Do you think this is cruel?
I know some people who are pretty hard-core into competing and NEVER take their horses out of their stalls unless they’re going to be training or competing. This just seems like it’s so… boring for the horse. They refuse to take their horses on trail rides because the horse “might get hurt”, even when the trail is just a flat loop!
I like to compete too (team roping, reining, polo, show jumping, dressage, eventing, and endurance riding), but I also trail-ride ALL of my show horses and they’ve never gotten hurt, never. I just don’t understand. Does this seem cruel to you, or am I just being judgemental?
I’m also on the fence. I can see the reasoning behind keeping $100,000+ horses in their stall for 22 hours a day. In fact, I’ve seen it. The dressage barn where I used to work, they had around 12 horses, nine of which were Grand Prix or Prix St. George level, 2 of whom were retired. They kept their horses in stalls all day, every day, with the exception of a 2 hour turnout every morning. Of course, they were also ridden every single day except Sunday and were obviously top level dressage horses who were worth an extraordinary amount of money. They were sometimes hacked down the road, but that was about it. Even when turned out, all the big horses were turned out separately, all in Eskadron turnout boots so they wouldn’t injure themselves. One of them, their most talented (and expensive) horse was NEVER turned out and only hand walked. They were brought back in and then all of them were in constant standing wraps. These horses were in pique physical condition with shiny coats and VERY muscled bodies.
Did I think they could have benefited from longer turnout? Absolutely. Being in the stall didn’t keep them from being injured, in fact two of the horses were injured while I worked there- one had foundered and the other had a severely bowed tendon. Both occurred from being inside. Horses are animals, no matter what kind of price tag we put on them, and they all deserve to BE horses, and that entails going outside, being with a herd, grazing, etc. Trying to ‘protect’ them by keeping them bubble wrapped, in my opinion, is not the answer.
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