ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: Free Horse

Re: Free Horse

Susan Evans Garlinghouse (suendavid@worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 23 Dec 1997 12:05:30 -0800

Keeping in mind that death is very
> cruel and a very unreasonable solution to a situation that you obvioulsy
> cannot handle.

This is just an idle observation, but sometimes I think death is not
only not cruel or unreasonable, but a kindness to a horse. Since it is
unacceptable that this filly continue to run rampant, terrorizing and
endangering other people and horses, something must be done with her.
If Trish and/or her owner cannot find an extremely experienced trainer
that knows EXACTLY how to handle this sort of aggression (and they don't
exactly grow on trees), this horse WILL eventually badly injure or even
kill someone. It's far more common for kind-hearted but only
semi-experienced people (and I'm not making judgement calls on anyone)
to jump to the conclusion that just love, patience and handling is all
it takes, find out it doesn't always work that way, shuffle the problem
off to someone else, and someone else and so on, until the horse ends up
at the killers anyway, very often after neglect, abuse, injuries left
untreated because she couldn't be handled, whatever. It happens all the
time, and not just in horses---that's why the pounds are full of biting,
barking, unhousebroken animals. If the horse is going to end up dead,
better a quick and kind injection in familiar surroundings than
submitting her to months of who knows what before she gets a
sledgehammer between the eyes.

I think Trish is going far beyond the call of duty to have even suffered
such a dangerous horse at her place, let alone try to find a new owner
for her. It's a hard job and not a pleasant one and the odds are
against finding someone who really does know how to get past this kind
of behavior. Trish deserves applause and support for even trying, not
assumptions that she doesn't know a dangerous horse when she sees one.

Trish, best of luck to you, you have an uphill battle. I hope
everything works out for the filly.

Susan Garlinghouse

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