I'm bored and reflective.
I’ve been through plenty of miserable winters before.
It’s ‘bring the brass monkeys in cold’ these days. I am trapped inside more than normal. The chores which force me outside cause me to think about why I do what I do. The long nights give me time to write these reflections down.
It’s a cause and effect chain reaction…..
I have a lot of trouble reading about the FOB. I keep trying to wrap my head around FOB meaning something other than Forward Operating Base. I am a military mother. Besides…….
Barbaro’s life would have little to do with horse slaughter. Barbaro’s death had absolutely nothing to with horse slaughter. It had everything to do with botched end of life decisions and personal emotion, both then and now. Had his horrible accident happened during the 9th race at Fonner Park, playing with a buddy in the corral, or in a pasture trying to turn back a rank cow, he would have been quietly destroyed. His owners would have cursed the misfortune, reminisced what a good horse he had been, and he would have been free from any pain. I believe that’s what the good colt deserved and didn’t get from his connections, real or imagined. The flowers, cards, rescues, and quilts meant nothing to the horse. And……
The sigs and cyber names of the FOB cult members include unicorns, idealized racehorses, prancing horses, moonbeams, sunlight, stars, rainbows, and mythical quotes of all sorts. A feast of cotton candy for the soul and vision, which makes my eyes roll and all listening skills disappear. http://heartlessbitches.com is more my style. The message behind the feminist humor is one the Cult is in dire need of applying to their outlook. “Own it, control it, and whining is not empowering”…The membership by-laws forbid me to speak to or worship dead race horses, use saccharine language, or take part in blind faith thong throwing.
The use of saccharine brings me to the Pure Thoughts article. I told you I was going to stretch it out over several days, and here is part two.
Unfortunately, in our country, breeders send horses to slaughter because of their color; yes, this does exist. For example, two QH babies named Abercrombie and Fitch arrived at Pure Thoughts Horse & Foal Rescue. They came with AQHA papers so we called the previous owner, a breeder in Minnesota who selects for color: "palomino to be exact." According to the breeder, the two babies were sold to Simon Horse Company in Minnesota owned by Joe and Ryon Simon who are known kill buyers for horse slaughter. Both horses were sold because they were red in color, and Fitch's mother was sent to slaughter because that was her third red baby. This almost takes us back many years ago to a situation which was referred to as "cleansing."
How many times are we going to look into the pro-slaughter bowl of cherries and see that the pit is usually someone who stands to gain personally or financially, whether on the sale of horsemeat or the act of slaughter itself?
Even the horse novice understands the homozygous genes and the possibilities of perfecting color choices. Another thought would be to take that $100,000 and donate it to a rescue that saves slaughter-bound horses, and we will take all your not-so-perfect babies and mares that do not produce foals of the "right" color and place them in loving homes. It is so redundant to have yet another attempt at promoting horse slaughter stem from the AQHA arena.
Obviously Simon didn’t “ship” the babies she is holding up as yet another “my little pony” example of what’s wrong with the horse industry. A point I have been trying to get across to the New Age Horse Savior Cult (NAHSC) for YEARS…………if a horse had more value as anything other than lunch that’s where he would end up even at Simon Horse Company. http://www.simonhorsecompany.com/ is the website of this business. When or if you research them, notice the consignors and buyers of several of the HIGH selling horses at the Twin City Horse Sale. Hmmm……Ryon Simon……Simon Horse Company……I wonder where they get all those horses? Do you suppose they buy them at, OMG, other auctions from other sellers? (For those too lazy or challenged to look this up…..yes, they do).
The Events page for Simon Arena lists futurities, barrel races, rodeos, horse shows, horse educational clinics, and even dog shows the year around. Don’t miss Arena Trailer Sales or Simon Rodeo Company. Simon Horse Company has been a reputation and volume buyer/shipper of butcher horses for as long as I can remember. They have a hand in a great deal of money in other aspects of the horse industry as well. They have, however, paid their taxes, reinvested their income, and diversified this income and investment back into the horse related economy and many business' not even related to horses or livestock in Minnesota and many other surrounding states throughout the country.
Personally when I take a well prepared horse to the sale, I like to see the Simon’s, among other big volume dealers, show up (for a definition of what I consider a well prepared “saddle horse” see the blog “What’s He Worth?”. I’ve sold several nice horses to Simon Horse Company over the years. Better butcher horses have never been $ 3.00 a pound. The Simons’ buy other types of horses. Ranch horses, rodeo horses, 4-H horses, whatever will sell. All horses will (they used to anyway) sell somewhere and it is up to the people selling these horses to determine where their horses will fall in this mix.
Who would you rather have on the tax rolls in your county or state? Members of your Chamber of Commerce? Simon Horse Company, Arena Trailer Sales, and Simon Arena or Epona, Pure Hearts, and Karen Sussman? Yes, it is all about money. The same money supplies county/state services for you and yours. The same money generates well kept properties and a profitable economy to protect the sale value of home and property in the same county or every portion of the state.
But hey, let’s donate more money to place not so perfect horses in loving homes. It makes it easier to keep those horses in production with no reality check or remorse. In essence the rescue community has helped promote the BYBs more than any aspect of the horse industry in recent memory. We did the math a couple of columns ago on the cost to “rescue” or “euthanize” all the slaughter bound horses sold at the Corsica Horse sale in one year. That $100,000 this author seems to think would be enough to enable her to take ALL the not so perfect quarter horses and put them in loving homes is about half enough for the year for Corsica alone.
The AQHA has done some things over the years I haven’t agreed with. But they are listening to their voting body. The Simons have good and bad points. But they are making positive contributions to the industry in many ways. I am relatively sure neither will be wording any business or legal discussions with comments worded like these.........
coeurderfer said: "You are illogical, disjointed and ignorant or just simply one hard headed, me-me-me, I know better than you government separatist loon. First it was "we don't own horses, aren't involved in AG and vegans"... you sir/ma'am are a sick bunch of crap with your noxious, HCHS at all cost, Let me guess...you raise cattle? BTW...get your cattle/sheep rear off of public lands!....you lease????? You're a welfare baby. You get ANY subsidies? You're a welfare baby. "
Or this well rounded thought out comment from the ever eloquent airspace 1: "Hey Buck'' Why dont you grow up instead of growing out.. Get off the net and grab your Richard Simons sweating to the oldes. Stop being such a smuch supporting irresponsible people. "
The Pure Thoughts author made reference to “cleansing”? What better answer for these comments left by our gentle friends on the AHL site:
"Maybe we should try China’s solution of 1 child per couple-that has worked so well for them! Perhaps Gina and the rest of the animal rights activists should be willing to have themselves sterilized so as to not add to the human population here in America and that would give the mustangs, deer and other wildlife more resources."
"I think you hit on the perfect solution- sterilizing people! Then maybe our resources will last longer than another decade or so and mankind has a chance to survive. I doubt we could ever return to the pristine world that God gave us, but it would be nice to slow down the pollution and extinctions that overpopulation has caused. I think you’d be a great first for the sterilization program!"
Information in the physiological community supports the theory of abuse and lack of empathy for animals is one of the first tells of a psychopathic personality. Their rational, it is a short leap from animals to people. It would seem the New Age Horse Savior culture has inverted this principle wouldn’t you say?”
By RH1
Good article, as always! It is nice to see that in some places, a good horse is selling for a good, if not top amount. This is another fallacy we have to deal with, though. The theory that ALL auction horses automatically go to heartless Kill buyers, and are destined for kill. It is what is contributing to the booming "Feedlot" of "Broker" sale business that was recently addressed here, and in return, to the abuse and neglect problem I have addressed. If more people attended sales, more horses would sell. That just makes sense, doesn't it? If more horses sell to private owners, their chances of staying out of Hoarders as Rescues are better, thus the chance of them being neglected or abused is less. Again, common sense dictates that a horse in a one or two horse situation has a better chance of good care than it does when it gets into one where it becomes a number. When the Hoarder as Rescue gets these horses, they can't fare too well. They are wanted, until they are aquired, but then, the high is gone, and the search often turns to another horse that can fill the need. I find it interesting that places like the one run by the Simomn's is painted to be a Hell Hole. It's obvious that they are placing good horses in good homes. And also obvious that they are dealing with the problem of horses with nowhere to go. I'm sure they would rather make a profit on those horses, as anyone in the Equine business would. But, as with all of us living in the real world, they deal with the realities of it all. It's not the ideal, but it's what we've got right now.
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