Horse Protection Day

What the day is

Horse Protection Day is observed on March 1. It is aimed at the welfare of horses generally and at the position of unwanted animals in particular.

Origin and background

The defining problem is arithmetic rather than malice. A horse commonly lives twenty-five to thirty years and sometimes beyond, costs a substantial sum every month in feed, bedding, farriery, dentistry and veterinary care, and is useful for riding for only part of that span. A horse bought for a teenager who leaves home, or retired from work at fifteen, may have a decade or more of life ahead and no job. Rescue organizations are consistently full, and intake rises sharply whenever feed prices climb or the economy turns.

Two specific welfare issues are worth knowing because both are widespread and both look like kindness. The first is obesity. Horses evolved to extract a living from poor grazing, and rich modern pasture is more nutrition than most need, with overweight horses at serious risk of laminitis, a painful and sometimes fatal condition of the hoof. The second is isolation: horses are herd animals, and a horse kept alone shows measurable signs of stress regardless of how much attention its owner gives it.

Legislation exists in places for specific abuses. The American Horse Protection Act targets soring, the deliberate infliction of pain on the front hooves and legs to exaggerate a high-stepping gait in certain show classes, a practice that has proved persistent despite decades of enforcement effort.

The most useful thing a non-owner can do is support the organizations that take in animals nobody else will.

How to take part

• Donate to or volunteer at a rescue. They are chronically full and underfunded.
• Sponsor a horse rather than buying one, which is the cheaper way to be involved.
• Understand the true annual cost before acquiring any horse.
• Learn to recognize an overweight horse, which most owners underestimate.
• Never keep a horse alone if it can be avoided.