Horse Meat-

[csgray]

I was really shocked at how low prices had dropped when I looked at horses and ponies listed for sale on the mainland recently. Quality registered lines going for peanuts in "herd reduction" sales, and many breeders liquidating lines they had developed over decades, if not generations, of breeding. My personal interest is in old breeds of draft horses and ponies, and the "Great horse" lines that once were used by knights in full armor; these are endangered breeds and it was disheartening to see so many people who had brought some of these breeds back from the brink of extinction desperate to find anyone to take their animals. I don't have the land, time or money to return to being a horsewoman, but horse breeding and ranching are really being threatened by the current drought cycle and economic downturn.

Hawaii isn't immune to this either, one of my students just helped her grandfather in Waimea round up his horse and cattle herds to send to auction. He is keeping a small core of breeding stock to try to eventually bring back his lines, but cannot afford to buy hay for the rest. He said he is back where he was 35 years ago, before her mother was born. How depressing, to spend a lifetime building something, only to end up where you started. My student is supposed to take over the ranch after going to AG school on the mainland, she can recite the lineage of every horse they've owned in her lifetime, and feels like her heritage is going to auction.

When I was a horse mad 4H horse and pony kid, I fought against the practice of rounding up mustangs to be sold for slaughter, but I have a much more nuanced understanding of what is happening now. Slaughter is better than starvation, although not by much.

Carol