Slaughter.

I have been around Horses all my life...I started riding when I was four years old, I rode hunter jumpers. My father is a Thoroughbred racing trainer, has been for nearly thirty years, he was a leading rider before that, for fifteen years. Much to my dismay, I haven't been able to afford riding in some years. There is no way I can describe it perfectly to you, something gets lost in translation, no matter how many beautiful words I use. The feeling of being on the back of a sixteen hundred pound animal, capable of running forty miles an hour, and crushing your skull with a single kick to the head. Yet, he doesn't flinch when I put my hand to his velvet skinned nose. His black eyes stare into mine with complete vulnerability, and knowing as I put the bit into his mouth...I snitch the saddle tight and pull the stirrups to the right length for my legs. I grab the reins, put my foot in the stirrup, pull up and throw my other leg over to mount. He doesn't move, just turns his head to look at me...We're off, the long strides, his mane billowing in the flowing air, into a canter, then a gallop, up and over a five foot fence with ease....Like I said, I could never explain it perfectly.

Now, there is a reason for this lengthy rant about how much a treasure these creatures. They are not only a pleasurable hobby, but it is my families livelihood!

The U.S banned the slaughter of horses for human consumption in 2006, but it has not ended it. Mexico and Canada are now the top producers of horse meat, shipping it to Europe, especially France, and Italy...also Japan. "Buyers", go to auctions, or sales and try to buy as many horses as they can. In some cases trainers at the track will sell their losing horse to the buyer for a couple of hundred bucks. Buyers will sell them to "savers" but double or triple the price they brought them for which makes it hard to save them all. They then put them on a trailer and ship them across the border to the slaughter houses, where they are unloaded by the "killers". The horses are disposed of in a number of horrific ways. In some cases they are shot in the head with a whatever gun is around ( shooting practice if you will), or maybe a nail gun...though the horses have very thick skulls, so it may take three or four nails to put them down....In Mexico their favorite method is to herd a horse at a time into a small pen, take a knife and try and cut between the vertebra of the spine, in order to paralyze them...trouble is, the animal is scared, is constantly moving, so they will hack at it...it can take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour to put it out. The killers then "hook" the animal up, by literally taking a large hook and grab onto the leg, drawing the horse up and through the system. If the horse is still alive at this point, they wont be for long, seeing as how the killers have to "bleed" the animal, they cut the throat while the horse is hanging upside down and drain the animal of blood.

We have bought horses from the slaughter house that we turned into perfect show horses, and race horses. They have earned thousands of dollars for the people we have sold them too, or just been pleasure rides for their owners. We have bought the old and the young, foals at just a few days old are indiscriminately slaughtered too.

I am not a vegetarian, I am not apart of P.E.T.A, I think P.E.T.A is ridiculous and purely for those who love to be shocked and outraged, atleast as part of their fashion tip of the day. I believe in the majesty of horses, and the deliciousness of a stake. I would never eat cat or dog, but have heard that guinea pig is particularly nice when grilled in Peru. I have eaten frog, want to try snake, I think alligator taste like chicken, but I would never eat monkey, although I have heard that human meat is addictive. So I can hear the hypocrisy in many of my statements.

I don't expect anyone to understand why I find the slaughter of horses so terrible, but I still hope you might, then maybe we can stop it....completely.