I feel sorry for horses.

I genuinely believe Amber likes to get out and about to see the world. She’s happy in her field but if she’s out there for a week she starts to seem bored and grumpy and seems very happy go for a hack or travel somewhere. Whenever we arrive she’s calm coming off the trailer but also keen to go for a walk round and see where we are and what’s going on etc. I think if she just lived in a field and didn’t leave it she’d get a bit depressed despite having friends. She also has show buddies who she’s never lived with but whickers too when we see them and likes to stand next to in warm ups waiting to go and is happy stabled next to them. I’ve had others who were much happier at home and doing nothing. I didn’t show those ones, I tried but realised it wasn’t their thing so didn’t force it.
 
Burnttoast said:
Horses are not physically sufficiently different from their wild progenitors to make riding something they are well-designed for, all the same.
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That might be an answer to 'are they well designed to be ridden' but not to 'are they happier as pets.'

I have seen some utterly miserable horses who have belonged to people who want them as pets and think that because they love them and 'spoil' them by human standards, they are meeting their needs.
 
You can ride a horse ethically, it's not a dichotomy of either pushed to the limit, species specific needs ignored, treated as sport equipment or never ridden or worked again. Its a useless discussion that distracts from the question of HOW you ride and "use" horses ethically. Whether you can ethically compete at the top of modern horse sports is another question I'm not placed to answer.
 
I think that in life, you can do your best to be a good person and all that entails.

No creature on Earth is immune to suffering, people included. Survival of the fittest, the way we have all evolved, necessarily included suffering and death, from amoeba to plant to all animal life. Just watch a cat playing with its prey. A wild animal dying from a snakebite.

My previously 'wild' ponies have all, through the decades, shown a strong preference to being tame once they have figured it out. Medical care, plentiful supplies of food and water and shelter - a level of comfort they know they didn't have before. That first dentist visit - those who are older when they get first handled then kind of line up in an orderly queue the next time he comes. Comfy mouth now please! I also have two ex-ferals currently who delight in 'ordering' us to pop rugs on them as needed. The wonders of human service providers!

Do they like being ridden? We use well fitted saddles, and we mostly hack. They bug us to ride if they have more than one day off. If tired, they hang back and they get time off. Son's pony calls for him if he rides anything else out, his other pony threw a mini tantrum last week because her trip out in the trailer was a day late. I think they like it well enough. It's entertainment. It fulfils their need to move.
 
I think most horses like being ridden as long as they are ridden well and managed properly.
I think if they don’t that down to the failures of the humans around them .
I admit that I probably automatically selecting individuals who enjoy working.
In the standard livery type situation horses are not getting enough movement to be in optimal health without work .
 
LadyGascoyne said:
That might be an answer to 'are they well designed to be ridden' but not to 'are they happier as pets.'

I have seen some utterly miserable horses who have belonged to people who want them as pets and think that because they love them and 'spoil' them by human standards, they are meeting their needs.
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That's just bad horsemanship, which can definitely be found across the board. I don't think it is automatically the case that ridden horses are worse off than pets, but it is the case that horse-keeping is set up mainly with riding in mind, and the possibilities for people who would like to keep them as pets (if they don't have their own place) are limited by physical facilities and often by the attitudes of their peers, so that a non-ridden horse on a standard livery yard may well be getting a poor deal - but not necessarily if the riding of them involves unnoticed lameness or poor tack fit (frequent, if studies are any guide), unskilled or unsympathetic riders, etc. Many horses' lives might be improved if facilities were such that people didn't feel they 'must' ride them because otherwise they have no opportunity to be close to other horses or to get exercise, but that would mean a much broader acceptance of what keeping horses can involve for the average person.
 
New Forests Rock said:
Given the amount of time, experience (50 years +) but not afraid to take on board new research/ideas, care, money that we OAPS could do with but our dogs & ponies always come before our own needs, I truly feel our boys have a lovely life. 24/7 happy herd turnout, ridden or driven work to their level of fitness and age, vet, farrier, saddle checks - the list goes on, and that is as it should be.
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Same here, I do absolutely everything I can to make sure they have great lives with heaps of enrichment. They cannot be that unhappy as they both whicker when they see me and seem to enjoy their work.
 
Sanversera said:
I'm watching follyfoot on iPlayer. Things haven't changed. From black beauty to the present day. So much cruelty still going on. Mostly so that mankind can win something. It's awful 😔.
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Oh my I didn’t know follyfoot was on iplayer! Must watch it. I always loved that show and always remembered Dora’s hair 🤣
 
When I was a welfare officer I saw many many cases of miserable badly cared for suffering pet horses the excuse was he’s retired ( I used to wonder if the owner was looking forward to a retirement living in a tiny outside space with nothing to do, eating crap food with inadequate foot care and poor dentistry .
He’s a rescue ( meant bought cheaply )was an excuse like being saved from a completely inadequate dituation to end in an inadequate one .
He’s a pet, a pet getting inadequate exercise and that’s not ok it’s not ok for a dog and it’s not ok for a horse.
A small field is not enough space for a life when your a herbivore designed to roam large distances and navigate back to places by learning the skylines .
Horses need to move and as most are turned out in areas far smaller than they need we have to provide extra movement .
 
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