Horses Are Never Safe -- But They're Probably Safer With Humans

Annie has gotten more than one scrape, bruise or cut, and although she doesn't seem to care, each time I feel guilty. Animal liberation believers point to this sort of thing and say, "Hah, horses would be better off if left to their own devices! Don't ride/own horses, you're exploiting them!" As much as I don't really believe that, the sentiment strikes a chord in my guilt-ridden conscience. After all, a lot of harm is done to many riding horses, out of either ignorance or cruelty. A recent study, however, makes me feel a little better:

"Vet Rosie Owen of Liverpool University studied 652 randomly selected competition and leisure horses.

She found that 40% of horses suffered a “traumatic injury” — anything from a graze to a fracture — in the course of a year. Of those, 47% required veterinary treatment.

But what will come as a surprise to many horse owners is that 62% of injuries occurred while the horse was turned out in the field. Only 13% of injuries happened during ridden exercise, while 11% occurred in the stable."

 So basically, horses get hurt more often when they are left completely to their own devices-- if anything, they're more safe when they're least free! Kind of like children.

Of course, this is no excuse to go leaving junk in your pasture, or using barbed wire as fencing. It doesn't mean you shouldn't patrol for woodchuck holes out there. 40% of horses getting hurt each year is a lot, and we should do everything we can to reduce that percentage. But maybe we can feel a little less guilty when our babies get a scrape or a strain-- seems like it's pretty natural.

As for racing injuries, a huge fuss is made about thoroughbreds having to be euthanized when they break down on the track. I totally believe that thoroughbreds are too badly bred, raced too early and given too many drugs, all of which contribute to their untimely deaths or injuries. But I don't agree with the extreme viewpoint that horseracing itself is cruel.

When you look at racehorse deaths statistically, they're not too different from injuries and deaths in human sports. Racehorse Death Watch reports that in Britain, about 1.2 horses die every day due to racing-related trauma (we don't have good US data, surprise surprise). But human athletes die or are seriously injured with relative frequency as well.

Let's look at football (the American kind). This study shows that in high school and college football alone, at least one kid dies every year. TIME magazine reported that in Texas high school football alone, at least two kids a year suffer spinal paralysis-- injuries that horses would be euthanized for. An estimated 1.2 million football-related injuries are sustained annually, with serious fractures and concussions making up 15% of those injuries. It's even thought that there are a huge amount of brain disorders going undiagnosed among football players-- injuries which often lead athletes to premature deaths via accidents, drugs and suicide. And have you ever watched a football game and NOT heard about a player facing serious consequences due to an injury he received while playing? In short, while it's hard to get comprehensive statistics for deaths and serious injuries in any sport, it's pretty safe to assume that very bad things happen to people every day in football.

And those are humans, who have protective gear, who have the capacity to make complex judgment calls, and where everything possible is done to save lives even at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars, which isn't true in the case of most horse injuries.

I'm not trying to defend the worst parts of horse racing OR professional sports. My point is this: sports are just dangerous, for both humans and animals. Of course we need to do our best to minimize risk, but there will never be no risk. Any sport, from football and running to trailriding and racing, will have risk. We have to either accept that and move on, or ban horse and human sports entirely-- and I don't like the second option.

By the way, I got the green-highlighted statistic from blogger Susanna Forrest. She is a horse lover living in the UK, and constantly posts fascinating equine-related stories gathered from around the world (she found the study above from the UK publication "Horse and Hound"). If this study made you feel better about your horse keeping skills, or you just want to see cool horse stuff, visit her blog here:

If Wishes Were Horses

A Horse of a Different Color: Annie's Past & Backyard Breeders

I did promise to return to the topic of Annie's past, her neglect issues and injury, and since I'm not ready to reveal any master endurance racing fitness plan yet, this seems like a good time to do that.

I call Annie a "rescue horse," but I didn't get her from a horse rescue. I was almost done with college when I saw an ad on Craigslist (who can resist browsing horses on Craigslist?). It said something like, "Yearling paint filly. Has an injury in her hip, but really sweet. Halter broke. Don't have enough time or money. First $100 cash takes her, or she goes to auction next week."

Well, I thought I'd just "go look."

Riiiiight. If you're a horse person, you know there's no such thing.

When I got there, I found a ribby, wormy, shaggy filly in a dirt paddock. She had a strange patch on her left hip; when I asked what it was, the owner informed me that so many flies were attracted to the pus draining from the filly's wound, she (the owner) had decided to superglue a gauze patch over the top.

Do you know how fast I took that filly home?

Pretty fast.

Annie's condition was the result of bad breeding, bad management and just plain bad people.

The lady I bought her from said she gotten the filly from a breeder-- a "backyard breeder." This guy had bred a whole bunch of horses, and left a bunch of them together in a rusty, broken roundpen surrounded by junk. While being bullied by other horses, Annie got herself impaled on one of these rusted pieces of junk. The lady brought her home, glued gauze over the top of the wound and left her.

While I feel a healthy amount of hate towards Annie's second owner, the breeder who brought her into the world deserves most of my (and your) anger. Backyard breeders usually seem to think that any "colored" horse, regardless of its breeding, conformation or temperament, can be sold for a good profit. As a result, these people are breeding countless spotted/palomino/buckskin/cremello foals, many of whom meet a fate worse than Annie's. You merely have to visit any local horse auction to see a dozen of these "colored" foals, now mostly unhandled yearlings and two-year-olds, sell to the local slaughter buyer for $100 or less.

Color alone means nothing. Conformation, temperament, training and registration mean more. Breeding for color alone is irresponsible, and dooms thousands of horses to slaughter every year. We have enough unwanted horses in the United States-- let's not make more of them, even if they are PINK.

Anyway, back on topic:

After a lot of food and TLC Annie looked a lot better. Wormer and Equishine supplements made her look and feel a lot better, and the Equishine reduced the neglect-related swelling of growth plates in her legs. However, no matter how many times I cleaned out the wound in her hip, it wouldn't heal. The half-dollar-sized hole closed up to the size of a dime, but it continued to leak thick yellow-white pus. The vet came out and prescribed antibiotics for a month. The wound was less pussy-- but refused to heal. Meanwhile, Annie's personality blossomed. She became interested in people, curious about her surroundings and extremely affectionate.

After another cleaning by the vet, an ultrasound to try to figure out what was going on with the wound and another round of antibiotics, Annie went in for surgery. Despite being on a trailer ride just once before in her whole life, and NEVER having been in a stall before, she was extremely well behaved for her trip to the vet's. She came home two days later with a wound the size of a golf ball in her hip. The vets had removed a bone chip, chunks of necrotic bone and other infected material.

It took a long time for Annie to heal-- and in the meantime, her wound had to be cleaned daily, and she was on several medications. She hated her Bute (an oral pain medication), but was otherwise a very good girl.

I spent the next two years taking her for walks, working on her ground manners, teaching her to lunge (or "longe" if you prefer) and getting her used to a saddle.

At two years old, she had matured into a gorgeous young lady:

At three years old, I sent her to a trainer for 30 days of saddle training:

Adam Hoon at Pine Dance Ranch, near Lodi, WI. A great trainer!

...and now, at age 3.5, I ride her regularly around my farm. We're taking things slowly, in part because I'm lazy, but also because she's not done growing yet, and I don't believe in pushing her too hard, too fast. She sometimes still "drags" her left leg a little but seems to be in no pain and was pronounced sound by my vet. Only time will tell if the old injury will impact her performance in a serious way.

This May, Annie will turn 4 years old, and be eligible to participate in under-30-miles Competitive and Limited Distance rides. I hope to ride her regularly over this winter, working up to ten mile rides, then move to fifteen miles in early spring. From there we'll do a little trailering to area trails, and maybe even some overnight camping. Then we'll try a "real" event, probably a 15 mile Novice Division ride in Palmyra, WI, in May or June. Fifteen miles is the shortest ride offered at official events-- it's for newbies like us. By the end of the riding season (Sept/Oct), we should have worked up to 25 and 30 mile rides. 2013 will be the first year we'll be eligible to ride over-30-milers, but we probably won't do more than a couple of 50 milers. In 2014, I'll push Annie to do more 50s, and at least one 100 mile race. 2015 is our goal Tevis year. I'll be 29 and Annie will be 7-- about the same age, comparatively. That year will be scary. It may be necessary for us to travel out west a few months in advance of the Tevis in order to acclimatize to the higher altitudes, which can seriously affect the performance of horses and riders who aren't adjusted to the lack of oxygen.