Attention Horse & Pony Owners!

[Myrshine]

Last but not least, Coco! Coco is around 14-16 year old small horse that still has a LOT of energy. She had a foal that was taken from her and dumped at a kill lot in Arkansas. We don't know much of her past either, besides being a trail pony for large large people. We assume she was dumped at a kill lot because of her chronically injured knee, which then was diagnosed as Osteoarthritis. She also has diabetes as well as cushings. For having Osteoarthritis, she gets around great and loves to pick on everyone bigger than her, showing them whose the boss lol!

 

[Laura_BelgianBantams_63]

I found a one! This is me on Leo. After doing dressage

 

[Dawnwolf1234]

I found a one! This is me on Leo. After doing dressage View attachment 2513900

He is so pretty! I love gray horses like that. I actually tried a horse out that looked a lot like him but unfortunately didn’t keep him. I’ll show you a picture

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

I found a one! This is me on Leo. After doing dressage View attachment 2513900

Awww he is so pretty
I used to have two grey ponies their names were max and Tilly

 

[Laura_BelgianBantams_63]

Awww he is so pretty
I used to have two grey ponies their names were max and Tilly

Ty

 

[BennieAnTheJets]

We have 4 horses, 2 ponies and a donkey! Is this still going on? I'd love to share some photos of them! All but 2 were kill pen rescues

How do you get kill pen horses? Are there kill pens in every state?

 

[Myrshine]

How do you get kill pen horses? Are there kill pens in every state?

Probably not in every state, we got most of ours from Louisiana kill pens or Texas kill pens. Sometimes Arkansas or Wisconsin

 

[Dawnwolf1234]

Probably not in every state, we got most of ours from Louisiana kill pens or Texas kill pens. Sometimes Arkansas or Wisconsin

Yeah I live in Washington and there are kill pens.

 

[littledog]

How do you get kill pen horses? Are there kill pens in every state?

I don't know if they exist in every state, but I know they exist in our state (WA) and pretty much in every state where there is a livestock auction that sells horses. If you go to an auction and see several horses going to the same buyer for very low prices, it's probably a kill buyer. Especially if the horses are unregistered, untrained, not gelded.

A bit of recent history about kill buying, for whoever's interested:

In 2005 it became illegal to slaughter horses for food in the USA, which was a good first step, but part of what the new law did was encourage kill buyers (people who buy horses for the purpose of turning them into food) to buy enough unwanted horses for cheap prices from auctions to fill their big trailer, and then haul them to Canada or Mexico, where it's still legal to slaughter horses for food.

It ended up being even more cruel, in effect, since the poor horses were not only going to slaughter, but had to suffer a long 1000-mile or more ride, crammed in a trailer with other stressed horses, sometimes with no food or water.

The whole situation got way worse after the "Great Recession" of 2008. So many people lost their jobs, land, and homes due to foreclosure, that there was a huge increase of people who could no longer afford to care for or feed their horses - what harmed horse owners even more, was that trade policies at that time made it more profitable for hay producers to ship their hay overseas, so hay prices increased by 50-100% at the same time as all the land foreclosures were going on.

Kill buyers had a profitable hay-day - they paid around 20 cents per pound at the auction, then only had to pay whatever gas it took to haul a trailer crammed full of poor tortured horses to Mexico, and reaped $3.00 per pound meat prices.

Still, most of them were willing to sell the horses from out of their kill pens if they could still make a profit. A 1000-lb horse they paid $200 for at the auction, they were happy to sell to some horse-loving person or rescue organization for $500, and save the gas money to transport them to a Mexican or Canadian slaughter plant.

Lots of horse loving people got together in groups to post auction horses all over social media, in hopes of finding homes for as many as possible, or collecting funds to buy them from the kill buyers and euthanize the ones who weren't healthy and wouldn't survive a long trip to slaughter (not that any deserve that.)

it still makes me so sad and mad when I think about what went on - it still happens, though not as extensively as it did then. No horse deserves to be treated like that - no animal does at all, in fact.

My beloved mare Fiona barely escaped from that fate!

She was bought by a trainer friend of mine in 2010 out of the kill pen from an auction kill buyer, who bought her for I don't know how much, but it was the current meat price at that time. Fiona is an OTTB who raced once and came in last because she "showed no interest" in winning. She is sensitive and a bit too forward for my friend's lesson program, but she LOVES jumping, is talented at jumping, and is so sweet and affectionate on the ground, she's perfect for me.

What I need to say to anybody looking to sell a horse: DON'T be a backyard breeder! Unless your home-bred colts and fillies will be sold already trained for certain types of work, they need to be well-bred and registered. DO NOT send them to your local auction unregistered and untrained! You're pretty much selling them for slaughter, which pretty much destroys your reputation as a breeder.
If you're falling on hard times and have to send your horse to auction, please, at least put a reserve price on your horse that's more than the current slaughter price per pound.

And if you're looking to buy a horse, check around at your local rescue organizations first. They may have just what you're looking for, for way less than what you might expect to spend.

 

[Kusanar]

I may be interested as long as it's in the summer... I have 3 pintos (an overo, a tobiano, and a maximum expression sabino with no dark on him) plus my mini who looks like a shag carpet decided to get up and walk around the field... As you can imagine, none are anywhere close to fit to have their pictures taken anytime soon!

How strict will the rules be? For example, would a walking horse be ok in a rope halter or would he need to be in a curb bridle? My stallion would probably go best as a hunter type other than his knee length mane which I am NOT cutting but the walker gelding is clearly a saddle horse.

Would the handler need to be in show attire or would jeans and a t-shirt be ok?