Hero complexes don't help horses

There’s an emotionally manipulative trend of using the excuse of “saving” the horse to justify treating horses badly. As if the horse should be so grateful that we’ve decided to give them a chance rather than put them down.

This is the defence of the people responsible for that horrific video of an extremely distressed horse left with their head tied to their chest and a dummy on their back for several hours, I think the video is still up on David Marlin’s page if you don’t know what I’m referring to. They say they “saved” the horse from the meat man because he was a bolter and this is the only way to “help” him, therefore its justified. They don’t see anything wrong with what they did and they will continue to do it.

Firstly, whilst I understand this is still the thinking of many horse people, I find the narrative that a horse needs to be “useful” to be allowed to stay alive really gross. As if the only two options are rideable horse or death. Those are choices humans make, there are many choices in between the two which include appropriate veterinary investigations, ethical behavioural rehab or a non-ridden life. If we’re deeming a horse healthy enough to be put through training, then clearly we think that horse is comfortable enough to live their life out in a field. I would have much more respect for people if they were just honest and said they only value horses if they can use and ride them instead of pretending what they’re doing is best for the horse.

Secondly horses with extreme behavioural issues are usually in significant pain or are traumatised, usually both, that is why they have extreme behavioural issues. The idea that these horses just need someone willing to battle through with them and then they’ll be all fixed and happy is a fantasy. What is actually happening is either the horse shuts down and complies and just internalises the extreme stress they’re under, or they damage the horse further and the horse ends up being put down anyway. Or they sell the horse on and an unsuspecting buyer ends up picking up the pieces later on.

You see the “saving horses lives” narrative a lot throughout the industry when horses are having behavioural issues, we all love a fairytale. But what are we saving those horses from? We didn’t rescue them out of a horrendous situation to give them a safe home where nothing will be asked of them anymore, we’re just giving them one final chance to be “useful” to us and patting ourselves on the back for it. I’d much prefer to see support go to wonderful places like. Irish Horse Welfare Trust who are rescuing horses from really dire circumstances and nursing them back to health whilst advocating for ethical training. I did a talk with Shelley last year which I’ll link in the comments.

I know this is the industry and I know for a lot of people they decide it is “too expensive” to keep a horse they can’t ride, but I don’t have to agree with it, that’s a sentient being with their own emotions, experiences, wants and needs, it makes me really sad. I have two horses in my field at home who are “useless”, they have happy, enriched lives and they bring me joy every day. I hope more and more people start viewing horses like this.

There are lots of things I used to do to horses, that I no longer think are ethical, because I was so deep in the belief that making a horse useful was the best thing I could do for them. I used to Bute horses and continue to ride and work them to “see if it was pain or not” because I didn’t understand pain, their bodies or behaviour. I used to get really hard on horses on the ground to make them safe to handle with no thought for why they felt the need to behave that way in the first place. I shut a lot of horses down without even realising that’s what I was doing.

I think it would be great if we could let go of the narrative that the only possible happy ending looks like the horse getting back in the ring and winning ribbons. There are lots of different happy endings, and the happiest ones from the horse’s point of view are the ones where their needs are met, they get to live with friends, forage and freedom. The riding part is just for us.

The saddest thing is if a lot of these horses were just given time to unravel and be a horse, got the right support for their bodies and then started again with their emotional state being the priority they might just be okay. Instead we're stuck in this quick fix world sending them from trainer to trainer trying to fix and calling it their last chance. We're really setting them up to fail. 🐴