Musings About Sharing Horse News

?I’ve enjoyed posting links on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/horsejournal)?to interesting horse news items. We’ve had a?story and a video about draft horses pulling a?semi-tractor trailer out of snow banks (boy, do the power of a draft horse always leaves me in awe), news about Totilas’s first competition and myriad other things. Lately,?I’ve found?a couple of?stories about?horse abuse. One was classic starved horses, and the other was in New Zealand where someone threw a burning substance on a horse at a competition.?I am always shocked by these happenings, as I can’t imagine how anyone can possibly harm a horse–or any other trusting animal for that matter. If you’re reading this, I know you’re with me on this topic. I can’t?betray their trust.?In fact, I’m so bad, I can’t even sell a horse?to?a great home (we’ll talk about that another day)!? ?Anyway, one reader stated that we should find a way to stop abuse rather than just spreading the news. Although she agreed that making people aware of what was happening is important, we need to actually do something about it. ?That made me wonder, “What more can we do about it that everyone’s not already trying to do'” I can’t afford to keep any more horses, nor do I have the facility for operating a rescue. We can donate money, of course, to the various groups who do this type of thing, but you’d better thoroughly research that group to be sure the money is actually going to help the horses. Some groups are very real, and some aren?t. ?As a young adult, I did some work for the local Humane Society, and one of my assignments was to investigate if a pony was being abused or not. A neighbor had complained. Under the guidelines I was given (remember this was decades ago), I needed to ensure the pony had water, shelter, feed and hay. He did. He shouldn’t have any sores or obvious signs of illness or abuse. He didn’t. His feet were in acceptable condition. No signs of abuse. Case dismissed. ?But was he happy’ I doubt it, but that’s not on the checklist. And how can you judge happiness in a short time’ I didn’t think he was happy because he needed a good grooming, had very little turnout and didn’t seem to have much of a sparkle in his eye, but I was there a total of about 20 minutes. ?I don’t have any answers. Just concern and frustration.

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