My Own Rant.........on Owning Horses

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Recently my friend, Callie, at Midwest Horse was attacked for owning horses. The blog post that precipitated this attack, Serious Rant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! was about being unable to get a student loan for her daughter because the family's income was too high to qualify. Yet, the commenter made the leap that Callie and Steve owning horses sucked up all their money and was the real reason they didn't have the money to pay for college tuition.

I cannot even begin to tell you how angry that makes me...........however, it does NOT surprise me. While this commenter is the one who stuck out her neck and said these hurtful things, she is not alone in thinking them. Many people seem to hold those prejudicial thoughts towards horse ownership. And quite frankly I, for one, am really tired of it.

This whole topic gets my mind going so many directions I'm not even sure where I should go first. My thoughts range from "what gives you the right to" ........ "they are not anymore expensive than many other hobbies" and of course, there's a lot more in between.

But first lets start off with this thought. This is America, after all and that means we all have the right to chose for ourselves. At least that is what I was taught. So whatever gave this person the right to decide "how" or on "what" Steve and Callie should spend their discretionary recreational funds is beyond me.

Obviously this person seems to think she not only has the right to make that decision, but she has the right to attack Callie because she doesn't agree with her. How come we cannot have tolerance for those who do not see it OUR way? That is the part that frustrates me the most. Why must we attack those we do not agree with?

I'm pretty sure that's not what our founding fathers had in mind when they created this great country of ours. It was about live and let live.........not live and jam your opinion down the throats of everyone else. Tolerance seems to be in really short supply around the US and the world. In my opinion this lack of tolerance is a weakness we can ill afford.

However, this isn't the only issue I see here. It may be the most important one but there are others. The fallacies of the thinking need to be addressed as well.

There is that thought that horses are a useless money pit that is particularly offensive to me. Usually that notion comes from people who do not understand anything about horses (except expense). Since they have no affinity for horses, they don't "get" the concept of willing putting money into a living, breathing animal that requires care and manufactures lots of poop. Since it doesn't make sense to them, it MUST be stupid! And there we go back to tolerance again.........but I digress.

Yet, there are many forms of recreation out there every bit as costly as owning horses. However, you rarely see someone criticized for owning a boat, snow skiing or sky diving to name a few, because they are too expensive.........or what about frequent trips to Vegas or Reno (like my MIL) not to mention those regular visits to play BINGO. There are many, many things people do for recreation where they spend just as much money as we do on our horses..........and don't kid yourself.

I know from first hand experience that all of these things I named (and many more) can be and usually are just as costly as what it takes to own a horse. I have friends who spend as much money on travel as I used to spend when I was a recreational horse owner. I know people who spend more money for season tickets than I would ever think of spending. If you add up line by line these costs, I assure you you can spend as much money on that boat or whatever you chose as any horse and it won't greet you with a warm nicker of affection.

Many will not understand the importance of that warm nicker to us horse people, but it alone can knock that "useless" word right out of any context having to do with horses. You get it or you don't. That doesn't make horses useless.

Non horse owners reading this post would be all over these statements defending their decision for spending their discretionary funds on their personal "pleasure" of choice, Yet, they probably won't see past that defensiveness to get the point.

We ALL need some form of recreation. Life is stressful and without some kind of break to help us unwind and relax we'd be in a world of hurt. We'd be a bunch of angry, defensive, depressed people and the world would be in even bigger trouble than it is in now.

We ALL have the right to chose what we want to put our time, energy, and money into. That doesn't make us wrong or stupid because the other doesn't agree..........and it sure doesn't make us less worthy of deserving something like a simple student loan for a college student.

It has to make one wonder though what goes through these people's minds. Certainly the attitude is closed off and ALL knowing like some how they are superior and "get" what the rest of us have overlooked. Yet it clearly shows their lack of understanding and caring for others to be unable to empathize with one's frustrations at the inequities in life instead attacking someone for it. Me, it makes me feel sad for this person since it clearly shows a rigidity that is a very difficult place to live.

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