I get this because people in my wider wider circle post or talk about their riding, and people in the comments treat horse trainers like they’re doing a public service, taking those poor lovely animals out for a stroll or a obstacle course run. And the hobby is such an Instagramable activity because posh people do it, therefore it’s cool. There’s something attractive to rich people about someone on a horse with tight horse gear clothes.
I need to stress it: riding and owning a horse is expensive af. Even the lessons are absurdly expensive. No one in my circle of friends or even extended family does it. And the hobby is basically just golf in terms of environmental costs. Horses require a fuck ton of water and create a fuck ton more of shit, and they require an ungodly amount of land. I just assume that the labour for feeding and cleaning is done by immigrants, and white people get to to do the cool jobs like training.
Horse people like to brag that many/most of the world’s monarchies and aristocracy is really into riding. To me, that should be a massive slight. If Elizabeth and Charles’s favourite sport was horsing, that should be a big red flag.
And what gets to me is how horse people are all like “I love my horses”. Like I’m sorry, Brett, but if you loved that animal, you wouldn’t put a bit in their mouth and make them carry you around. Horse injuries with riders are very common, especially spinal injuries because weight has been placed on where it wasn’t designed for weight.
I get in trouble because I point this out and every middle class person in the room gets super upset that their lovely horse hero got their hobby attacked.
Note: this post is only for white horse people. I don’t know about nor have an opinion on non-Western horse activities.
people still like dogs that work, i don’t see how attaching those feelings to a working equine would be more illegitimate
bruh, there is a big difference between a service dog and horse riding where you are actively harming and violating the autonomy of the horse for your own personal pleasure vs a dog that spends part of its day training and helping you with a disability, allowing you to integrate better in an ableist society. and then usually being a normal companion dog when not working. whether service dogs are exploitative or not is a different topic but it’s not comparable to horse riding. one is clear blatant exploitation and bodily risk to the horse for pleasure and another is potentially life saving and not risking bodily harm to the dog.
seems a bit arbitrary to declare dogs a ‘different topic’ when “actively harming and violating the autonomy of” easily applies to working dogs. but all i’m asking you to do is imagine transposing the affection someone could feel for a dog to a horse. that’s how ‘horse people’ can claim affection and best-care, but everyone knows those feelings-even for a pet-don’t have to line up with a consistent ethics or material reality.
OK, I misunderstood your original comment sorry. I think I can still like, personally empathize a lot more with the working dog owner than the horse rider. And that just comes down to me not understanding how someone could be riding a horse and not question if this is harmful/ethical. but I don’t mean to say anyone’s attachment or feelings are illigetament, this is just my perspective personally/personal inability to understand their feelings as someone who spends her life working with animals