Horse slaughter or not????

[westmar]

Absolutely right Caboysavor----the thing to add is this-those equine ARE still usefull. They can still go to a Feedlot who sells to the Slaughterhouses-guess Mexico in your area-not so good-but-those equine still can buy hay for the good ones!

[CherokeeRose]

Well, I am sitting here and have been asking if anyone had a gentle older horse that they didn't want anymore that is rideable for a novice and granddaughters and have only had one reply. If there are so many horses out there unwanted, then why didn't someone get hold of me? My girlfriend since high school would love to have a horse also. She and I would gladly take a free horse that we can ride and give it a wonderful home and spoil them rotten.

Cherokee

[4jpainthorses]

If where you live is like around here, that is the kind of horses that you can still sale. We have sold 3 in the last few months that were older horses that anyone could ride and they bring better prices than any other type horse other than a winning performance horse like a barrel, cutting or roping horse. Kid and novice horses are in high demand. Always has been, always will be in demand. I have one right now that I have someone coming to look at on Tuesday and if they don't buy her, then someone else is coming on Saturday.
The biggest problem is horses that no one has done anything with. For example, there was a man from our area that died a couple of weeks ago. In his estate are 64 horses, at least 30 of which are stud horses that he never gelded and never papered. They are from registered stock but he didn't even know which stud was the daddy of most of them. They would all have to be DNA tested to register them. All of these studs are in the same pasture ranging in age from yearlings to 10 year olds. They are not halter broke or anything else. Most of these horses are not good for anything. So what can be done with them.
So all of you folks that want a cheap horse, I bet the guy that bought the whole herd would sale you one cheap but you have to come get it within the next 10 days.

[thunderhoofhorses]

People who breed and not all of them. Will get started with a good line and then pasture breed a bunch and forget the paper work then they have all these horses and no one to work or fix the problems they create.

These people in my eyes are not breeders but brokers who make a buck of the horses they could care less what they breed the stud to as long as it is a live foal to sell each year and the more mares he breeds the more money in his pocket, It is not about breeding to improve or better the line. It is breeding for dollars.

As for a free horse no such thing. A free horse has out lived it use and is most times some one else problem. Heck I had a few of them in my years and would not take them to slaughter or give them away for fear they would end up at the slaughter so I kept them and let them live out there life on my farm then buried them when the time came.

Sorry but most free horses have issues of some kind. Health age or just plain loco.

[joygurl92]

unless times got really tough for us, i don't think we would ever decide to slaughter one of our horses, but i'm still very much for the slaughter houses!

this past year we have had many different people call us and ask if we could take their horses. for free. we did take 2 horses to help our friend out and then an older man asked us to take his 2 mares. all 4 were grade and green-broke at best, but only two of them were really nice; temperament and confirmation wise. that maxed us out to 10 horses this winter and we really don't want to do that again anytime soon!

i agree with thunderofhooves about there being no such thing as a free horse and it usually has a problem of some kind. one of the horses we were given is pretty much good for nothing. he is shy and sort of lame (his front right leg is majorly toed out from being abused when he was younger) and would probably only make a nice pasture buddy and with all the horses we have, we don't need one of those! our farrier is giving a us a really good deal to try to help with his leg problem but we still would just like someone to take him off our hands so we can turn our attention (and what little money we have) to really getting our other horses trained and to good homes. we only took him in because he was our friend's horse and she had just recently been widowed and couldn't take care of him and her other horse (which came to us too).

her other horse was loco, pushy, and sickly. she came with a disease and, despite our attempts to cure it, it gradually got worse till a really cold spell hit this winter and it turned into pneumonia and she died.

i've asked local horse sanctuaries if they had room for our lame gelding but they all were full to capacity and sometimes busting at the seams.

so if you have a problem with slaughter, come pick up all the unwanted horses in our area. i can guarantee that you'll have a huge herd in a very short time!

[westmar]

Lets see----about 120 head of Unwanted Free horses have crossed my path since September 20th, 2008. Thats 7 months. Average 17 unwanted free horses per month.
Out of that 120 head, about 15 were really good, sound, trainable and even well trained for re-sale.
The rest went sadly to the Feedlot for these reasons: No teeth, cronic lameness, dangerous, old, sick, biters, kickers, buckers and even butt ugly crooked legged, parrot mouthed pregnant mares bred by who knows what? Owners couldn't narrow the sire down in 2 cases. The pregnant ones were tough to take-but-I did not want a hand in adding to the unwanted horse population from breedings to such stock. Those foals most likely would have the same challenges from bad conformation, etc... as their Dams. They would have taken valuable resources from other viable equine and would likely end up at the same place due to their short comings-sad.

Good thing is this, the ones sold to the feedlot, paid for feed and transportation for all of the rest of the equine, they served a good purpose.

[Nikki]

CherokeeRose
The Horse: Available Thoroughbreds FREE to a Good Home

Here is a list of over 100 TB's that are FREE and need a home..
The list goes on and on with this type of thing.

[mart]

I just looked at that list !! Aren`t you in Missouri, CherokeeRose ?? There are 2 retired therapy horses in your state on that list !! Maybe you need to check them out !!

[CherokeeRose]

Just looked at the list myself and sent a message abut the 2 on there. Thanks.

Pam (CherokeeRose)

[Nikki]

Has anyone got response back from the list I posted up here? There are some REALLY nice horses.. WOW..