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Is Horse Riding Cruel? Is It Vegan?

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    What is the vegan stance on horseback riding?
    Is riding horses cruel?
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    Well, get ready to get controversial!
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    Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
    to another vegan nugget. Today’s topic is
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    something that I’ve been asked to cover
    by may of you out there, especially recently,
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    so I’ve been doing my research. I want to
    first give thanks to Fair Horsemanship for
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    all of her assistance and I’ll tell you
    how to get connected with her later in the
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    video.
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    I’m first going to address the question
    of whether or not riding horses is vegan and
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    then I’ll move onto whether it’s cruel.
    As I said in my video about wool, veganism,
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    in general, is about opposing the use of animals
    for our own personal gains in any form whatsoever.
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    If we look at horseback riding, it’s evident
    that horses do not need to be ridden. Horseback
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    riding solely benefits the rider and so it
    is a form of using animals for our entertainment,
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    which is explicitly not vegan.
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    Now this is not a popular stance and there
    are several arguments as to how riding benefits
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    the horse. One of these is that domesticated
    horses need exercise. The most simple response
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    to this is that domesticated dogs also need
    exercise, yet owners are able to provide this
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    without having to mount them. A second argument
    is that riding provides a horse with an enriched
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    environment. Again, this can be as easily
    be achieved without someone atop them by walking
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    the horse from the ground. A third argument
    is one that comes in many forms but always
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    starts with “By my horse loves…” and
    ends with: being ridden, going to shows, wearing
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    a bridle, having a bit, running the barrels,
    or what have you. And perhaps there is some
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    horse out there who actually likes to be ridden.
    But let’s take a look at what riding does
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    to a horse's body physically. What I’m going
    to cover is just a cursory look into the impact
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    of horseback riding on horses. I have links
    to additional resources in the blog post for
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    this video, which is linked in the video description
    and I urge you to reference those studies
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    if you want to delve deeper into his topic.
    Let’s start with skeletal structure. There
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    is a saying that a horse is ready to ride
    when their “knees close.” This refers
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    to waiting until the growth plates just above
    their knees convert from cartilage to bone.
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    Dr. Den Bennet in her article Timing And Rate
    Of Skeletal Maturation In Horses, states that
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    “what people often don’t realize is that
    there is a “growth plate” on either end
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    of every bone behind the skull, and in the
    case of some bones (like the pelvis or vertebrae,
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    which have many ‘corners’) there are multiple
    growth plates.” She goes on to detail the
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    exact schedule of growth plate conversion
    to bone in horses. While many people start
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    riding their horses around the age of 2, Dr.
    Bennet’s schedule shows that the last plates
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    to fuse are in the vertebral column- and this
    does not occur until the horse is at least
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    five and a half years old, with taller horses
    and males taking even longer. According to
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    the text Practical Anatomy and Propaedeutic
    of the Horse, the length of time for complete
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    growth of the epiphyseal plates, or cartilage,
    is not until they are (on average) between
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    6 and 9 years old!
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    The basic takeaway of all of that is that
    it's incredibly easy to damage a horse's back
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    and displace his or her vertebral growth plates,
    causing pain and lasting injury.
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    Aside from the issue of growth plate fusion,
    riding a horse at any age causes skeletal
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    damage as well as muscle and tissue. Expert
    horseman, Alexander Nevzorov states “A horse’s
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    back is not a seat, not a place for a human
    butt, not a piece of “meat”, not some
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    sort of “terra fir- ma”. It is a very
    complex and tender anatomical structure with
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    extraordinary functions. Besides the obvious
    biomechanical function, the back has another
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    very important function. The spinal cord’s
    work is to guarantee that the responses from
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    the entire nervous system can communicate
    the senses of taste, smell, vision, hearing,
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    and vestibular function to the brain, not
    to get lost in too much detail. On this especially
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    vulnerable, sensitive organ, onto the medulla
    spinalis, the brain of the back, sits a rider.”
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    In a 2007 study out of the 295 horses who
    were considered physically sound upon initial
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    examination, 91.5% were diagnosed with some
    kind of alteration on the spinal processes
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    after X-ray. Almost always the spinal processes
    of the caudal saddle position were affected.
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    In horseback riding, the spinal damage caused
    by weight alone is compounded by the use of
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    saddles, harnesses, bits, and whips. Saddles
    restrict blood flow to the arterial capillary
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    bed causing tissue damage, as well as general
    wear and chafing. But nothing is quite as
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    cruel as the use of bits and whips- which
    I’m only going to give a cursory nod to
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    in this video.
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    Bits cause pain and damage to a horse’s
    complex cranial nerves as well as their teeth,
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    tongue and palate. Facial nerves are extremely
    close to the skin and thus extremely sensitive.
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    It is essential to understand that there is
    absolutely no way to use a bit without a horse
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    feeling pain.
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    And since I’m running short on time here,
    I’ll just say this about using a whip: it’s
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    a whip!
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    Now all of this is just barely scraping the
    surface of the horse issue. I haven’t even
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    addressed the practice of breaking horses,
    horse racing, the rodeo and other topics and
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    I'll cover those in future videos. For great
    information on horse-friendly activities from
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    the ground and with positive reinforcement,
    please head over to Fair Horsemanship’s
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    channel as well as check out her website.
    She's a great resource on this topic.
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    Give the video a thumbs up if you likes it
    and please share it around with your friends
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    and family. And if you’re new to the channel,
    I’d love to have you subscribe- here at
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    BSV I address all aspect of veganism and aways
    in 5 minutes or less. Now go live vegan and
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    I’ll see you soon!
Title:
Is Horse Riding Cruel? Is It Vegan?
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Video Language:
English, British

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