Natural VS Unnatural

This is Just My Opinion, but I have to say something about an issue that has been bugging the hell out of me lately that has to do with horse's tails.

Not just their tails, but that's a big part of it. Really, horse shoes are not the only unnatural thing we do to our horses. I get so frustrated when I see all the other things we do to them, such as forcing them to stand in urine soaked stalls for as many hours as most natural horses are out snooping around for blades of grass, playing with each other, nipping and kicking and playing dominance games. Just plain keeping their minds occupied.

But why stop there? Why not bundle them up in blankets meant for arctic climates. Those horses just look pathetically HOT to me. A stalled horse can stay plenty warm without added protection. In fact, horses like to be on the cool side. It’s unnatural for a horse to be warm in the winter like we humans think their horses want to be.

Have you noticed how miserable horses look on a hot summer day compared to a cold snowy day? My horses love to romp in the snow. (Of course they’re unshod so they can romp in the snow without killing themselves.) They are not stalled and they rarely wear blankets. I have to admit, they get a little sick of all the rain though. Me too.

So it’s not enough that we keep our horses in warm and often dirty blankets and standing in stalls for 17 hours a day, but we find it necessary to bag their tails. What the heck is that about? Again, I see natural horses with lovely tails that are rarely brushed out! Unless another horse is chewing on a tail, it will comb out shiny and full when we need it to, without all those broken hairs you see on bagged tails.

But let’s not stop with the braids and the bags! Why not stuff the tail bag with something heavy. Whoever started that practice is a real lunkhead. Nowadays, a flip of their tail could mean a concussion!

Or false tails! Can’t people tell that horses hate to have stuff hanging from their tails? They use their tails for balance and swatting flies and soothing their foals, or other horses, by swishing their tails against each other.

I see videos on Youtube of horses being worked in round pens and it appears to me they are running away from all the crazy crap hanging from their butts. It’s unnatural!

I could go on an on about the stupid stuff we do to our horses. The short list is:

Branding
Shoeing
Bagging tails
Docking tails
Nerving tails
(We do a lot of unnatural stuff to their tails. It’s so bizarre.)
Soring pasterns
Weighting pasterns
All the stuff we do to show horses
Cutting check ligaments
Etc etc etc

Yes, I know simply saddling, bridling and riding horses is just as unnatural to them as anything else we do, but since they allow us to enjoy them in that way, why do we put them through all this additional crap?

JMO