# Horse left dead on Irish country road** warning- graphic images!**



## Maple (Jan 10, 2012)

Very sad  

Distressing moment travellers leave horse dead on the side of an Irish country road | Mail Online

I have many a time met sulky racers out on the road... in the last few months I met one several times on the way into work - on an incredibly busy main road, during what could be considered rush hour. 

A few years ago I was in the car with my husband when we came across somebody who was whipping the heck out of the horse and yanking it's mouth off. The horse was very clearly young, and upset along a major road with all the traffic. :evil: My husband, being more familiar with the travelling community than myself put the foot down knowing how I would react and refused to stop.


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## Hang on Fi (Sep 22, 2007)

Just warning others, don't click on the link if you cannot handle the image of a deceased and bloody horse.

As for more OT, it's sad to see what people consider a "sport."


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## Shoebox (Apr 18, 2012)

That video is awful. I was tense the whole time just waiting for one to get hit. No way I would run my horse in traffic like that!


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## Ale (May 8, 2013)

That's unreal to see the ignorance of people when it comes to the welfare of their horses, themselves and other people on the road. Sulky racing is one thing to do on a track. But out on the open road... All I can do is shake my head at those people.


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

Poor horses. Also, how can trotting so fast on pavement not ruin their legs??


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## KatieQ (Apr 4, 2011)

I don't understand- is this legal on highways in Ireland? In the video it appears there is a police car escorting them.


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## TessaMay (Jul 26, 2013)

KatieQ said:


> I don't understand- is this legal on highways in Ireland? In the video it appears there is a police car escorting them.


To me it looked more like the policy car was trying to pull them over without hitting the horse, but I don't live there so I could be wrong.


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## Shoebox (Apr 18, 2012)

KatieQ said:


> I don't understand- is this legal on highways in Ireland? In the video it appears there is a police car escorting them.


I don't think it's an escort, it looks like the officer is trying to stay in front of them and slow them down. You can see them repeatedly trying to go around the officer, or he'll block one and the other bolts ahead, etc.


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## Critter sitter (Jun 2, 2012)

Wow this is heart breaking


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## JulieG (Jun 25, 2013)

This is horrible. 

I really hope it isn't legal.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Horses have a right to be on the roads so its very difficult to control this sort of thing and by the time it gets out of hand its usually too late. Racing like that in the video is illegal - races that are organized with local authority permission to close off the roads aren't
The ISPCA (similar to the ASPCA) wants to have a ban on all road racing and restrict it to official clubs and racetracks only


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## JulieG (Jun 25, 2013)

I wonder why they prefer to do it on roads instead of racetracks.

Like Tessa mentioned, I can't imagine it's good for their legs.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

i did not watch the video, but there was a t.v. show that focused on the Travelers or Gypsy life style. It did show the sulky races down the road. They claim it is their life style and nothing is wrong with it. They even showed little kids doing this on the program. 
They did not seem to follow any laws but their own.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Gah, WTF is wrong with people?!


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

It jolts their joints AND they could slip on the pavement and break a knee. I don't have a problem with the Amish community one hour from us, but, they, too wear out their buggy horses bc all of their roads in the community are now paved. They don't race them.
*This is animal abuse here in the US. * Gaw, can't believe we get something RIGHT here, with our economy in the toilet.


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## Maple (Jan 10, 2012)

It is not legal, the gardai cars there are trying to stop the race. The gardai are, for lack of a better description, afraid to do anything to the travelling community. Unfortunately the travelling community have a really bad name, and are not readily accepted by most of the country. The majority of people are more or less afraid of them.

Julie - they don't race on tracks because there are (often) dodgy dealings going on behind these races. Unregistered gambling, using pain masking drugs, ect. A lot of these races are for bragging rights more so than anything else. 

The ISPCA and the IHWT do their best to try and cull these events, but for the most part it is "advertised" through word of mouth among the community. We have a halting site in a town close to us, and there are horses who are not in the best of condition in the field beside it. Is anybody willing to go in to check them out? Not a hope. They are far too concerned about their own safety.


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## goneriding (Jun 6, 2011)

Human selfishness...they don't truly care about the animals.


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## CandyCanes (Jul 1, 2013)

Yeh... It's horrible  I see them doing it all the time here in Ireland. It's hideous, but do they care? Of course not ;(


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## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

Shoebox said:


> I don't think it's an escort, it looks like the officer is trying to stay in front of them and slow them down. You can see them repeatedly trying to go around the officer, or he'll block one and the other bolts ahead, etc.


 That's what I thought but then the officer disappeared in the video.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Maples correct. These people are a law unto themselves and not the sort anyone wants to cross. 
Its not that long ago that a group of them tried to drive a horse and cart through a deep lake in the UK for a bet, the poor thing drowned and they ran off and left it. A bystander tried to rescue it and got injured in the process.


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## MissingStar (Feb 20, 2013)

Years ago, we had Gypsies illegally move some animals onto land next to my horses. One poor beast had what looked like a broken shoulder as the leg was useless and it's body condition was extremely poor. Long story short, I told them I was going to call out the RSPCA if they didn't get a vet out asap to put the poor beast down. They told me that if I did, they would cut the throats of my horses and let them bleed to death. I walked away petrified, didn't know what to do next. The injured animal disappeared hours later, I hope my intervention helped bring it's suffering to an end but I guess I'll never know. I have witnessed much horse abuse at the hands of Gypsies, the authorities always seem reluctant to intervene.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

I was not impressed by the Gypsies I saw while in Ireland for any reason, and certainly not their horsemanship. They sure seem to abuse the laws there and nothing is done. They've figured out every angle it seems.


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## Roadside Rose (Oct 9, 2013)

Not all gypsies are the same, and iv just rescued a horse off a gypsy! Seriously though there are some good gypsy horsemen around, and gypsys race on roads because people in the uk and ireland generally dont like them, gypsies are not allowed to race on tracks generally
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## MissingStar (Feb 20, 2013)

Roadside Rose, people in the UK and Ireland don't generally like Gypsies BECAUSE so many of them engage in illegal activities such as road racing. Gypsies have a long history of horse breeding and dealing, many are extremely knowledgeable horsemen. However, all too often their horse training and animal husbandry practices leave much to be desired and unfortunately fall into what most of us on this Forum would call "abuse". 

I, too, have a Gypsy pony rescue. Also, I worked as a RSPSA volunteer for many years and helped rescue a number of Gypsy horses, rounded up from running feral on housing estates or tethered without food and water on grassless verges.

I live close to the site of an annual Gypsy horse fair. Take a walk behind the scenes, it's not for the faint of heart. Aside from the horses, there will be dozens of litters of puppies for sale in tiny cages, most too young to be away from their mothers, some barely have their eyes open - it is against the law in this country to sell puppies in this manner. Oh, and don't forget the fighting cocks, also freely available if you knock on the right caravan door . . .

One of my own dogs was originally a Gypsy's poaching greyhound (hmm, "poaching", another unlawful activity). When they broke camp, where they had been staying without the land owner's permission (naturally), they left him behind to starve to death. He had a severe leg injury and was of no further use to them.

Sorry but I am tired of Gypsies complaining that their bad reputation is undeserved. As soon as they start treating their animals with respect, stop behaving as if they are above the law, earn their money by entirely legal means and pay their taxes, maybe I'll reconsider.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I agree with MissingStar. I have known some really great gypsies and bought ponies off them in confidence over the years but sadly there are some really awful ones who give the rest a bad name. They need to put their own house in order and then they might get better thought of
I had a small terrier that was left tied to a bench in freezing cold weather after they moved on - presumably because she didn't serve whatever purpose they wanted her for - but if I hadn't been riding that way and seen her she would most likely have died of starvation as it wasn't a well used area in the winter. The man I worked for back then had a young lurcher that was left wandering in the same way - I guess they couldn't catch it as it took us a week to tempt it into a shed with a bowl of food it was terrified of people but so hungry it gave in. She never did learn to trust strangers.


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## Roadside Rose (Oct 9, 2013)

All I meant is that its not right to tar them all with the same brush, I run an animal sanctuary and only one horse was rescued from gypsies the other 11 came from people who you think would be respectable my clydesdale came to us as a bag of bones, the problem isnt gypsies it people who dont know or dont care about these animals welfare, and I dont agree with Appleby or Kenilworth but I also dont agree with dressage trainers starving hundred's of horse's to death either, just dont think its fair to say all gypsies are bad people
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## MissingStar (Feb 20, 2013)

Roadside Rose, I completely agree that it isn't fair to say all Gypsies are bad people. With that in mind, rather than making judgments on the heresay of others, I much prefer to speak as I find. Unfortunately, after 30+ years of dealings with Gypsies I have witnessed disproportionately more bad than good in comparison to the general population. This is my personal experience.

Those individuals who fully comply with the final sentence of my above post from earlier today, have my utmost respect. Maybe I mix with the wrong crowd, but I've found them to be somewhat thin on the ground.


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## Maple (Jan 10, 2012)

When I first came to Ireland, I was warned of the travelers. I told the Irish people I came to work for that "surely they cant ALL be bad". Unfortunately in my years here, I have yet to come across any that I would want to socialize with again. Saying this - the poor horses I see tethered in and on the outskirts of Dublin are possibly worse off than those with the travelling community. 

It's a shame that there is such a stigma about them, but they don't seem to have done themselves many favours to move away from it.


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## MissingStar (Feb 20, 2013)

Maple, it has been my experience that the horses tethered on the outskirts of towns and cities tend to belong to the "settled" travellers, or are being cared for by relatives of absent travellers. I have an album full of pictures taken of these tethering practices but I don't think Forum rules will allow me to share.


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