[Prodigal Son]

Chemically, it's all much the same, but emotionally, the animal you raise for meat is not the same as the one you work with.

Oh I don't know. We used to raise a calf a year (among other things). As a boy I'd go out every day and talk to it, give it a name, pet it. I'd usually feel bad for a few seconds come killing time. I don't think it'd be any different for me and a horse.

I don't usually think about dogs and cats as food because they're meat-eaters. I don't know if that makes any sense? They've got strange poo.

It's like I said, it's hard for me to look at a horse without wondering how it tastes. Sometimes I think they can sense that. Sometimes not. I spent a week on horseback in Lesotho once. I had a really stubborn mare. I really enjoyed telling her that if I had my way I'd have her turning over a spit later that night. (And I would have...)

[Nepeta]

Oh I don't know. We used to raise a calf a year (among other things). As a boy I'd go out every day and talk to it, give it a name, pet it. I'd usually feel bad for a few seconds come killing time. I don't think it'd be any different for me and a horse.

It's different when you are sitting on their back, and what you accomplish depends in large measure upon the horse beneath you. The horse is at least 50% of the game in polo. Talk to a police officer in a mounted troop about their experience in crowd control. The bond between horse and rider is real, and it is not based on weepy sentimentality but upon a pragmatic working relationship.