What happens to our horses if there is a WW3?

[reynold]

My pony would be put down but if things got as bad as they potentially could people would have to accept their animals being put down by being shot as drugs would be in short supply.

Further, in extreme circumstances where food is very short and people are starving, I would allow my pony's body to be used for food.

Not something I would like to think having to happen but at least her death would be to some purpose.

 

[palo1]

If it looks like it's going nuclear I suppose I'll ask if the vet can put me down along with the pony and the cats, to save on multiple callout fees.

Good Call!! Perhaps they can do zone visits for a number of clients lol...not laughing actually.

 

[windand rain]

We have one old driving pony and one in training the problem is they are 10 miles away so would need to bring them closer if possible. Could just about go shopping with them but the journey would take ages and not sure what would be in the shop anyway. Not sure if it is still the case but it is/was against the offical secrets to reveal how many pigs/sheep and cattle live in the uk as it discloses food availability

 

[[59668]]

Genuinely wouldn't worry about it! Of course they won't be enlisted...what on earth would they be used for? War would be nuclear. Unlikely anyone would know anything about it. Not really worth worrying about right now tbh.

 

[irishdraft]

We have been thinking about this, it will be nuclear so presumably we will all be nuked but anyway I live fairly rural in the south east on a small holding so I'd open all the internal gates to the fields and leave the horses & hope they would be ok x .

 

[Snowfilly]

If the nukes started flying I’d have them all shot. No-one needs to suffer through that. The dogs as well.

 

[planete]

My gypsy pony would very likely take to being feral on the New Forest without any problems. He has put on weight this Winter strip grazing the foggage in his one acre field after all.

 

[TPO]

In theory if we were about to be nuked as much as the plan would be pts I don't imagine that vets or knackersmen will be working and dad's air pellet gun won't do the job.

I'm guessing we'd speak to farmer neighbour to cut fences and secure boundaries then let all stock out. Water is all automatic so hopefully at least one of the troughs would keep working. Leave the shed open and burst all the hay bales. Then put tags with contact details plaited into manes and tails and hope that if we didn't get nuked we'd fine the animals again.

Not quite sure where we're going to be "safe" once the animals have been set loose!

Honestly doesn't bear thinking about. I'm quite keen to bury my head in the sand about the possibility of nuclear war. I cant do anything to affect it so no point stressing away to a puddle about it ?

 

[Fransurrey]

I actually found myself thinking through a strategy in bed last night, as I'm 20 miles from London, so depending on the location of the blast, I'm within range for either the initial impact (wiped out), or radiation fall out. If things escalate I'm going to prepare my trailer with a bale of haylage and a carrier for the cat with food. I can cope with the clothes on my back. I could be ready to leave in 30 minutes even at the yard, so depending on wind direction I'd just about have time to get out before the ash started dropping. I haven't approached her yet, but I have a friend in Wiltshire with lots of land and I would hope she'd squeeze us in until we found somewhere more stable. Downside is she's next to Salisbury Plain, so likely to also be a target!! I'm not sure how we'd deal with my older mare, though. She's very nervous and probably wouldn't load in a hurry. My gelding would walk straight on with bombs dropping. I might get a t-shirt with Jim'll Paint It's cartoon of Putin trying to find his tiny penis, so I can make sure I have it on for the clean up crew to find.

Just having these thoughts is depressing. I did have to give myself a mental kick last night. My boss lives in SW London. He'd have no chance.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

It may be cowardly, but I have thought about what I would do and if there was a confirmed nuke on it's way here I would take an overdose of whatever drug would kill me the quickest, or whatever I could get my hands on.. Illegal or from the cabinet

 

[Pippity]

I would do the same. The pictures of those poor horses stuck in the mud in Flanders trying to pull cannon give me nightmares. I would shoot mine myself before allowing that to happen to them.
.

There's a poem by William Henry Ogilvie called The Offside Leader that always makes me cry. The horse in the poem reminds me so much of my Blue, and that's the kind of fate she'd have had if she'd been born a century or so earlier.

She was a round-ribbed blaze-faced brown,
Shy as a country girl in town,
Scared of the gangway and scared of the quay,
Lathered in sweat at a sight of the sea,
But brave as a lion and strong as a bull,
With the mud at the hub in an uphill pull.

Today? If we're talking invaders-at-the-door, I'm-fleeing-for-it, I'd try to have her PTS before I left, even if that meant begging a local farmer with a gun to do the deed. (My cat would either come with me or also be PTS. She's a deaf, indoor cat who wouldn't stand a hope of anything but a long, painful death if I turned her loose.)

If we're talking nukes, I'd have horse and cat PTS, then do the same for myself. I have no desire to re-enact When The Wind Blows.

 

[Rowreach]

A lot of overthinking going on here. In the first instance, with fuel prices on the up and up, I'm more worried about being able to afford to drive to the yard every day in the coming weeks, and have considered (not entirely in jest) bringing her home and keeping her in the garage/garden.

In the event of something more catastrophic happening, I doubt there are enough vets to pts all the animals out there. A "conventional" war may hit us in the pockets and make us a lot less wasteful in our eating habits, but otherwise it would be knuckle down and get on with it. A nuclear war, well hiding under the kitchen table, as we were taught in primary school in the 60s, won't save us or our animals.

 

[honetpot]

As we have seen in Ukaine and other wars, fuel becomes a huge problem, so it could be if they could be driven, they would have a use, as well as for food. In the last war my grandma kept a pig, we ate horse meat, and some people now have hens as pets.
My friend used to work in a large feed/agricultural store and someone used to come and shop with a pony and cart, and when I was a child the rag and bone man came around with his cart. I think every animal would have to earn its keep, and without access to land a lot would be PTS.
Already farmers are thinking about cutting down of fertiliser, for even grass crops.
Grassland fertiliser costings | The Farming Forum
All these rewilding schemes would go because the land would be needed at least for sheep.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Everything I've read says it is extremely unlikely that we will go to War. I'm starting to stop over thinking on the constant 'what ifs' in life now.

My attitude is that there is nothing that I can do to stop WW3 happening, so I'd best just go about my daily life as normal for now. Keeping my fingers crossed that either Putin sees sense, or someone manages to take him out soon. Although it is terrible to see what is happening in Ukraine, I am so glad that NATO have declined to get actively involved, as that would guarantee a nuclear WW3.

 

[Snowfilly]

There's a poem by William Henry Ogilvie called The Offside Leader that always makes me cry. The horse in the poem reminds me so much of my Blue, and that's the kind of fate she'd have had if she'd been born a century or so earlier.

She was a round-ribbed blaze-faced brown,
Shy as a country girl in town,
Scared of the gangway and scared of the quay,
Lathered in sweat at a sight of the sea,
But brave as a lion and strong as a bull,
With the mud at the hub in an uphill pull.

Today? If we're talking invaders-at-the-door, I'm-fleeing-for-it, I'd try to have her PTS before I left, even if that meant begging a local farmer with a gun to do the deed. (My cat would either come with me or also be PTS. She's a deaf, indoor cat who wouldn't stand a hope of anything but a long, painful death if I turned her loose.)

If we're talking nukes, I'd have horse and cat PTS, then do the same for myself. I have no desire to re-enact When The Wind Blows.

A lot of his war poems are heartbreaking. The Remount Train gets me every time.

There go stoutness, strength, and speed
To be spent where none shall heed,
And great hearts to face their fate
In the clash of human hate!

 

[hollyandivy123]

one thing i am thinking about is getting the shoes taken off rather than replaced in the next shoeing rotation............ watching what is happening and then making the decision.

 

[SEL]

Open as many gates as I can in the local area, fill every trough etc going and turn them loose. They'd be useless war horses and they've all had too many drugs to be much use for lasagne

In all honesty though I'd rather ring the hunt and let them do the deed

And until them I'm going to go back to hoping someone in Russia has made sure a madman can't press a big red button all on his own.

 

[Glitterandrainbows]

Mine and my sisters ( who I look after ) can pull carts but we live in the city I’d offer them to someone in the country with instructions to shoot them before letting them be taken by the army but they’d make reliable transportation even the young one who’s currently recovering she loves the cart. If no one in the country wanted them then I’d let them loose on the moors

 

[sarahann1]

If it really goes to poop, we’d have approx 20mins warning of the warhead coming our way according to the article I’ve just read. My anxiety is through the roof today.

 

[hollyandivy123]

If it really goes to poop, we’d have approx 20mins warning of the warhead coming our way according to the article I’ve just read. My anxiety is through the roof today.

whilst it is good to think about how you would respond to things and have a plan of action, please try to only be anxious about events you personally have control over.

 

[teddy_]

Deleted.

 

[Rowreach]

A friend of mine was in Hawaii in 2018 when the incoming missile alert was sent to all cellphones. She said it do rather concentrate the mind and made her realise there’s feck all you can actually do in those circumstances. So I won’t be worrying much about it, I’ll save my energy for worrying about Ukraine at the moment.

 

[teddy_]

A friend of mine was in Hawaii in 2018 when the incoming missile alert was sent to all cellphones. She said it do rather concentrate the mind and made her realise there’s feck all you can actually do in those circumstances. So I won’t be worrying much about it, I’ll save my energy for worrying about Ukraine at the moment.

This. Agonising about the (remote) possibility of nuclear war is utterly fruitless.

ETA: Putin does not want world war, he wants to steal next doors land.

 

[PipsqueakXy22]

I don’t think they’ll be enlisted with technology nowadays Calvary is not really needed, nor very beneficial.
If (god forbid) WW3 happens our horses will be in danger just like the rest of civilians, I saw a girl who keeps her horses just outside Kyiv and she’s terrified of them being bombed, must be so scary my heart goes out to her I can’t even imagine how scary that must be for them. I’d be devastated.
I was thinking about this tho and if it happened for sure and we were going into full on war I think I’d rather have my animals pts, rather they go peacefully than be bombed, but it’s such a tricky situation, and a decision I hope I’m never faced with

 

[PipsqueakXy22]

Thanks all for your replies,

I wonder how the Ukrainian horses are doing, if there’s any kind of appeal they have going we can support?

I’m not sure they are the same as us, livery yard wise??

I saw one girl say she’s too scared to move her horses to Poland, firstly there’s massive queues at the border and they are also targeting vehicles trying to leave. It’s such an incredibly sad situation

 

[rabatsa]

I have a carriage and three animals that should be able to go in it. I live in the countryside but less than 20 miles from three seperate high profile targets. There would be nowhere to run to as leaving the island would involve going by boat/plane.

Lack of drinking water is what would do for my animals. I expect there will be no one who can humanely pts any animals as they will all have bigger things to deal with.

Who knows what each of us as individuals are capable of doing, and I hope that we never need the chance to find out.

 

[LEC]

The good thing about nuclear is its a deterrent for a specific reason in that its a mind game and its about having one, rather than using it. Realistically nobody will ever use them because effectively its a zero sum game. People are really stupid but they are not that stupid. After all no point being a president/dicator over nothing. Having power just over the people in your bunker is pretty pointless........

Its why the UK is so determined to hang on to Trident even though it could fund the NHS very effectively. We don't want to actually ever need Trident but by holding Trident it allows us to sit at a better table in the International world.

NATO is a defensive regime as keeps being highlighted and this is why they are standing around watching and Russia is like an angry Scorpion which they do not want to provoke further. . The UN is effectively useless due to 911.

 

[Michen]

The good thing about nuclear is its a deterrent for a specific reason in that its a mind game and its about having one, rather than using it. Realistically nobody will ever use them because effectively its a zero sum game. People are really stupid but they are not that stupid. After all no point being a president/dicator over nothing. Having power just over the people in your bunker is pretty pointless........

Its why the UK is so determined to hang on to Trident even though it could fund the NHS very effectively. We don't want to actually ever need Trident but by holding Trident it allows us to sit at a better table in the International world.

Disagree. Putin is practically a dead man walking and I don't think he would care about blowing up himself and the world frankly. This is not a rational person, we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking he is capable of rational thinking.

I think the only thing that would prevent it is his miltary.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Deploying nuclear weapons is not rational, but then Putin is not rational. These are very scary times.

The best hope is that his own side take him out, and that they do so asap.

 

[LEC]

Disagree. Putin is practically a dead man walking and I don't think he would care about blowing up himself and the world frankly. This is not a rational person, we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking he is capable of rational thinking.

I think the only thing that would prevent it is his miltary.

He certainly is not a dead man walking as still has the majority of his population supporting him in his rationale. Also there is a distinct psychology behind the Russian people that will not care about economic sanctions. However irrational someone is, with regards to nuclear weapons there will be a rationality. Look at North Korea, China and Russia - we have had nuclear weapons for 80 years now. It would have been easy to drop nuclear bombs on Vietnam, but instead anthrax and napalm was preferred. More recently the Russians were supplying weapons to Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to people who are willing to commit suicide bombing yet nuclear arsenal is never included. Israel has had many wars, but despite having a nuclear deterrent its never even considered.