‘vegans please shut up about riding horses’ masterpost

themotherfuckingclickerkid:

Ok so

Is riding horses vegan??? Whether something is vegan is up for vegan people to debate amongst themselves, and radical vegans you can have all your convos, that’s not even what this is about. This about about clearing up misconceptions to help YOU, because 90% of ‘horse riding isn’t vegan!’ posts have dumbass shit in them that doesn’t help your cause whatsoever. This is also about staying in your lane and not elbowing your way rudely into the equestrian community saying ‘fuck you’ and calling us ‘mentally weak’

SO TO START

1) Horses cannot consent to being ridden. They also can’t consent to vet care, to being transported, to living with or without certain horses, etc. Everything we do in equine management, care, training, and riding is done without their consent. Stop bringing up consent.

2) Please stop saying that people are ‘breaking’ horses as if horse trainers are out there literally breaking horses’ will. Training horses is a huge, complicated sphere of philosophies ranging from natural horsemanship, to the classical approach, doma india, liberty training, to cowboy bullshit, but nobody except Karen the Backyard Horse Whisperer is out there breaking horses’ souls in twain to gain their submission. Most people use the phrase ‘starting’ or ‘backing’ horses to refer to teaching them to accept and obey a rider. ‘Breaking’ is not a dirty word that means snubbing a horse to a tree and going all cowboy on them. The process usually involves incremental steps of introducing equipment, weight, cues, in such a way that the horse is always building off of its previous education, and never becomes panicked. We want the horse to feel safe, to be thinking, and to be willing. Yes, people do train horses in nasty ways, but this is not the ideal and is increasingly less of a norm as equine science moves forward. You wouldn’t dismiss all dog training because there are Cesar Millans. Don’t dismiss all horsemanship because there are Clinton Andersons. People have been urging gentle handling of the horse since Xenophon.

3. Stop bringing up racehorses in every. single. discussion. about. horses. Racing is a whooooole other industry, and most horse people don’t like it, either.

4. Bits are bad? Okay, sure, have that point, idc. You can ride a horse without a bit. Sidepulls, crossunders, bosals, hackamores, etc.

5. There is not a conspiracy to capture, imprison, and sell wild horses to slaughter. Mustangs are an introduced species, have basically no natural predators, reproduce at ridiculous rates, and without human intervention they starve. The requirements to adopt or purchase a mustang specifically say that a mustang cannot be sold to slaughter. I have a mustang. They are normal horses. They are not more dangerous or somehow more noble or free than a horse born into captivity.

6. Stop bringing up abusive practices in order to malign the entirety of horse owners. Yes, some people sell their old horses to kill buyers. Yes, some people break horses to ride at an early age using abusive methods. Yes, some people ride horses in such a way that they cause them irreparable physical harm. These are exceptions. Some people abandon their dogs, starve them to death, beat them, or breed them to make a quick buck. Do you malign all dog owners because some of them do shitty things?

7. Is riding inherently harmful? Will a ridden horse always suffer injury because of the weight of a rider on its back? This is the point it always seems to come down to, and the point I’m almost willing to give, except that the entire history of the horse is made up of horses that lived long lives and thrived despite being ridden. A healthy horse, with good conformation, with proper care, well fitting tack, and a good rider, can be ridden into their 20s.

Some horses are transparently broken down by riding. We’ve all seen horses with horrible legs that can’t stay sound, horses with white marks on their shoulders from years of bad fit, horses that break down on yes the track because of bad breeding, bad training, and bad husbandry. These horses are the exceptions. Horses are not inherently physically damaged by riding. Horses are not inherently psychologically averse to riding to the point where you have to snap their little minds in half to get them to accept a rider. These things are just not true.

8. EXPLOITATION

Okay this is less of a ‘stop saying dumb shit’ and more of a ‘this is where we probably part ways philosophically’ but

Is it exploitation to ride a horse? Is it wrong to ride a horse because we have the option not to? Even if (say for the sake of argument) there is absolutely no physical or psychological harm that comes to the horse? Is it still exploitation?

Maybe. But I think calling it ‘exploitation’ misses the point totally.

Is it exploitation to do agility with your dog, or sled racing, or flyball, because you enjoy it? It’s not natural to put a collar or a harness on a dog. I had to train my dog to accept her collar and her harness and to understand how to run beside me when we go jogging, the same way I had to train my horse to stand while I put on his saddle, and walk on when I told him to walk on. What makes it different? Horses have a long, long history with people. It’s a history that includes being ridden. Riding is a way to go places with your horse. You cannot go on a jog and keep up with a horse. It’s a way to improve your horse’s fitness that doesn’t involve (like someone in that thread mentioned) long ground work on a circle that can cause damage to their joints. Ultimately yes, we ride because we love it. But we love it because we love the horses. We love the feeling of communication when we put our leg on, and they move over, or we think of a canter transition, and they pick up the canter seemingly by magic. They are brilliant, athletic, responsive animals that have been selectively bred to essentially read our minds through our asscheeks, and I don’t think using an animal for what it was bred for (when it causes them no harm) is exploitation.

And regardless of whether you think it’s inherently ethical, or exploitation, or whatever, consider these less philosophically pure ideas:

I rescued a mare a few years ago. She was pulled from a situation where she would go to slaughter because she had a baby on her side. She managed to find a home because she was broke to ride. Don’t like the word? Don’t like the methods? She was alive because of those things.

I barely ride my horse. I’m ‘breaking’ him to ride, using mostly positive reinforcement/training with food, because ultimately if I die, he is useless. Nobody (except me) is going to pay to feed an animal they can’t ‘use’. Hate that? Me too.

But that’s how it goes. There is not room, there are not the resources, for horses to live ‘natural’ lives, especially because we are thousands of years away from whatever version of horse existed before human intervention. Riding horses (which does not have to be harmful, which does not have to be unpleasant, and I hate that it sometimes is, and I and innumerable other equestrians argue about how not to make it unpleasant on a daily basis) is how horses exist.

If you really want to help horses, don’t antagonize the people who pour their hearts into caring for them in the best way that is possible for this species right now on this earth. You can put your energy into things like spreading the word about clicker training, about paddock paradise and track systems, by raising awareness about Big Lick so we can FINALLY get that shit banned, in short by actually finding out ways to help horses that matter. Like, you can’t end horse riding. You can’t lol. It’s not a fight you can win, and tbh, I think that’s why so many vegans get up in arms and insist that All Horse Riding Is Bad, because it’s easy just to say that one specific thing is bad and want it to stop. It’s way harder to learn about the ethical intricacies that actually make a difference in the lives of animals.