursing bills.

 

[heirloomgal]

i think it quite ok to be against treating animals poorly but to also not be rich enough to do much other than the common sense things each person can do (if you have a pet make sure it is spayed/neutered and don't let it run around and bother other people).

in the older times great herds of bison ran around the plains and it was able to support millions of them. someone saying that horses are starving in the wild is just pointing out land use issues where rangeland has been degraded. starving horses aren't pleasant but in nature all sorts of animals have boom and bust population swings. if wolves and mountain lions were not hunted out then there would be population controls again.

controlling the population by hunting would be what i would recommend. there's a lot of food there and there are a lot of people who would consider it ok to do if society wasn't against it. rounding them up and shipping them to another country to slaughter is sad. humane would at least give them a quick death instead of torturing them and treating them like concentration camp victims.

Interesting point about the bison herds @flowerbug, I had forgotten that they really did have a huge range at one point and were very large animals.

 

[baymule]

@ducks4you at an auction a couple years ago, a white mini horse came through and it had a deformed pastern and hoof. It was cute and a bidding war commenced. The HEALTHY NORMAL minis only brought a couple hundred, some not even that much. The lame, crippled, deformed one brought over $800!!

You can’t fix stupid.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

i think it quite ok to be against treating animals poorly but to also not be rich enough to do much other than the common sense things each person can do (if you have a pet make sure it is spayed/neutered and don't let it run around and bother other people).

in the older times great herds of bison ran around the plains and it was able to support millions of them. someone saying that horses are starving in the wild is just pointing out land use issues where rangeland has been degraded. starving horses aren't pleasant but in nature all sorts of animals have boom and bust population swings. if wolves and mountain lions were not hunted out then there would be population controls again.

controlling the population by hunting would be what i would recommend. there's a lot of food there and there are a lot of people who would consider it ok to do if society wasn't against it. rounding them up and shipping them to another country to slaughter is sad. humane would at least give them a quick death instead of torturing them and treating them like concentration camp victims.

The first point is why, for example, I have no problem supporting the ASPCA, but have a BIG problem supporting PETA. The way I see it, at this point, they are basically using theoretical "cruelty" as a defense for their ACTUAL cruelty. There is NO WAY that I will EVER see me keeping my cat as a pet and tending to his needs as somehow more "cruel" than euthanizing him. I'm sure there are many sincere and well minded people in their ranks, but to many seem to have made the jump from being pro-animal rights to anti-human rights (I remember back in college when there was a report of a tiger in India which had killed and eaten many people being trapped and relocated, the local PETA chapter actually started a rally against the relocation, saying it violated the tigers rights to live where it please and to eat what it pleased, including people. Or the anti-teddy bear rally on the grounds that "stuffed animals encourage people to see animals as things to be touched and cuddled instead of left completely alone.")

I sort of agree about the hunting thing. However, I think another important point might be re-writing the laws to be more like those of Europe and letting hunters EAT the horses they kill. There are centuries of evidence in Europe and Asia that horse is perfectly fit for human consumption. So to say that horse is only fit for pet food is sort of insulting (especially in a world where we thing there is going to be a meat shortage soon.) I could get people getting mad with the Tesco's Lasagna incident because of false advertising (purporting the meat to be beef when it wasn't) but to be offended on the ground that "eating horse is gross" does not make much sense to me.

All, of what I say also applies to poopy (donkey meat).

 

[baymule]

Donkey meat is called poopy? Doesn’t sound very appetizing. Tastes like sh!t?