Do Horses Have “Rights”?

Thinking about equine welfare – the ‘Freedoms’ that horses deserve stated in the last post – lead me to wondering if people believe that horses have ‘rights.’ ie. the right to be treated humanely?  

Dictionary.com defines humane as characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed. Of course, it’s we humans who’ve defined what is humane and we can color outside the lines if it suits us.

But what’s the horses’ perspective
on what treatment is humane?

My mare recently let me know how distressing it is to a mare when her foal is abruptly taken from her – the memory still remains with her some 25+ years later. Horses are social animals and in the wild family structure is very important. Mares instinctively know how to care for their young and weaning their foals, at around 8 to 9 months of age, is not stressful. But when this natural order is broken by harsh weaning methods in captivity, typically at 4-6 months, it stresses both mare and foal.

Of course man’s treatment of horses is often driven by the need for fast results, economics or greed and he’ll do whatever is needed produce the results he wants regardless of the horses’ welfare.

Methods of handling horses have evolved over the years. There was a time when the widespread belief was that a horse had to be ‘broken’ and dominated. People eventually saw the light and realized there was a better way and ‘gentling’ became widespread. And there’s a better way to wean foals. It reduces the risk of mastitis in the mare and reunites her with her foal, in 6 – 8 weeks, to continue the social bonding so important to horses. Called ‘progressive weaning’ it’s described in a Natural Horse World article https://naturalhorseworld.com/new-ways-for-weaning-foals/] Hopefully there’ll come a day when most breeders will be enlightened enough to use a better, more humane, way to wean foals.

Photo by Jamison Riley on Unsplash