Replies

The fact is that there comes a time when your appaloosa, quarter horse, pinto etc.. has just ran out of gas and is no longer fit for anything more than eating feed. At those times you make a choice throw good money after bad on vet bills and feed, or send the oat burner on to the pasture in the sky. Now, you have a choice to sell it. You might be able to afford some new tack or a young mare from promising blood lines.

Meet my 23 year old Arab gelding there on the right. He is also the horse pictured in the saddle club graphic.

Yes, one day soon he will need to be retired, and some time after that, if natural causes don't take him suddenly, he'll be put down by my vet, without pain, without suffering, without me selling him off for a few hundred lousy bucks where he'll spend his last days trying to cooperate with people who see him only as meat. He's earned that from me.

He'd deserve a peaceful end even if he hadn't given a lifetime of service and companionship that is far more than what would be expected... The fact that he is who he is means the question doesn't even need to be asked.

Those are beautiful animals. I do understand how people can become attached to their horses.

Are you willing to pay for all of the euthanasia of all horses that don't have owners who feel the same way about their animals? I'm not. I don't want them to starve either. I've raised cattle, eaten 'Easter' a steer I had to help deliver because he was breach. I've raised pigs and can tell you that 'Petunia' tasted better than 'J.R.' I'm not sure I could order horse meat, and I doubt I could have slaugthered any of those I trained or watched take those first stumbling clumsy steps.

I do love the beasts, but they are beasts. 'J.R.' was a pretty personable hog, he liked to carry feed buckets to me if I left them laying about. 'Easter'... well I did smile when I bit into that juicy T-bone. I guess he got all the meanness out of him because the meat was smooth and tasty.