Gypsy Horses.

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NeilM

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I am genuinely interested in finding out why gypsy's & travellers have an obsession with owning horses.

This curiosity has been raised by a site visit I made in South Wales today, where I saw some of the sorriest most miserable looking horses I have ever observed. Not starved and not chained at the side of the road but just down right miserable. I will accept it was cold and snowing, but this lot just looked depressed.

Whilst talking to a local I was told that horses die every year at this time and that the corpses are dragged out of the fields and dumped at the side of the road, as the Local Council come and remove them as soon as they are reported. So my question is why? Why bother owning horses you have little interest in and who's life as a result is one mostly monotony and boredom.
 
firstly, i don't think you can say the horses are depressed... becuase if you looked at mine today i'm sure they look the same... the weather is miserable.

it is a part of the traveller/gypsy culture to have horses. to buy them, break them and sell them. it's not an obsession. it's a way of life, like boxing is too. i guess it stems from a time when they needed horses to pull their caravans.

just think, without gypsies and their horses... we wouldn't have the lovely Gypsy Cobs...

xxx
 
Actually it's a real problem in South Wales, Cardiff particulary. And many of these animals are not well looked after by anyone's standards. The council absolutely refuse to take any action or be proactive in their approaches to the illegal use of common land, and the havoc the horses cause on local housing estates etc.

For the most part they are merely possessions. Mares are run with stallions and bred every year - and the loss of a horse here or there is of no consequence as there are always more to come in the spring.

They lead very sad and tough existences.........
 
It is a status symbol to have a large number of horses - well looked after horses.

I know personally one lady who looks after her horses absolutely beautifully - but who is constantly complained about because she keeps a laminitic pony on a starvation paddock
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I also know of another lady who sells horses, and if she feels they are not being properly looked after, goes and gets them back again!

Tethering a horse is not in itself a welfare problem as long as that horse is tethered in a safe location, is in good health and is well cared for, which many tethered horses are - I have met some lovely horses which are kept tethered but are well-cared for.
 
status symbols and part of their cultur.. you only have to wacth the horses paraded up and down streets etc at appleby fair and other simialr events. We used to live near an illegal camp and they had a colured mangy stallion and we were supposed to be honoured when he offered to let us use it at stud on our sports horse mares who have bred foals which jump on the circuit.
 
There are a lot of *ahem* travellers, tinkers, gypo's...what ever is politically correct these days in the surrounding villages and towns where I live and suprisingly enough their horses are better looked after than quite a a lot of horses that are own by people like us (well not travellers) I've seen worse on livery yards and private stables to be honest.

Ok so a lot of the cobs are teathered, but they always come up and give them hay, dump a load of carrots for them and top the water up everyday, not ideal but far from some RSPCA cases you see in some peoples fields.

Suppose it depends on the areas though, but yes if horse dies they will just dump it or fire it.
 
Often you'll find that if you go over to one of the tethered horses you'll make a new friend pretty sharpish, someone is often keeping an eye on them.

The DEFRA code of practice for horse welfare has an annex on tethering, if anyone is interested in what is an acceptable standard.
 
Yes these were on the outskirts of Cardiff and to be honest the council officer I was with was pretty on the ball. Apparently Cardiff CC does have a 'horse lady'.

I guess just like all horse owners, peoples ideas of acceptable conditions vary.

Thanks for the answers, I'll chalk this one up to cultural differences.
 
Having seen the treatment of the travellers horses very close by to the former yard I was at, I hope its not typical.

Horse in harness flipped over on its back on the road (2 year old) being beaten over the head (OH intervened and was punched himself...), 2yo in harness being beaten to go faster and then beaten harder if they dared to break into canter... horse with foot down drain on road cos it was so young its hooves were small enough to fit...large gypsy cob stallion in hand covering tiny section A on the bridleway as we tried to hack our 2 mares past.... Huge overweight man on tiny shetland with no tack except headcollar being kicked across the dual carriageway so he could get to the petrol station over there without bothering to walk.... Tethered horses with no grass, no water, just ragwort, reported numerous times but rescue orgs too scared to do anything...( police would only go on site with armed escort and helicopter (and this was official council run small site)). No passports, no chips, no identifiable owners, horses loose everywhere and out on the roads. Horses being dragged behind transit vans at high speeds...tethered trotter with deep cuts (untreated) at the bars of her mouth.

Im sure there are a lot of fantastic horsemen out there in the true gypsy community but the bulk of what I have seen first hand was animal abuse pure and simple. The cultural value of having horses and training them and showing them off should be supported. Just as strongly supported is the fact that that support does not need to involve allowing any of that abuse.
 
Yes Neil - Cardiff does have a horse lady..apparantly! I know the exact area you are referring to. It's horrible to see that they rarely have water too.

North Cardiff is just as bad - the other week they were changing the horses 'site'. Which meant that they had a van full of hay driving through busy roads with 8+ horses cantering down the road. One stopped a foot from my car. It's unbelievable.
 
i went to bradford once and was suprised to see horses just teathered in peoples back gardens and on bits of wasteland there was loads in the middle of housing estates. i think it must just be a way of life for these people
 
There are ALOT of tethered horses up here, In housing estates, sides of the road etc. Not all of them belong to travellers. I dont personally agree with it but it is the ways things are done for alot of people up north!
 
i was an identifier for passports and got to see lots of coloured cobs, and although many weren't kept in conditions i would keep a horse, in stalls for example, but do you know they were fat, happy and very well looked after. they like the coloured fillies the best, proper travellers take great pride in the type they breed and generally look after them well. i found the worst for caring for their horses were those 'wannabe' gypsies and those who are on the periphery, the ones who deal in endless non descript animals.
 
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