Live "pony roundabout" Vienna

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hairycob

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Just come back from hols & was very disturbed by something I saw in Vienna. In the Prater Park near the big wheel is an approx 10m diameter circular sand school done up like a roundabout & inside there are ponies who trudge round nose to tail giving pony rides. The ponies have to go round whether they have a rider or not controlled by a man in the middle with a lunge whip. To be fair the ponies all looked healthy, but they looked very miserable & a couple were muzzled. Does anybody know anything about this - e.g. are the ponies swapped round regularly or do they have to do this all day. It was quite miserable to watch, but are they any worse off than a human doing a drudge job?
 
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This was in a small village near seville where I stayed looking after some horses.
The roundabout I saw they looked perfectly healthy, and weren't worked hard - they were out of the sun all day, and I didn't feel like it was cruel - doesnt appear anyworse than seaside donkeys or trekking plods you find in poor riding schools.
 
No different to a horse walker, plus echo what hatters says about seaside donkeys and riding school pony's, they have a job, look fit and healthy, what i hate to see is the bag of bones trotting up and the streets of Tunisia and such like countrys.
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Looks similar except the one I saw was a permanent structure used 7 days a week. One of the things that did bother me was that tiny kids were strapped to the saddle not being held/supported in place. I should imagine it would be unusual for the ponies to react to anything, but it's always possible eg there was a very sudden & extremely loud thunderclap about 30 mins later.
I general I was very impressed by the condition or working horses that we saw on holiday ranging from a riding centre to carriage horses & logging/agricultural horses in Poland, Slovakia & Vienna. Did some lovely hacking in Slovakia. Was expecting ploddy rides with beginners but decided to go just enjoy the scenery. Instead it was were either just us or one other experienced rider with lots of fun stuff like going through rivers & cantering across meadows.
 
Sorry all I see in the pic are healthy looking ponies, they don't appear to be miserable or thin and are far better working than stuck in a field getting laminitis.
The ones with muzzles on will be to protect the kids, a lot of ponies bite!
Yes, it's probably pretty boring but cruel? No ,provided they get frequent rests and drinks and food.
Walking in a circle is no big deal to a pony, after all we use horsewalkers in this country..
 
All the tourist carriages in Seville were well looked after, was nice to see.
Im off to the Costa Brava near Barcelona and trying to find somewhere to ride, I hope I manage to find somewhere similar - did you look around before?
 
I "learnt" to ride in something like what you describe back in the 50's!
In Kennards which is now Debenhams in Croydon, they had a roundabout with shetlands, they also had an arcade which they rode around in the summer. It was my treat to have a ride whenever I went shopping with my Nan; even if I couldn't have a ride I always had to go and see the ponies (which were always looking and kept very well). I don't know if there are any old pictures about of them, they were very popular.
I wouldn't be here now if it hadn't been for those ponies!!
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Egypt is the place for seriously horrible sights - emaciated, covered in sores & still pulling a tourist carraige!

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i agree when we went it was all inclusive so we had to take a carraige to one of the temples and we were racing about 6 other carraiges down the road it was awfull all i could think of was the poor ponies legs as they cantered full pelt over taking each other with ill fitting harnesses and they offer you a chance to drive it i had to say no as i didn't want to be responible for racing and arab down the road
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thats a pic of the carraige me and my friend went in we picked the horse that looked the healthiest(sp) which is saying something as it still doesn't look great. bless them
 
i have been haunted for years after hearing about a method of merry-go-round horses in egypt....i saw a photograph of these poor little ponies with pincer-type bars in their eyesockets, dragging them round and round. i hope to god that this does not still go on!
 
I don't see any problem with those ponies, they look happy and healthy. And as mentioned, we use horsewalkers don't we (well, not me personally!)

I-luv-my-appy, the only way to help these horses is for tourists NOT to hire them.
 
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