this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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I'll die on the hill that horses live as essentially slaves for people to look at and occasionally ride. I'm not sure how we came to the conclusion that keeping these majestic animals in tiny boxes and the same field for their entire lives is anything but barbaric.
Hell, even during training there's a part called "breaking" the horse, which refers to breaking its will. Not sure if this is still done these days since the demand for horses is way down, but I can't see that being anything other than a form of torture for "problem" horses.
We came to the conclusion that keeping horses contained was a fantastic idea since they were an invaluable asset to our quality of life.
They were a mean of transportation, plowing our fields, gathering our wood, conquering and defending our lands.
The only part here is they lost their status as invaluable in the modernised world. Though their current status as "slaves" as you put it, isn't without benefit.
Few animals get the medical care a horse does, I'd even argue the average horse have better access to Healthcare than the average human. Gone are the days where a horse with a broken leg has a death sentence, so their quality of life have only improved in the last 100 years. And they will never have to worry about predators, not even humans, since they've for the most part been taken off our menu.
I'm not here to change your mind, I'm just saying, I think most animals would swap places with them in a heartbeat given the oppertunity.
Absolutely, horses have it nowhere near as bad as animals that we farm for food and other products. If we are classifying animals lives in a simplistic manner, then I put horses in the "Slave" category and I put farm animals in the "Horrific torture" category. I totally agree with you that I'd rather be a slave than horrifically tortured.
I know you think you're being very clever by creating a strawman and ridiculing said strawman, but everyone sees right through that and just rolls their eyes.
Horses have it far better than most wild animals. It's not even close. You're either underestimating the living conditions of most Horses, or overestimating the living conditions of most wild animals. Probably both.
They aren’t taken off Elmer’s menu
If you didn't keep it in your field some idiot would probably just want to shoot it
Is there a problem with wild horses being hunted? I haven't heard about that.
There aren't really any wild horses left. A few live in the Yuma proving grounds in Arizona (they were basically just set free there about a hundred years ago. They aren't native) , but other than that I think you'd have to go to the steppes of central asia to find any.
That isn't what I mean by wild horse. I mean feral, undomesticated animals that roam freely.