Consistency Or The Lack There Of:

Consistent….We all know what it means literally. Consistence is important in any industry. It may be more important in the livestock and horse industries than anywhere. Breeders strive to produce consistently good foal crops. Trainers use conditioning, repetitive cues, body positioning, and timing to promote automatic consistent response and performance in their pupils. Stockmen research consistent quality nutritional programs to insure growth, health, and optimum performance in their animals. It doesn’t matter whether the desired performance is meat production, reproduction, or in the case of the horse, actual under saddle performance, consistent husbandry is all important.
Consistent animal husbandry takes a great deal of investment, time, facilities, labor, education, and perhaps most importantly, personal responsibility. I have noticed a great deal of inconsistency going on in the “New Age Humane Morality Horse Culture Industry”. And yes, I do consider it an industry. The donation, distribution, administration allocation, and in general “we need your help in cash to help us” mentality has made this a lucrative profession for many. One thing sorely lacking is consistency.
Man trains wild horses to save their lives
written by: Heidi McGuire , Backpack Journalist
created: 11/1/2008 4:26:29 PM
Last updated: 11/2/2008 10:32:51 PM

"A mustang is not a horse that wants to sit in a stall all day. It's a horse that wants to be outdoors and wants to work," he said. The horses come first. "I'll feed them before I feed myself,"
"Once you figure out their different personalities you can start to train them," he said. This is considered the real deal on helping mustangs, This was written about the Three Strikes Mustang Ranch run by Jason Meduna in Alliance, Nebraska. His consistency and dedication to good horse husbandry lasted not even 6 months longer. The footage I saw/read would indicate Mr. Meduna has some very deep personal issues and these horses probably can’t stand a whole lot more “rescuing”. Considering the time it takes a horse to starve to death and from reading the local accounts of this man and his operation, it’s fairly safe to assume wheels of this monstrous neglect/abuse case where already in motion when this interview was given. Mr. Meduna was boasting and I am sure the anti-slaughter forums were patting him on the back but those 200 horses were already heading into the winter from hell. Nebraska is animal agriculture from the roots up yet it took a horse “rescuer” to put the largest case of animal neglect in state history on the books. Can this be called inconsistent?
Following the Three Strikes case leads us to another blaring example of inconsistency. When animal rights groups were writing about the death of a Harry Vold bronc at Cheyenne Frontier Days this July they seem to have completely forgotten how only 2 months earlier Frontier Park had housed the Three Strikes evacuees. "Strawberry Fudge" was a healthy exuberant 4 year old when she flipped over outside the bucking chute. She posed no health risk to anyone other than the rider she fell on and herself. It’s pretty safe to say she had run on productively managed range and was well fed her entire life.
The Three Strikes horses were carrying who knows what diseases. Meduna, himself, was copping a plea, saying they had some exotic ailment or poisoning, not starving, parasite ridden, and sand filled. They had been running on rangeland so decimated by the lack of management of their owner it may never recover. These death warmed over looking creatures were housed in the same pens which would in a very short time be housing the elite performance stock of Frontier Days. Those of us in the livestock industry know only too well how disease can be transmitted to the ground and fixtures in a facility. Would this be inconsistency?
PETA was contacted after the torture of the good barrel horse Dually in Fort Pierre. Interested? Not a chance. Rope a steer at Frontier Days and they’re all over that. Shock a bronc or bull that stalls in the chutes and that’s a big deal. Inconsistency????
The moral indiscretions of the author of a popular anti-slaughter humane treatment issue blog are quickly becoming common internet gossip fodder. True or not, doesn’t really matter. Another example of ‘do as I say not as I do’ is bouncing around the net. Credibility is being questioned and yet another humane issue paradox is on the way.
Meanwhile back at the ranch……. Mr. Meduna’s neighbors are caring for their stock same as they always have. Harry Vold has shipped the rest of his healthy, well fed stock on to the next rodeo. The ranches of the west prepare for the annual production sale season. Decades old traditions for most of these horse programs, yet they are being ridiculed by those who can’t ride on the same side of the fence for more than one issue or maintain structure in their own personal lives. How’s that for inconsistent logic?????
R.H.1