Our First Horse

Funny title, not a funny subject. We recently received the following note here at Our First Horse:

“My sister lives in Cumberland City and recently found four horses left on her property. She is not familiar with the horses and does not recognize them as any of her neighbors’ horses. They appear to be in relatively good health with a few minor wounds and they haven’t been groomed in a long time. No one has come to look for them they have been there for four days now.”

The writer was looking for information on how to find the owner or legally keep the horses. I’m not really sure about either one but the situation brings up a timely subject: how horses are faring these days, with the current economic climate and the ban on slaughter. I have to say, things are not looking good.

In addition to the above letter, I personally know of two cases locally of abandoned horses. The first one is that of a neighbor of the vet clinic where I work. A woman called to ask us to post a notice on our board – like the writer above’s sister, she had found a horse on her property and had been unable to identify an owner. The consensus around our office, staff and visitor alike, was that the owner intentionally “lost” the horse. The second case supports that theory. One of our clients, who has cattle but not horses, brought a horse trailer to a stock auction to haul equipment home. He was inside for a while and when he came back out to his trailer, he found two horses inside with a note saying something along the lines of, “I can’t feed my horses – please take care of them.” They were thin, but otherwise in good condition. So sad.

I’m sure there are many more stories like this, here and everywhere else. I know Bill has written before about the horses being abandoned in the Arizona desert. It seems to us that things will get worse before they get better. We are blessed here in East Tennessee with a good hay crop this summer, so we’ve been able to get hay this year for decent prices. Others are not so lucky. Also, while hay was cheap and plentiful for us, everything else is going way up. We are literally paying twice as much for oats as we were a year ago. We’re fortunate to be able to absorb the extra costs, so far, but we know that there are a lot of people out there who can’t do so, at least not for long. We’re concerned about what will happen to those horses.

Just another reason to hope that things will get better very soon.

Bill found this story on FOXNews.com, and I found a direct link to their blog: Uncovering America by Horseback.

Bill Inman and his Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse, Blackie, are traveling across America to prove that America is still a good place, despite what you see on the news every day. As their blog says, “To ‘Uncover America’ and document the adventure, horseman Bill Inman is traveling across America on horseback, slowing down the pace to find interesting places, individuals, groups and history that inspire pride or lift the spirit. This adventure will show the American public that we do have something to be proud of, and nothing is impossible as long as you try.”

They left their home in Lebanon, Oregon on June 2, 2007 and hope to end up in Hendersonville, North Carolina by Christmas. I hope you’ll read their blog, and the story where we originally found it at FOXNews.com. I also hope you’ll consider clicking on the “Support” button on the Inmans’ blog, because this is definitely a venture worth supporting.

We’ve spent all morning trying to figure out how we can just pack up our horses and join Bill and Blackie, but it looks like we’ll just have to experience it through their blog. 🙁 Stupid jobs – always keeping you from doing the things you really want to do.

A horse owner in Arizona regularly fields calls from concerned drivers over what appear to be dead horses in his pasture. Although this wasn’t always the case, a population boom now locates his pasture smack in the middle of the city and all these city folk aren’t familiar with seeing resting horses. If you’ve ever seen a colt resting/sleeping, you know it looks a lot like a dead horse, all sprawled out and still. Bob Eggers rescues, raises and sells horses so there is a sign on his fence with his phone number on it. Apparently he also gets complaints about abused or malnourished horses, too. Since he rescues abused horses, they often look poor when he first gets them, causing concerned drivers to call the Arizona Department of Agriculture. The State responds to every complaint but has never found abuse or neglect.

Although we once lived two miles from this particular pasture, we know live in rural Tennessee. Many of our friends and neighbors have horses here but that isn’t the case in suburban Arizona. As the city expands its reach into rural areas, the impact goes far beyond inconvenient complaint calls from well-meaning city folk. People complain about the dust horses kick up, the smell of manure, the flies, etc. Kinda like moving next to an airport and then complaining about airplane noise. And then all the land is developed so horse owners need to trailer their horses to the horse trails. It’s sad to see.

A friend of mine sent me a link to the Arizona Republic article for this story (click the link for the original article).