After sitting down to watch the first in a two-part series last night, my mind is awash with thoughts & feelings, mainly of disgust. We experience disgust when something is truly abhorrent to us & the footage was truly stomach churning.

As a horse lover I do the very best I can to provide for my horses, to ensure their safety, happiness & wellbeing. I lose sleep when one of them is unwell or unhappy in some way.

Horses are sentient beings meaning they have excellent powers of perception & feeling. To see horses standing side by side with horses that were sick & dying & some already dead made me shiver, how scared must those horses have felt? How uncertain they must have been as to what would befall them next. 

As my grandmother would say ‘animals have great nature’, but in this instance those who were entrusted to care for them in their final days & moments had none.

Systemic Failure 

The findings of this documentary highlight systemic failure from those involved in passport licensing to departments of agriculture protocol to food safety regulations across many jurisdictions. The upholding of equine dignity should have many lines of defence, on this occasion there appeared to be little to no lines of defences.

Nothing New

In many ways part 1 of this documentary did not shock me, disgust me yes, but shock, unfortunately not.

Those of us in the equine industry hear the rumblings & supposed urban (or rural in our case) myths that are actually not so mythical or fictitious. We know abuse, malpractice & dodgy dealings take place daily, but the documentary exposed it in plain sight, we know for sure now.

A Dignified End

Last year an elderly horse in my yard needed to be put to sleep, he was owned by a dear friend & we planned it all out down to the smallest of details. 

The only way we could be certain he was treated with dignity & respect at the end of his life was to have the procedure carried out at home. He was surrounded by those that loved him in a place that was familiar to him, in a place that he called home. 

It was difficult, but uneventful & most importantly peaceful. 

Last night watching ‘Horses – Making a Killing’ I felt at least I could rest easy knowing that the lovely horse in my own yard exited life with dignity & ease.

What Next?

Regulation, education & financial provision. 

Regulations are often laborious to navigate, we all know that, but I’m willing to go along with it if it prevents the scenes that I viewed last night.

Red tape may be needed by the lorry load in this instance.

Education – people need to educated about animal welfare, the depth of feeling animals experience & how to handle horses appropriately. It might seem obvious to many of us, but there are certainly those that need to reminded of the rights of horses’ on a regular basis. You can’t work on a building site without a Safe Pass qualification, something similar should be in place for those employed in the equine industry.

Financial Provision needs to be put in place to ensure dignified retirement & end of life care for all horses. This is an issue in all sectors of the equine industry, but the thoroughbred racing sector is a good place to start. In other countries such as Australia a certain percentage of the winning point is assigned to post racing care & provision. A robust package of care is not a luxury it’s a necessity.

Social Licence to Operate 

We are hanging by a thread on this one, if we want general societal acceptance to ride & care for horses we need serious reform or in 10 years time we will have a very different landscape in the equine industry. Social licence to operate is not static it’s ever changing.

Knowing Better 

We now know what’s going on so we need to push for reform & fast. 

We all have a voice, our horses’ do not, let us be their’s.