Free Horses...

Found this on Facebook...


FREE HORSES!!!! 52 thoroughbred horses need homes. Will go to Sugarcreek this Sat. for slaughter.Gentleman died and his son wants nothing to do with them. Most broodmares are broke and some are in foal weanling, yearlings, 2 yrs and 3 yrs old most are gelded.FREE and papered. Friend of the deceased is trying to find homes. 440-463-4288 Barnesville, OH. Please copy and paste this on your status

If you've ever wanted a horse, and have room for one and the ability to care for one (or more) this might be a great opportunity

https://www.facebook.com/willie.brant.79/posts/10202072608310983

If you take a minute and look this is very common.

In this area we see papered, well broke horses with show records going for very little or nothing. The bottom has dropped completely out of the horse market. The economy is so bad that people have lost jobs and are struggling to feed themselves and their kids. They have no time nor money for feeding horses. My friend Judy has been given free three well broke horses in the last couple of years, all of them are papered and one is a Thoroughbred. She took them to use with her 4-H kids and her grand kids.

Sadly the slaughter market is VERY needed these days. It is much better than letting a horse starve because you no longer can buy the feed or no longer care. We see lots of that around too.

I know it's become common, and I agree it is better than starvation, but it still saddens me to see such ads

It is just a lost piece of our lives.

I spent a lot of my time riding and training horses. Now they are some weird kind of antique that no one seems to care about or understand apart from some circus colored cartoon "ponies" or some commercialized movie rendition. The noble horse that got mankind where he is today and used to be as much apart of our lives as our dogs are has vaporized.

Makes me sad too.

This is old.  Every so once in awhile, it makes the rounds again.  I saw it at least once last year, and it's already making the rounds again this year.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/horses.asp

Ok, I fell for it
(didn't call, but believed the posting)

I wouldn't know if I hadn't seen this several times already. I got an e-mail about it in December, then they sent me an e-mail saying never mind. Then I got the same e-mails from this this month! And, I'm thinking they may have sent me the same one at least once B4. I also run across it on various horse forums I'm on.

Ok, since I'm not on the horse forums I had not seen it before.

We went to a horse and tack sale last Friday just to see how it went.  I grew up on a farm where when a new horse was needed they bought off another farm after trying him/her for awhile.  This was new to me.  No horse brought over $400.00.  There were some really nice horses there.  One little boy rode his in the arena, layed on him, and his dad told the story of how the boy (around 5) goes out and halters him everyday after school and brings  him to the house to play.  This was a reg. quarterhorse.  He was a little poor and needed feed and worming I am sure but still a nice horse.  If I was ready to bring one home for my gd it would have been a prime candidate.  It just made me want to cry that they had to sell because of finances.

Part of the problem is they've outlawed horse slaughter in the US, so there's a glut of horses and not enough good homes for them.

You are absolutely correct. Another case of the bleeding heart causing suffering.

They were going to open a horse slaughter facility in MO fairly recently, but it was stopped by people who consider it in-humane to butcher a horse.

So ... now instead of going through a US regulated facility horses are bought - by the truckloads -and driven hundreds of miles to Mexican plants. I am sure that is more humane. Not.

Some people say they can't imagine any horse going to slaughter.
To them I say, "You haven't met enough horses then."

If you work in the industry for any amount of time you will come across animals that are genetically inferior, broken down (for what ever reason), or just plain old evil and dangerous (for what ever reason). Horses like that NEED a place to go. Using their meat at least makes them have some worth. Without a meat outlet it is a cold bullet and a deep ditch for many of them. What a waste.

Or worse... Some stupid person uses them to breed MORE of the same.

"He is black and white! He must be kept a stallion!"

Never mind that his conformation is terrible, and that he has 3 eyes!

When I first got into horses, I used to want to breed one of mine. But, the longer I was around horses, the more I realized that it wasn't the best idea. And while I'd still like to raise a filly, I'd get one from a breeder shortly after weaning if I'm ever in a position to do that.

Exactly.

We raised a filly from my mare that I was talking about on the other thread, but that was back in the day. We also raised a colt that we kept for a breeding stallion. He did NOT have three eyes however.    He was a TWH with highly sought after bloodlines and he produced lovely off spring. Again that was then.

My sister has/had a REALLY nice Paint stallion and a equally nice Appaloosa stallion. Both have outstanding conformation, good minds and sought after bloodlines. The intention was to breed them. Now they are both geldings. Just no sense in adding to the over population problem.

Yep, a good stallion makes a great gelding.

These days I have to agree. Not every animal that is special to the owner needs to procreate. In fact (pardon my veering away from horses for a moment) every time I hear about someone paying purebred prices for a "labradoodle" or some other mutt I just want to scream. I view horses the same way, if the owner wants a mixed breed, fine for them, but do not then breed that and then try to pass it off.

W/the way they're crossing dogs, eventually I expect to hear of one called a cocker doodle do.

  Too funny!