It is Sunday and I am just now able to write the post that has been on my mind since Friday. It amazes me how much time some 'horse people' /  horse "trainers" seem to have to lurk on Facebook... When do the horses get ridden, stalls cleaned, hay put out, water troughs filled, horses shown to potential new homes, grooming, feeding, bedding, etc? While I was at Sugarcreek pulling  two horses last Friday (that would have otherwise gone for meat) bystanders at the sale had time to engage social media and post overheard observations I made about a nasty horse I tried. My post below was made from my phone while I sat through the auction. 

"There are good horses that end up at a kill sale through no fault of their own. There are also nasty, mean dangerous horses that are there for a VERY good reason. Forgive me for not giving them an APPLE when they act out and put me in danger when I try to give them a chance at the sale. CHC pulls good horses that DESERVE to be pulled, my comments to the dangerous horses that I was TRYING to give a chance to stem from being the one actually in the pen putting myself at risk. Not standing outside the pen making snarky posts on Facebook from the safety of the aisle." (One of the comments made in response to my post was that these people are 'keyboard cowboys' and I couldn't agree more!)  "I had a horse that I was trying today SAVAGE another horse while I was trying him. He WAS A MEAN NASTY SOB that continued to attack a mostly blind haflinger after I got off of him. I also had a big QH rear straight up into the rafters with me on him today." There are some very nasty, dangerous horses that end up at Sugarcreek!

This opened up a good discussion for awhile before it turned into a pro slaughter / anti slaughter / humane euthanasia debate. What I wanted to focus on, and what I am going to try to highlight here is this: "Too Many Good Horses End up in the Kill Pen." Time and resources are limited. Doing the most good for the greatest number of horses means choosing the horses that are safe, sane, and sound and have the best chance of going on to find a home. Guess what?? Those good horses are going for slaughter every Friday too! I am NOT going to pull a horse that is mean, nasty or dangerous.  

The observation was made on my post that many horses that end up 'nasty' are made that way by people. True enough, I do not disagree with that.  But I didn't make those horses that way and I didn't put them in that pen. 

Sarah Oates made this comment on the post from Friday. "The bottom line is we don't know what made them that way, but now that they are they are dangerous! I don't agree with slaughter, but I do agree with the fact that we can't save them all, Julie is doing a wonderful job, my favorite rescue so far and I've never met her. She tries to pick good safe sound sane horses that can be put in a home and given a chance. She can't be spending time and risking getting hurt over a horse that clearly has issues. She didn't put that horse at auction the owner did."

It's sad that any horse ends up at a sale. But it's tragic when a horse that can go on to be a successful trail partner, 4-H horse, therapy mount, or open show horse ends up in a kill pen. THOSE deserving horses are the ones that CHC pulls and gives a second chance to. Now, if one of the 'keyboard cowboys' would like to take on the biting, rearing or kicking horses that are in the kill pens I would encourage them to do so. The horrible reality is that there aredeserving horses that can't be saved due to finances or the likelihood of finding a home. 

I wish they could all be saved, since that is not realistic I will continue to focus my energy and resources on the most deserving horses that find themselves in a kill pen. That's what I do. I am not at the sale to impress anyone or tiptoe around the 'keyboard cowboys.' I am there to pull good horses and avoid getting hurt while I do it. Period.