We Don't Get The Hate Mail That We Once Did

In fact, it has been a long time since I got a note advising me that the writer hoped that "one of those kids gets killed and you get sued." It is more common to get unsolicited input concerning the conformation of the horses that we work to preserve. Of course, there is the constant clamor that these "poor little ponies" are simply too small to be ridden by adults.

The longest and most vitriolic note that I received came years ago after I posted a picture of Medicine Iron, shown above, when he was quite young. The writer urged me to "stop breeding worthless crap with no market value." I was urged to spend some time with a veterinarian so I could actually learn something about horses. The writer eventually went on to explain that horses such as ours ended up filling up needed places at horse rescues and eventually simply wound up in slaughter houses.

Take a look at the breed statistics of the American horses that go to slaughter. You will find that the established horse world works overtime to produce Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. They need to produce huge numbers of these horses in order to have enough "quality" horses left after the others are culled.

For much of the established horse world the circle of life involves birth, being deemed unworthy of preservation, going through a culling process, and then being disposed of. It is that world, inhabited by "true horse professionals", that we want no part of.

And I think that the simple numbers concerning horse slaughter bear this out. In the last decade the established horse world has supported a system that sent over 100,000 horses to slaughter annually.

None of those horses came from Mill Swamp Indian Horses.