It was an enlightening field trip. A lot of our kids want to go back and donate time. Thankfully there were no Haflingers. In addition to the 20 some horses at the facility there were 7 little donkeys. Oh gracious they were cute! Lauren is convinced we need one... (not likely to happen)
I guess the point I was trying to make and that I seem to get too long winded to get across is that:
People need to be responsible about horse ownership.
The first person who should be MOST responsible should be the breeder, as they are the one that brought the foal in to the world.
I realize bad things can happen to good people, and sometimes a horse cannot be kept because of dire circumstances. But if there are many horses needing homes, then why do the breeders keep breeding? Maybe all breeders need to be willing to take their sold horses back.
I will leave it at that... because I am most likely going to step into "it" again.
Your Haffiefriend,
~Kiola~
Brier, WA
--- In haflingerfriends@yahoogroups.com, "cedarglyn" <cedarglyn@...> wrote:
>
> "kiolak" wrote:
> >
> > . . . There are too many unwanted horses out there because of indiscriminant breeding.
> >
> > Today my daughters pony club is going to a horse rescue facility. At Christmas, the kids decided that instead of giving each other gifts that we would buy gifts for the rescue horses and also do a blanket drive. I am sure I will be seeing plenty of grade horses and purebreds as well. If ONLY people would be more responsible. Responsibility begins with the person who breeds the horse.
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> Hi Kiola, Hope the pony clubers had an enlightening visit at the rescue facility--their hearts were certainly in the right place. It is not the horse's fault he/she ends up in need of rescue. Wishful thinking or ignoring their need is not the best solution, imho (but then I'm not an advocate of euthanasia as long as quality of life can be sustained).
>
> As the number of any breed increases, so will the probability of need for rescue. Indiscriminant breeding has always existed and probably always will. So what do we do about it--it's one thing to see the problem, quite another to find the solution (?rescue?).
>
> There will always be folks who want a "baby" horse... or to see what you get when you cross x with y... or just something to sell for a few extra dollars. The current economy is poor and even many well-intentioned folks may be finding themselves in dire straits.
>
> Equine rescues are loaded to the gills. I thought the drought-induced hay shortage the past couple of years was bad, but it was nothing compared to the over abundance of starving horses filling my local equine rescue operation. Hoping no Haflingers are there...
>
> In short, there can be many reasons (some legit, some not) any equine needs rescue. Judy in NE TN (who's wondering what this wide-spread, extremely frigid weather is doing to heating bills [and fruit crops]--and grateful my chunky Haflingers have woolly coats and lots of hay to munch on for warmth)
>
------------------------------------
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