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hotellie

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i went to marrakesh for a holiday and i was shocked to see the state of the horses... the incident that has stuck in my head the most was an unshod mule which was hopping lame being whipped and whipped and whipped until it would gallop down a road pulling its cart....it made me cry...you could see the pain the mule was undergoing. all of the horses were in horrendous condition and most of them had cut legs and were lame but yet forced to work hard in the heat and pull the carriages and carts, it reminded me of black beauty...i am not usually a softie but i found it really upsetting!
 
TBH its the visiters that keep the horses like this - if you travel out into the mountain/desert the horses are lovely (lots of barb/arab types) and generally very well looked after - they are part of life/work/family.

Sadly the cities have tourists who will pay for 'carriage tours' and where there is a market people will respond.
its up to the visiter to refuse to get into a carrriage puled by under weight/lame/sick/sorry horses.

I was pretty horrified in Marrakesh when we were out there - its less bad in Fes and Meknes.
 
Why go on one at all.
Write to the ILPH and give to charities that help these horses.If you go to these countries take old ,safe, comfortable, humane tack and give it to the charities or to the people who own the horses, at least then you have tried
 
Hi sorry to hear that you had to see such upsetting sights.
I too was upset by your post and it may be a good idea to get in contact with The Brooke. I saw an advert on horse and country tv and they help thousands of hardworking horses and donkeys in developing countries.
www.thebrookeshop.org/
It may be a good idea to get in touch with them or other charities like this. It would hopefully make you feel better about the situation.

Hope this was helpful
 
My parents have just come back from Egypt and they said the same thing. My dad saw a man near the Valley of the Kings whipping a horse that was dying on the floor, trying to get it up. He said he tried to intervene and shouted at the man the horse was dying, but all he did was start whipping the floor next to it's head instead. Horrible.
 
Used to live in Sri Lanka

saw some awful sights...

one memory that i hate is this pony which had a bit made out of an old hanger, you could see it slicing its mouth. was awful

But tbh, without the horses, many people could not work
 
it is very sad and i dread seeing any mistreated animals on my travels, inevitable though i am sure, it is a sad way of life in some areas
i donate 4pounds a month to the rspca and once i earn a touch more i will donate some to ilph or something similar each month, at least you are helping to some degree then these unfortunate animals
 
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Why go on one at all.
Write to the ILPH and give to charities that help these horses.If you go to these countries take old ,safe, comfortable, humane tack and give it to the charities or to the people who own the horses, at least then you have tried

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woops i meant to write i didnt go on one! i wasnt going to put the horse under the strain when it wasnt sound!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hi sorry to hear that you had to see such upsetting sights.
I too was upset by your post and it may be a good idea to get in contact with The Brooke. I saw an advert on horse and country tv and they help thousands of hardworking horses and donkeys in developing countries.
www.thebrookeshop.org/
It may be a good idea to get in touch with them or other charities like this. It would hopefully make you feel better about the situation.

Hope this was helpful

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thank you i might do that
 
oh no i cant believe about whipping a dying horse.. gosh it is obviously a problem in developing countries and yes i do understand they need the horses to make a living and they live in pretty bad conditions themselves but that is no excuse for beating a dying horse!
 
I too am just back from a holiday in Marrakech but was far more upset by the state of the mules than the caleche horses. Although many of them were lame, I saw very few that were in poor condition. They were all reasonably well shod and I gather their farriers have been trained by UK farriers who went over there under a WCF programme. There is also a society of caleche drivers in Marrakech that is supposed to uphold some sort of standards.

However, we didn't go on a caleche because even with the best-looking ones you can't tell whether the horse is lame until it moves off - by which time you've paid your money!

But the mules and some of the donkeys were in a horrific state - the best thing we can do is support the Brooke and SPANA in their work in North Africa.
 
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