Is the problem overbreeding or schooling

For the prospects of horses to improve on the whole in this country we have to look at the big picture.
As the saying goes, when trying to save a species, you have not to get sentimental about one animal.
The charities and individuals that get caught up in salvaging a few distressed animals do so for the right reasons but their good intentions would be put to better use helping a lot more instead of a few individuals.
Yes it is very very hard to swallow but the humane destruction of a lot of unwanted, wild and old animals would actually do more to help horse welfare in the UK than spending heaps of time and money on resurrecting a few old and worn out animals.
I have always thought that it would be much better if the RSPCA would hold an annual humane destruction programme each autumn of old horses subsidised by them. A personal, gentle collection service designed to ease the stress on both horse and owner would be a great asset in these troubled financial times. Horse slaughter is never an easy thing to consider doing or arrange due to the size of them and the costs involved. Im sure there are many old horses and ponies all over the UK that would be better put down on welfare grounds but they are kept going due to sentiment and fear of the unknown.
Horse owners need to be educated about horse death. They need to know that having your old pony live out his days in the paddock and dying peacefully and painlessly in his sleep is usually not possible. Because in the wild the predators would be there to end it for him, before he got to the suffering that many sentimental people call retirement. Being too old to move around freely with his companions is misery for horses. They are not dogs or cats that go and lie in a quiet place to die. They are not nesting animals. Horses instinct keeps them on their old aching legs to the bitter end that must seem to be never ending for some of the poor wretched knackers that are kept alive to appease their selfish owners.
It would be much better for the horse population of the UK if all the old, unwanted, lame, tired old and weedy rubbish youngsters were culled every year.
That way the ones with prospects of a good home and a useful life can be so much better.
If having an old unrideable horse put down means that a good owner can then take in something younger from either a local sale or breeder what is wrong with that?
And if the animals that are slaughtered can be used for pet food to fund better facilities for all horses coming to the end of their active lives why is that bad?
Practical people do more to help ease the suffering of animals and people on the whole than sentimental do gooders on a crusade to rescue and save everything. Fact.

Wow, well put and totally agree. I still anguish that we let our old dog go on too long and of course it was selfish. We have two old horse 'chucked out in a field' as some one ealier said they would never do. They are well cared for because we can afford it but we had the vet out to one as we needed another pair of eyes to see how he was. He is actually fine with a daily bute but as soon as he had that look in his eys.............. Over the years I have seen many horses that for all concerned would have been better pts as things only got worse.
Many many years ago I went to a one day horse care course at the then ILPH which was very good and free. If all the welfare organisations did things like this, could charge a fee, at least it would get some knowledge out there.
Again, well said Donnalex.

Not missing the point at all mandal if it means that another young healthy equine that is already born is taken in by that person, especially if it is one that would otherwise be put down or spend its winter travelling the sales.
Im all for a minimum bid being in place at every sale.
And now that every newborn equine has to be chipped and passported to go to a sale maybe those that do not get a minimum bid should be humanely destroyed at the expense of the owner?
The only way to stop the bad breeders churning out millions of wild weedy mountain ponies is to hit them in the pocket.
But no, the government see fit to make it easy for the very people who need regulating the most by excluding them from the new rules! Hill breeders, breeders of cheap unhandled crappy little scraps of equine life dont have to stick to the rules. Yes it is permitted for them to carry on breeding ponies to be so wild and unapproachable that they cant receive basic veterinary care if they need it. And so wild that nobody wants them except the meat man when they are being given away.

Thats what Im trying to say.

I think "we" is a bit of a generalisation!! I certainly do not have the audacity to believe that my life is more significant or has more value than any other living being - human or animal. In fact I believe animals are, if anything, more worthy to be on this planet as they are innocent and don't go around hurting eachother out of hatred/jealousy or ruining the planet out of greed and laziness.

I agree with Mandal in that obviously our loved ones are more important to us than others but my loved ones include my animals and they are just as important as the rest of my family

neither do i! I have always put animals way above myself and other humans, as we are only top because we have destroyed and killed everything above us. However i know this is nature but we have taken it too far. I fear that one day there wont be any animals and a scorched earth... And animals cannot do anything about it !!

If we are taking about culling animals then we consider culling our old people who are no use. Its just not fair to animals to do this to them just because we have power over them.

My animals are also my family and i put them above myself...

Grrrr...rant over

Or make assumptions that most much loved retired horses are being kept alive purely for the owner's benefit.



Disposable horse culture? Being unrideable doesn't automatically imply no quality of life, far from it.