Truths about the horse world

by Catrina MacColla
(Greeley, Colorado, USA)

As a horse enthusiast and owner, I receive several magazines about horses. The fact of horse slaughter really didn't reach me until I was a Freshman in High School.

One of my friends did a report on how horse slaughter is wrong, that got my interest. I had helped her on the report and I watched all of the videos with her. I will admit that when I first learned about it I was against it, but growing up in a family who was very active in the horse world, I knew I should talk to my mom about it before I got too into the emotional part.

After talking with my mom I realized I needed to do more research on the subject. I talked to our friends and I read article after article about it. The more I learned the more I began to understand that horse slaughter was neccessary.

My friend who I did the report with, is an avid Pat Parelli fan. I went to one of his seminars with her to see what I could learn from him. It shocked me how little he actually knew about the natural balance of horses. In his seminar he kept saying that we are the predator and the horse is the prey. This is true but he also left out that horses set a natural balance for themselves. When he worked with a horse he would talk about how we needed to create a relationship with the horse, but he never explained what to do after you created that relationship.

Now at the time I was just getting back into horses. I had given them up for a while to persue another dream. It seemed to me that he had some valid points, but after I attended the seminar I was working with a young horse that my mom had decided to buy and she wasn't in shape to train him. While working with this horse I realized that the bond was formed but the horse still wasn't doing what I asked. So with the help of my mom I was able to train the horse, but also show him that I was the herd leader, period end of subject.

I tried to get my friend to understand this concept of being the alpha, but she just wouldn't take it. I can't tell you how many times I watched that girl ride her horse at a barrel race and nearly die every time. But trying to help her was out of the question.

There are so many people out there in the world that are just like my friend. They think with their hearts and not with logic. For example, a horse starts bucking and manages to get the rider off. If the rider were like me I would make the horse understand that bucking me off is wrong and it only brings consequences that no one wants to deal with. But a person like my friend would probably untack the horse and let it back into its pen, pasture, or stall. So what did the horse learn from that? That if it bucks the pressure is taken off and they can get out of the work.


These are the minds who run the animal activist groups. They think about what makes the horse feel uncomfortable and they hate it without even trying to understand it. I do want to ask a couple questions however. Is your life always all hunky-dory? Don't you have days when your boyfriend breaks up with you and you are hurt? Aren't there days when you did something wrong and you are punished for it? So why do we expect horses to be perfect all the time? Why do we set them up on pedastles and pretend like they didn't just hurt you by doing what is natural to them?

This is where the slaughter factor has the greatest issue. Americans have the right to free speech and everyone has an opinion. People who do not take the time to understand and research what they are fighting for are just as bad as some criminals.

Everyone right now is for saving horses from slaughter, but what about the horses that have a life worse than that? When the slaughter plants in America were open the horses that arrived skinny and sick were put into pens to recouporate. They had plenty of food and water and were only processed when they were healthy. So really the slaughter plant did them a favor by helping them get out of the cruel situation.

Those horses were starved before they arrived, meaning it was probably the owners fault, and really why did the slaughter plants have to shut down when it was the TRANSPORTATION that was being inhumane?

Americans tend to forget fact when they are fighting for something. They go by what their heart says not caring what reaction their arguments will cause. Just like now. We have shut down the slaughter plants, the number of unwanted and neglected horses has risen exponentially, people have started dumping domesticated horses out with the mustangs causing more round ups and setting cattle ranchers off to try to take care of the situation themselves, and we now have run out of room in a lot of the humane facilities to care for these horses.

We need to bring horse slaughter back to America, we need to regulate the transportation, and we need to start thinking with our minds instead of our hearts.

Just think about how many horses are now starving in someone's backyard because they can't afford to feed them or find vet care and they can't send the horse anywhere else.

Horses have done a lot for us and we have repaid them with abuse and neglect. I am a horse owner and I love my horses, but if there ever came a time where I couldn't pay for them I would seriously consider slaughter.