ETA---
I apologise for above post of mine that wasn't finished..no clue how it happened D: this is the full post. ;;
I'm extremely tired of it.
What gets me, is that everyone I hear complain about it, doesn't understand about horses, cattle, goats, etc. These animals are usually taken better care of than anyone else's animals, these rodeoers use them as their career and can't afford to purposely abuse them. It's also a whole lot harder than people may think. It's beyond difficult to break a calf's neck, they're made to swivel (to a point..not sure what other word to use). Doing so would be a waste of money on the owner's part, and no rancher/farmer/cowboy I know of has money to waste.
And broncs..I don't see one bit of abuse with this. A horse bucks naturally, be it in a pasture or in the wild. The horses aren't forced to buck, they enjoy it. A lot of people don't understand this, and as soon as they see the spurs the riders wear they run around screaming abuse like chickens with their heads cut off. The spurs are rounded and rolled across the horse's side, not jabbed. And if you think about what people actually call abuse (with good reason, but I understand why) such as using cattle prods to get the horses out of the chutes, it's not much differed than smacking your horse with a crop while it's trying to shove you into a tree on the trail. A horse will get more injured by going off (late) in the chute, than getting a little shock to get it moving. It's safer for everyone involved, including rider, handlers, and horse. I'd much rather smack the crap out of my horse than have it decided to step off a ledge out on the trail and fly down a rocky hill; it's not much different. And my goodness, a horse that does work for about 8 minutes a year, as opposed to a top dressage horse that needs to be worked near daily, has a much easier life. Hell, I'd rather be a bronc than a dressage horse any day, ha.
Everything a horse does (be it undersaddle, in the pasture, in the wild) is dangerous. A horse can get hurt trotting around if a gopher decides to make an exit/entrance to their home in that area. Life is dangerous, I don't see us only sitting in fields eating grass, some of us sit in an office with only possible "life-threatening" paper cuts, and some of us work in construction where we can get crushed with equipment. Stuff happens, and people shouldn't holler abuse at every single thing they see.
But of course, that's just my opinion. :p
Posted via Mobile Device