It's past time to end the "pony envy"

[Zorra]

163. Wow. What a nasty, uncalled for post and horrible misdirected personal attack.

I’m writing this from the dining room table of the ranch house on the small ranch in Northern Arizona where I work. I made my other post from here this morning. There are at least 5 horses buried within a hundred yards of this house. I managed this ranch at one time. I buried two of those horses. They all got old and sick. We had to put them down. That's what we do out here in the rural west. When horses get old and sick, and are in terrible misery, we put them down.

I hope you will do the same for your friend, and that you won't let your old mare just suffer until she dies when that time inevitably comes. That would be cruel.

There are 5 horses in stalls about 75 yards from where I am right now. There is a tack room full of tack, and a barn room full of hay. Three of these horses are old nags we keep for disabled folks to ride, as a calming therapy. This is part of what I do for a living now. There are probably at least 100 horses within a square mile radius of where I sit right now.

I like horses. I don’t much like to ride them. I don't keep them for pets. They are herd animals. From my experience with them, it appears to me that most of them really seriously don’t much like people sitting on them and forcing them to do what they force them to do. Doesn't look like fun to me.

Like I said, I like horses. They are good friends. I hate to see them penned in. If I could, I'd let them all run free. I never had "pony envy", no romantic dreams of owning horses. They are and were a practical reality for me. I actually feel kind of mean every time I cinch a saddle and climb on a horse to ride. Some people say horses like to be ridden.

But the horses tell me that they don't.

Really? Just find a sucker to take your old dog or cat when you're sick of them OR just shoot them? Is that what you d to your old pets? I'd really hate to fucking be you.

For fuck's sake!

That's a really horrible, nasty shitty thing to say to me. I love animals. I don't mistreat animals. My statement, "gentle older horse, free to good home, you haul" was made because of the manynotes I have seen on bulletin boards at general stores and minimarts, and the many ads in local ad papers, that said this exact thing, over the course of my lifetime. People giving their lame, old, nearly dead horses away, because they can't ride them anymore and don't want to pay for their care, to someone who doesn't know anything about horses, and thinks they'll be able to ride the poor old nag.

I've lived almost my entire life in the rural west. I've known some ranchers and ranch hands, a few rodeo riders, and other folks who actually work with horses for a living, and I don't mean slowly riding them around in circles in a ring.

People out here joke about horses all the time. Old timers sometimes call them shitters.

I'm sorry that you totally did not understand where I was coming from. I think we come from very different worlds.