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.

  • amphibian [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    12·
    4 months ago

    I know this post is for fun but I’m gonna share what I know about this anyways, not trying to be condescending or anything! but:

    horses are pretty intelligent. how an animal adjusts to being forced in a situation, in this case human society, with no instincts for any of the contexts of that situation, shouldn’t be used to determine their intelligence. a quick adaptation to human society can be indicative of high intelligence (see: crows) but measuring animal intelligence on that alone is unfair. horses are actually really good at surviving in the wild, including domestic horses. Australia has a massive feral horse population that developed from escapees and they’re one of the most invasive species on the continent, to the point that the government is starting horse hunting programs to try and maintain it. they are very good at surviving in the wild and adapting to different wild environments. their navigation abilities being used to transport humans for thousands of years and being so good at it is also indicative on high intelligence. but most of their intelligence is emotional, they’re super emotional creatures & emotionally intelligent. they just kind of suck at being pets/living on farms. being confined to small spaces is also basically torturous to them, I don’t think any amount of land a horse owner has is enough for them. in the wild they are literally never confined to one space which is unlike all other common barn animals. with the amount of space they get in captivity they kind of have no idea what to do, get depressed or bored out of their mind, and end up doing a lot of dumb shit that makes them look stupid. but it’s not fair to them! the whole reason they look dumb to us is because of the abusive conditions they’re given, by us!