it saddens me how ppl use horses @ the same time i'm in love w a horse i've named toffee at a ranch nearby n i always wanted to go ride sumday, but i'd feel bad that she can't run wild n free...this has been botherin me 4 a while can any1 relate?
I wont ride a horse if the horse is being exploited for human entertainment, i.e. trail rides or carriage rides.....that sort of thing. I am against horse racing. But if a horse is well taken care of by a personal owner and is ridden time to time by someone who respects and loves the horse, then I see no wrong in that. Just as long as the horse doesnt mind, I had one take me through a thorn tree at full speed.......not fun. I am also very much against taking horses out of the wild. I saw a show about it once and I forget what their reason was for doing that......I wish I could remember. But eitherway, it makes me very sad.
Totally agree with Elle. I've been horse riding a couple of times and liked it, well till the next morning anyway (ached so badly) The appeal was probably being out in nature with the animal, can't be bothered with anything else associated with horses.
We own a horse farm... I ride them, every now and then. I don't see any problem with that.... Believe me, the people who own horses love them dearly, they all have their own personality. I don't know anyone who doesn't love their horses like children....
I don't think it is right to ride a horse and I wouldn't do it, so I can relate to that. Yea I also think it is wrong to keep animals in captivity.
Sounds more like an emotional conflict than a moral conflict. Horses don't think like we do. They don't understand that they are being used like we understand they are being used.
They aren't being *used* really, it's a sport for both, the horse and the human. If they were used, then it would mean that the owners don't have any emotional bond with them, which is totally false. They're like any other "pets", dogs are 'used' too .
Do you not realize that this is only your perception of what they think? It is you thinking about what they are thinking. There can be nothing known about what pets, including horses feel. You can not have a valid opinion about what horses or any pets think or feel.
You missunderstood me. I'm not saying it's a sport in the horse's oppinion. I meant that the horses aren't being used (like some tool), humans see it asthem and the horses having sport, since both, the rider and the horse are judged in the horse shows.the HORSES win all the ribbons (of coarse they don't know what to do with them).
A rider might have the best intentions, but they don't actually understand what they're doing as they cannot read the horse's mind. Their intentions don't really change the situation.
well...the horses learn it through motivation. If they learned everything well, they get a treat. So I don't think that they actually are mad about it, neither do I know. Which reminds me....ever heard of Monty Roberts?
I do think they are being used, it is not the same as other pets like dogs and cats, which are animals that gravitated towards humans are treated as companions. I don't mean to say that horse owners and riders don't care about the horses but they are being used and they are not being treated with the same respect that you would treat something or someone that you regard in the same level as you regard yourself, only with the respect of something below you that you can control and use for your own pleasure, despite how much you might care about it, it is still being used.
The riders respect their horses. And the horses are their companions too. Horses aren't seen as 'something you can control and use for your own pleasure', it's about companionship, and the bond between horse and human. My mother is totally IN LOVE with her horses, she consciders them her family, and so do many other horse keepers/riders, I have not met a SINGLE person who isn't totally in love with them. That probably goes for sled dog owners too ( that's what I meant with ' dogs are 'used' too' .)
that's true; horses do get sad when their owners haven't ridden them in awhile. i think they're perfectly capable of developing a human-animal bond, and desire that companionship.
