The nagging feeling that riding horses is just odd

Horses need far more exercise to maintain optimal health than the type of fields most of us keep them on how do people think we should manage that .

My horse loves activities loves going on the lorry he likes exploring.
He also loves to learn stuff and is extremely easy to train .
A life in the field would be hard for him.
 
Just read through this thread...
I know that I have changed my attitude to riding over the years and wince when I think back to some of the things I have done in the past. I am in my 60s now and know better.
I have always just hacked out and never competed so never done anything to excess. To me, hacking is like taking a dog for a walk, part of it is about enriching their lives and just doing stuff and part of it is keeping a level of fitness which is needed for general health and well being.
When I ride, I am more than happy to accommodate the ponies' feelings and if they are jolly and bouncy, we will go faster, and if they feel lethargic we go slower, and if they are anxious, I choose my route to suit. I often let the pony choose the route and the pace and it is not always the quickest way home! We are both out to get a bit of exercise and enjoy the activity. I adapt my riding expectations to match the the ponies' abilities and preferences.
I do think that people often confuse keenness with actually an anxious horse, and a horse that is overly excited is in fact exhibiting behaviour related to stress and really not happy, but I can also appreciate that some horse probably like that adrenaline rush like some humans do.
With the caveat we are responsible as we can be to ensure that the comfort of the horse is paramount, I am OK with riding. In the same way as I would rather eat locally and ethically reared meat than be a vegetarian and I struggle to see how anyone who is a vegan can ride, but I do know some.
 
Skib said:
"Sandstone1 said:
I dislike vaulting. Why do people need a horse to do gymnastics? I think it’s demeaning for the horse to be used as a piece of gym equipment. Also hate to see people standing on horses"

It isnt that they need a horse to do gymnastics. It is the other way round. Before there were stirrups, solders and riders needed to vault onto their horses.
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The PP is refering to the discipline of vaulting which is - quite literally - gymnastics on the horse's back, not the action of vaulting onto a horse.
 
DressageCob said:
To be fair, you called it a virus. That doesn't really portray you as someone knowledgeable on the subject of TB.
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Virus is incorrect, unfortunately I do have experience of TB, and not just in livestock.
You should be thankful to be (mostly?) sufficiently old to be vaccinated against the basic form, also that equines do not succumb.
Blasé attitudes towards unchecked, infected creatures - full stop - might otherwise revise,
particularly those claiming parity of value for the lives of all animals.
 
JFTDWS said:
The sport of vaulting bears even less resemblance to vaulting onto a pre-stirrup saddle than modern dressage does to the training of the war horse. By a long way.
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I didn’t read this in full properly and was just thinking “I didn’t know there was such a thing as vaulting bears - that sounds terrifying”
 
Skib said:
"Sandstone1 said:
I dislike vaulting. Why do people need a horse to do gymnastics? I think it’s demeaning for the horse to be used as a piece of gym equipment. Also hate to see people standing on horses"

It isnt that they need a horse to do gymnastics. It is the other way round. Before there were stirrups, solders and riders needed to vault onto their horses.
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They didnt have the horses canter round and round in circles with people doing gymnastics on their backs though. Vaulting on to a horse is one thing. Modern vaulting is people doing gymnastics on a horse.
 
Mrs. Jingle said:
I am only aware of either latent or active TB. I do hope my vaccination way back in the day covers me for all types of TB not just the basic form. 🤭
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I’m sure you will be just fine
MDR-TB?
‘Super strains’ ? - particularly problematic for the unvaccinated, which is now most under 30 in UK, unless deemed high risk exposure, certain ethnic groups.
In 2023, TB killed 1.25+ millions globally, briefly knocked off the top spot by Covid during pandemic. Ever so funny, do enjoy.
 
DabDab said:
I now have a mental image of you gallivanting around the countryside with an army of Alpacas and Badgers causing wanton damage to many a farming community
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It's a remarkably accurate image. Obviously, I've really got it in for cattle and farmers. It's my aim to bring down the entire farming community by stealth.
 
Mrs. Jingle said:
I am only aware of either latent or active TB. I do hope my vaccination way back in the day covers me for all types of TB not just the basic form. 🤭
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The BCG vaccine covers you (with the caveat that its effectiveness varies widely, particularly across ages) against M. tuberculosis and M. bovis and other mycobacteria, including the non-tuberculous leprosy and buruli ulcer. Hurrah! As someone who spent years in TB research, I have no idea what is meant by the basic form! Disease severity, maybe? As far as equines go, they don't tend to manifest symptoms clinically, but they can and do act as reservoirs (asymptomatic carriers in which the pathogen can multiply and spread to others).
 
Fransurrey said:
I have no idea what is meant by the basic form! Disease severity, maybe?
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Thanks Fransurrey, my post was just a little tongue in cheek and not meant as a serious observation. 😊 I and my siblings were actually some of the very first to get the vaccine, not because of our ages at the time, but because my mother being in daily contact nursing many, many unfortunate people suffering from TB in the TB sanatorium.
 
I thought "basic form" might be M. tb, rather than M. bovis, though it's a very peculiar way of putting it (esp given the genetic similarity between the two). Maybe they meant non-drug resistant strains, given the subsequent post. Who knows, and, really, who cares?

The BCG is generally good against miliary TB - infections in other parts of the body - but less effective against pulmonary TB, especially in areas where there is environmental exposure to other mycobacteria. TB is a bugger to treat, because of the latent stage of infection - treatment requires multiple antibiotics, over at least 6 months, and antibiotics often have unpleasant side effects. That contributes to patient non-compliance, drug resistance, and the endemic TB problem that has plagued humans pretty much for the entire span of their existence as a species. Alpaca are relatively low down on the list of contributors to the global TB problem. That isn't to say that they shouldn't be subject to routine testing, but let's be realistic - the average UK alpaca is not responsible for the 1-2 million deaths from TB per annum we've seen for decades...
 
JFTDWS said:
I thought "basic form" might be M. tb, rather than M. bovis, though it's a very peculiar way of putting it (esp given the genetic similarity between the two). Maybe they meant non-drug resistant strains, given the subsequent post. Who knows, and, really, who cares?

The BCG is generally good against miliary TB - infections in other parts of the body - but less effective against pulmonary TB, especially in areas where there is environmental exposure to other mycobacteria. TB is a bugger to treat, because of the latent stage of infection - treatment requires multiple antibiotics, over at least 6 months, and antibiotics often have unpleasant side effects. That contributes to patient non-compliance, drug resistance, and the endemic TB problem that has plagued humans pretty much for the entire span of their existence as a species. Alpaca are relatively low down on the list of contributors to the global TB problem. That isn't to say that they shouldn't be subject to routine testing, but let's be realistic - the average UK alpaca is not responsible for the 1-2 million deaths from TB per annum we've seen for decades...
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I completely missed the "not" in your final sentence and thought you're putting a lot of weight on those little woolly shoulders 😂
 
JFTDWS said:
I thought "basic form" might be M. tb, rather than M. bovis, though it's a very peculiar way of putting it (esp given the genetic similarity between the two). Maybe they meant non-drug resistant strains, given the subsequent post. Who knows, and, really, who cares?

The BCG is generally good against miliary TB - infections in other parts of the body - but less effective against pulmonary TB, especially in areas where there is environmental exposure to other mycobacteria. TB is a bugger to treat, because of the latent stage of infection - treatment requires multiple antibiotics, over at least 6 months, and antibiotics often have unpleasant side effects. That contributes to patient non-compliance, drug resistance, and the endemic TB problem that has plagued humans pretty much for the entire span of their existence as a species. Alpaca are relatively low down on the list of contributors to the global TB problem. That isn't to say that they shouldn't be subject to routine testing, but let's be realistic - the average UK alpaca is not responsible for the 1-2 million deaths from TB per annum we've seen for decades...
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There's mycobacterium in a fair few species isn't there? Imagine the cost and effort to test them all....


[ETA this is an only tenuously linked nerd tangent which can be safely ignored by all and sundry 😅😅]
I know there's a mycobacteria in fish anyway, mostly just causes relatively benign granulomas but in the immunocompromised or very unlucky can cause sepsis. And it's most often found in stuff like neon tetra and whilst I'm not sure how many of those are brought into the UK in the US it's just under 2million a month so numbers involved are absolutely vast, certainly hundreds of thousands anyway
 
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I did hear through the farming community that in parts of the country with good grass (West mainly where there is more TB) a lot of farmers are knowingly overgrazing and paying the water contamination charge, as we all know disease (including TB) spread more quickly in any crowded community so maybe not all farmers are helping the TB situation.

On the animal ethics question, horses may not always get a good life but cows and pigs often get a really raw deal. Anyone see that Brittany Ferries have started exporting 4/month old calves again, no-one cares and who are these people selling them to such a rubbish future.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
There's mycobacterium in a fair few species isn't there? Imagine the cost and effort to test them all....


[ETA this is an only tenuously linked nerd tangent which can be safely ignored by all and sundry 😅😅]
I know there's a mycobacteria in fish anyway, mostly just causes relatively benign granulomas but in the immunocompromised or very unlucky can cause sepsis. And it's most often found in stuff like neon tetra and whilst I'm not sure how many of those are brought into the UK in the US it's just under 2million a month so numbers involved are absolutely vast, certainly hundreds of thousands anyway
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Yea, so there are a number of mycobacterial species, some of which don't cause any disease, but exist in the environment, and exposure to them might provide some baseline immunity to other mycobacteria - that's partly why some populations find the BCG less useful than others. Others, like M. marinum, cause disease in other species (e.g. fish in this case), but do not constitute a big threat to humans like TB.

M. tuberculosis and M. bovis are very similar genetically, but M. tb causes disease almost exclusively in humans and dogs. M. bovis is less species specific - strains of bTB have been identified in all manner of species, from 30,000 year old bison remains to (extant) seals (and that's a really spurious range to select!). There's also leprosy, which is a mycobacterium, that again only infects humans and 9-banded armadilloes.

Different regions have different wildlife reservoirs for bovine TB - in France, the deer population are the problem in the way that badgers are perceived to be the issue here.
 
JFTDWS said:
Yea, so there are a number of mycobacterial species, some of which don't cause any disease, but exist in the environment, and exposure to them might provide some baseline immunity to other mycobacteria - that's partly why some populations find the BCG less useful than others. Others, like M. marinum, cause disease in other species (e.g. fish in this case), but do not constitute a big threat to humans like TB.

M. tuberculosis and M. bovis are very similar genetically, but M. tb causes disease almost exclusively in humans and dogs. M. bovis is less species specific - strains of bTB have been identified in all manner of species, from 30,000 year old bison remains to (extant) seals (and that's a really spurious range to select!). There's also leprosy, which is a mycobacterium, that again only infects humans and 9-banded armadilloes.

Different regions have different wildlife reservoirs for bovine TB - in France, the deer population are the problem in the way that badgers are perceived to be the issue here.
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Oooh thank you so much!
 
canteron said:
I did hear through the farming community that in parts of the country with good grass (West mainly where there is more TB) a lot of farmers are knowingly overgrazing and paying the water contamination charge, as we all know disease (including TB) spread more quickly in any crowded community so maybe not all farmers are helping the TB situation.

On the animal ethics question, horses may not always get a good life but cows and pigs often get a really raw deal. Anyone see that Brittany Ferries have started exporting 4/month old calves again, no-one cares and who are these people selling them to such a rubbish future.
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I thought that export for slaughter was illegal now.
 
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