Hay--The Last Straw

Over the last eight years or so, horses have suffered more and more from the ripple effects of the economy. Now with growing evidence climate change in the form of persistent droughts, the soaring cost of hay and grain adds to the dilemma.

Obviously, the ideal is to shift horses to new homes, but that's harder and harder to do. My neighbor, a well known animal cruelty expert, told me how dire the horse rescue situation has become--full to overflowing, long waiting lists. It looks like the situation is not getting any better as time passes.

Here's the latest story: "13 Paso Fino Horses Need Homes."

The bit about breeding for the agricultural exemption raised a red flag with me, but this owner tried to surrender them, something a number of other owners have failed to do, and a serious illness can push anyone over the edge. It's sad, but both marginal owners and many formerly flush horse owners look to be totally ill prepared for bad times, and their horses are paying the price.

In the last year or two, the more exotic breeds began to show up in the news. In the past year or two Lusitanos and Arabians hit the headlines. What next? Friesians?

I suspect the situation's only going to get worse. Some forty or fifty thousand ferals warehoused by the BLM, a glut of horses bred by hobby breeders, the usual flood of failed race horses, all this points towards a horse holocaust as the middle class shrinks and feed prices edge higher and higher.

UPDATE: The same economic problems afflict Ireland, England, and other European countries. Horror stories abound. For example, a 7 year old Irish Sport Horse was sent to a rather well known rider to be offered for sale. Here's how he was returned to the owner:

Since I recently purchased an Andalusian gelding that I adore, this 12 Mar. 2013 story brought on a shudder: "Thousands of Spain's Horses Head for the Slaughterhouse As Economic Crisis Results in Abandonment." 

Of course, I already knew how bad things were there. Just a few days before this article appeared, English trainer Heather Moffett posted a photo of a highly trained Alter Real stallion on her Facebook page with a plea for someone to grab the horse. Located in Portugal or Spain, the stallion was being offered for 3000 Euros, a fraction of what a stallion of his quality would have gone for a few years back.

People screw up and animals suffer.

A Robotic Draft Horse--Our Tax Dollars at Work?

The military spent money developing a robot to carry equipment. Here it is:

As far as I can tell, it's noisy and almost certainly can't swim. Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to buy a few mules or horses?

It does have a kinda cute trot though.

BLM Wild Horse "Management"

Good article: "7 Questions About Wild Horses for Interior Secretary Nominee Sally Jewell"

While the BLM warehouses some 50,000 wild horses removed from our public land, oil leases proliferate and ranchers continue to hold low-priced grazing leases for their herds of sheep and cattle.

The horses will be gone soon, I suspect, but the land will still be overgrazed. In fact, I'd bet money vast swaths of the already quite barren west will will suffer a fate worse than overgrazing. Gas and oil wells. Uranium mining. Contamination is all but assured. Land poisoned and stripped by such ventures doesn't just regain its pristine nature. In fact, it will likely never recover.

As far as I can tell moderation and balance are no longer American values, and mankind is, as always, hopelessly short-sighted.

Not just the horses face a grim future.

_Reckless: Pride of the Marines_

All the hoopla over War Horse brought back my childhood memories of Reckless, America's real life equine warrior of the 1950s. Unknown to most horsemen of today and long forgotten by those of a certain age, the little mare now has her own Facebook fan club as well as a website and a statue in the works. 

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She deserves it. No mere cavalry horse, the little mare, whose story unfolds in Andrew Geer's 1955 book  Reckless: Pride of the Marines, served in the Korean conflict, earning two purple hearts, the rank of Marine staff sergeant, and a long retirement at Camp Pendleton as the equine embodiment of Marine courage and service.

Touching, terrifying, amusing, and exhilarating without need for padding or theatrical exaggeration, her story's all the more remarkable. I vaguely remember first checking out our library's copy of Andrew Geer's 1955 book when I was nine or ten and its pages were new. I scanned it again online last year, and I'm going to read it once more this week. 

While I remember her intelligence and willingness to work in detail, I need to refresh myself on her bloodlines. Anyone with even a shallow grasp of conformation and breed type will wonder about her being called a Mongol pony. Looking at photos of Reckless reminds me more of Theodore O'Connor, America's ill-fated eventing Super Pony, than of some stout little Mongol nag. I vaguely remember something about Japanese race stock heritage. That I believe. Perhaps still fresh memories of World War II made Mongol descent more palatable. But Mongol stock is hardly known for refinement, and Reckless--more than a little ironically--added refinement and feminine good looks to her image as the consummate Marine. 

   

I'm delighted to see she has dedicated fans promoting her story. Hollywood really needs to film this one. It's totally Disney but it's one no one had to invent.

"Big Lick" Licked?

"USEF Bans Action Devices for Gaited Horses"

I don't follow the gaited horse scene, so I don't know if these folks typically show in USEF classes. If they do though, I'll bet they'll secede so they can continue torturing horses. 

There's a YouTube video here. This schoolgirl's haltingly read yet otherwise excellent presentation of the problems with "action devices" should show my I don't follow the gaited horse scene.  

I'd like think the USEF licked the "Big Lick," but I doubt it'll die so easily.  

Horse Auctions

Most horse auctions in the United States depress me since they send old, injured, and unwanted horses off to sad fates in foreign countries. However, at the other end of the spectrum, auctions of elite Thoroughbreds bring out buyers securely in the ranks of the super-rich.

Here's one example:

The Ever Shrinking Hay Supply

This morning I found among the many news articles on horse abuse one from Minnesota giving a reason why hay prices skyrocketed:

A ton of hay costs $220 -- nearly double the $120 it cost a year ago, said Krishona Martinson, equine extension specialist for the University of Minnesota. The rising costs are attributed to drought and farmers' reluctance to grow hay, which cannot be insured through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Growing soybeans and corn is less expensive and less of a risk, Martinson said.

My hay supplier here in Colorado told me many of his resources shifted to corn or other crops last year. Considering the drought, I wondered why. Crop insurance. That explains much.

The extreme drought in Colorado also explains why $220 a ton sounds cheap to us. Local hay supplies withered. Wyoming hay was over $300 a ton, and top quality hay much more than that. I can vouch for that.