# Horse riding is cruelty??? What...



## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

pinkbow said:


> I watched a documentary that had all these reasons why riding a horse is cruelty to the horse because it hurts the horses back ect, also that bits are cruelty as well... The bits thing is already controversial, but riding a horse is abuse?
> 
> I was kind of annoyed by this documentary, and how it claimed to be a real natural horsemen you don't ride the horses back....
> What????
> ...


In every school of thought there are zealots. I don't consider riding a horse, bitted or not, to be cruel. It's why they were put here, to work for us. The partnering and bonding we do with them, the we've discovered we can have with them are wonderful bonuses and make us appreciate them all the more but to anthropomorphize (humanize) any animal is not healthy.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

Riding them seems to make my horses more muscular. I'm thinking of charging them gym fees for my personal trainer time with them...


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

The horses I ride love being ridden. They seem to feel like they're important, that they have a purpose - a job. They get excited and eager when they see me bring the saddle. They nicker and whinny when they see me and come up to me. If being ridden were such a horrible thing, I don't think they'd do that. Horses form bonds with their humans. They like being with us, and they like going on rides and getting out and using their brains and bodies. Just make sure you have a civilized bit, responsive hands, and a well-fitting saddle, and no horse will complain of its fate.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Don't believe everything you see on television or the internet. My horse could've made that up and had someone get it to air for him, he's sneaky that way....especially if somewhere in that documentary they said give horses lots of those yummy cookies and throw away your riding gear!


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## WSArabians (Apr 14, 2008)

I tend to associate those type of NH'ers to the type of religious people that will cram a bible down your throat because the world is ending. IE/ Crazy.:wink:


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## xlionesss (Jan 30, 2012)

My horses are my partners. If I was cruel I wouldn't pay 500 some dollars a month for them to be spoiled with ample turn-out, smartpaks, brand name grain, tack that I make sure properly fits them to prevent soreness, farrier visits, teeth floats, etc etc...the list goes on and on.

NOT TO MENTION NEAR $4,000 IN SURGERY TO PROVIDE MY HORSE WITH A COMFORTABLE LIFE PAIN FREE **** IT 

yes...I'm extremely cruel. I take care of them better than I do myself!


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

It was probably done by PITA. Oops I meant PETA. Pretty much the same.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## flytobecat (Mar 28, 2010)

Horses as they are today (even mustangs) are a domesticated animal which means they've been bred to meet a specific human need. Why wouldn't you use them for their intended purpose. Keeping a horse working and interacting with people is one of the best things you can do for them. Not only does it keep their body and mind in shape, it keeps them productive and useful. How many spoiled unhandled pastured ponies have ended up at slaughter because no one wants to deal with their behavior now that their 1000 lbs.
People who believe this way don't live in the real world.


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## toto (Mar 3, 2013)

Well if riding is cruel so is keeping one fenced in against their own will and making them eat what you want them to- when you want- and dictating their lives-- if you believe that then owning a horse is cruel too- right?


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## CandyCanes (Jul 1, 2013)

*sigh* 
I've never respected peoples opinions of 'Oh riding horses is terribly cruel'!
Fact number 1: Horses don't know any better... You can't want what you don't know. 

Fact number 2: Horses weigh a TONNE and could pummel us if they felt like it. I mean, we could be living in fear, because every time we try to mount a horse it rears, kicks, bites, barges etc. 

Fact number 3: Look at the horses ears while you are riding... They are generally swiveling around, listening, or pricked forward. Hardly ever flat back. If they are flat back it usually means they are in pain, or maybe they saw another horse they don't like... Or on rare occasions, they don't like being ridden. 

Continuing on from what I just said, this documentary simply took one side of the story: The horses who don't like being ridden. I can tell you, there aren't many of them....Horses like to have a purpose  
So they simply took some of those horses, filmed them being ridden and said 'Look, it doesn't like it, so that means every horse in the world hates being ridden, no exceptions'.


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## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

Was it a documentary called "The Path of the Horse?"

If so, you have to take it as a narrative about the filmmaker's personal journey, from feeling unhappy in the hunter/jumper world to finding a way to be with horses that was fulfilling for her. I would not view it as an "objective" (if such a thing exists in the first place) presentations of facts. She gave us a particular construction riding and was very selective of the images she showed. Pictures or videos of horses happily doing their jobs were not a part of that narrative.

As far the studies done by Alexander Nevzorov showing that saddles and bits cause pain are concerned, he's a guy who would have had an agenda before going about collecting data, so I would take that bit of science with a grain of salt.


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## Lopin N Paint (May 30, 2012)

I hate going to work everyday too... Yet I'm doing it on my own free will.


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## AnrewPL (Jun 3, 2012)

There’s a number of problems with that kind of attitude. Firstly, the people who talk about horses like that, or other animals, especially domesticated animals, not to mention the “natural environment” have a completely unrealistic understanding, or probably more correctly, a complete misunderstanding of what nature is and the place of humans in it is. This can be summed up by a quote from an anthropologist Dawn Chatty that I found a few weeks ago:


“The common western, urban notion of wilderness as untouched or untamed land has pervaded conservation thinking. Many policies are based on the assumption that such areas can only be maintained without people. They do not recognise the importance of local management and land-use pra...ctices in sustaining and protecting biodiversity. Nearly every part of the world has been inhabited and modified by people (Pimbert and Pretty 1995). In East Africa, for example, the rich Serengeti grassland ecosystem was, in part, maintained by the presence of the Maasai and their cattle (Adams and McShane 1992). There is good evidence from many parts of the world that local people do value, utilise and efficiently manage their environments (Naban et al. 1991, Oldfield and Alcorn 1991, Abin 1998, Novellino 1998), as they have done for millennia. These findings suggest, in complete reversal of recent conservation philosophy, that it is when local or indigenous people are excluded that degradation is more likely to occur: ‘It suggests that the mythical pristine environment exists only in our imagination’ (Pimbert and Pretty 1995:3)”.


In other words the these people have a western, urban, out dated and mistaken view of the world and nature, and people; mistaken because it does not stand scrutiny once it is subjected to actual analyses. When this kind of thinking is applied to horses, or other domesticated animals, these dip****s are too stupid to understand that horses are not wild animals, they are only horses precisely because they were bred by people through thousands of years and are are a part of humanity, just as much as humans are part of the horse's world. This also, incidentally, shows all the “natural horsemanship is stupid because nothing we do with horses is natural” rubbish to be precisely that, rubbish. Going further, even if they were wild animals, as opposed to domesticated animals, this attitude would still be in error because it relies on the idea that humans are not part of the natural world, which we are, and always have been. Yet these ninnies preach this crap and they try to force it on everyone else by claiming to have some moral high ground because they “really care for the horseis”; if you disagree with them then you are obviously an abusive savage and not as civilised as them. They simply put forth nothing more than an ideological position and try to bully everyone else into believing it through emotional blackmail.


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## Boo Walker (Jul 25, 2012)

It sounds like from your post that your gut was already telling you the answer to your question. Trust your self, it will become your most valuable tool in life!


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## pinkbow (Jun 24, 2013)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> In every school of thought there are zealots. I don't consider riding a horse, bitted or not, to be cruel. It's why they were put here, to work for us. The partnering and bonding we do with them, the we've discovered we can have with them are wonderful bonuses and make us appreciate them all the more but to anthropomorphize (humanize) any animal is not healthy.


Thank you.. Exactly what I was thinking. I couldn't believe that this documentary was going to try to persuade people that riding horses is cruelty to the horses' backs- that's what horses have done for centuries! What's even worse is that people were believing it and furthermore deciding not to ride their horses anymore.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

pinkbow said:


> Thank you.. Exactly what I was thinking. I couldn't believe that this documentary was going to try to persuade people that riding horses is cruelty to the horses' backs- that's what horses have done for centuries! What's even worse is that people were believing it and furthermore deciding not to ride their horses anymore.


In addition to the zealots there are always those who are content to let someone else do the thinking for them and are easily led. Those are the ones I find the most frightening, no though process, no originality and they're just......sheeple. Frightening!

Keep on thinking and questioning, it's good for your brain.


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## Rena (Jul 8, 2013)

If I go away for 2 weeks and don't ride my horse, she is thrilled to be ridden again. Honestly, Any horse I've ever seen that doesn't have a job is miserable and looking for a purpose, just like if people don't have a purpose. From my experience (Although they may not want to work as hard as we can make them, ha ha!) they love having a job to do and pleasing their owners. 

I wouldn't listen to those people,each to their own, as long as no one tries to keep me from getting on my horse! haha


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## ApolloRider (Feb 14, 2013)

I don't think its cruelty... 
Apollo is nowhere near being completely trained, and he absolutely loves being ridden. After our ground work he literally will kind of invite up by standing next to the mounting block and stares at me. Haha


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## WSArabians (Apr 14, 2008)




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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

If it is cruel...then what do they expect to do with all the horses turned loose from lives of being ridden...shoot them?

Sure sound kinder to me.


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## pinkbow (Jun 24, 2013)

Palomine said:


> If it is cruel...then what do they expect to do with all the horses turned loose from lives of being ridden...shoot them?
> 
> Sure sound kinder to me.


The documentary basically said horses should be pets not work animals... That they should be able to "express themselves not controlled." 
It just showed people walking around with horses teaching them tricks.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

I was also rather unconvinced by the argument that having the horse in an indoor arena or a pen with 6' high panels and repeatedly asking the horse to rear is less dominating than riding.


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## PinkStella (Feb 1, 2013)

Certainly there are people who are cruel to animals of all sorts - horses, dogs, other humans. I don't like going to work every day, but if I stayed home without any purpose, I'd get bored, start feeling useless, and eat cookies until I was 300 pounds. If I lived in a hunter-gatherer society, where most of my day was dedicated to my physical survival, different story. 

If my horse hated being ridden, I don't believe he would come to me when I called his name, walk willingly from the pasture to the barn, willingly accept his tack, and happily ride me about. He is much bigger and stronger than I am. I like to think I am marginally smarter than he is, but if he didn't want to be caught, he wouldn't be. If he didn't want to be in the cross ties and be tacked up, he wouldn't be. If he didn't want to be ridden, he certainly has the ability to buck me off and head for a life of freedom :lol:

I believe it is a good thing to contemplate our relationships with other creatures, though. It's important to sometimes step back and consider if we are being good stewards of life's treasures, including horses.


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## Maryland Rider (Jul 2, 2013)

Horses being a prey animal will always show us some sign of flight when insecure or spooked.
If we provide good leadership that insecurity or spook is greatly minimized by us - the rider.

That being said there have been 3 incidents during my time in the saddle that my horse got away from me.
One such time comes to mind, we encouted a bridge while I was leading, my wifes horse would not cross.
I road back and forth over the bridge, her horse would not cross.
We dismounted and tried leading both over the bridge, my horse pulled and I lost hold.
He ran off say 300' and everyone came unglued, I said let him go.
Minimal coaxing got her horse over the bridge and my wife got back on.
My horse is now standing beside me looking at me as though you're supposed to be on my back.

Pretty good sign that he expects me to lead him on the ride.
If he didn't want me there he could have ran on for sure.

I'm just sayin'


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## pinkbow (Jun 24, 2013)

It said that riding is painful to a horses back... That the pain is equivalent to one of our legs falling asleep and then trying to stand on it
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Fort fireman (Mar 5, 2011)

If junk ill fitting tack is used then yes it can hurt the horses back and be cruel. If a person chooses to not do anything about the poor fitting tack yes they are cruel. However most people I know go out of their way to make sure that never happens. 
Horse back riding is not cruel, some people that ride horses are. Bits are not cruel, some hands are. Saddles are not cruel, poor fitting saddles and junk saddles are. IMHO

Just my experience, if I don't ride my horse he ends up standing at the gate and knickers every time he sees me and paws at the gate. When I ride he is much happier.


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## phoquess (May 30, 2013)

If we didn't USE horses then we wouldn't keep them around. So look at wild Przwalski's horses and feral mustangs, and then tell me that feeding my horse regularly and amply, taking care of his health, keeping him away from predators, etc. is not a good trade off for the work he gets put in (which he doesn't hate). :/ In my mind that's a good trade off.


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## pinkbow (Jun 24, 2013)

yeah I thought the documentary was completely stupid and overrated. just wanted to see what others thought 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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