Ethical Reinforcement, where the term comes from and my mission to keep horses from the auction/slaughter pipeline by supporting all aspects of the horse industry and animal ownership

 

Ethical Reinforcement is a term that quite frankly makes me cringe, but it describes one piece of what I do. Many people are enraged that I’ve given myself this honorary task, but I feel this is part of my mission and I have the experience to back it up. I’ve spent years studying and training horses and other animals. Mostly horses. I’ve explored all types of training and psychology and continue my education every day. I’ve put my hands on hundreds of horses and logged hundreds of thousands of hours working with them. I am also a horse owner and have bounced around between professional and amateur status repeatedly; when this is coupled with my experience it gives me a unique view.

The aim of ethical reinforcement is to evaluate a horse holistically and come up with a plan to meet the horse’s needs, improve the horses life, and give the horse life skills to ensure its welfare should the horse end up needing rehomed/sold/etc. I want to be fair to horses and I  want to preserve the horse industry as a whole. *gasp* Why would I want to do such a terrible thing? Well, buckle up because this is where I start to sound crazy.

I’ll start at the beginning; no matter what side of the fence you are are on politically there is no denying that the weather has gotten weird, making good quality hay is more difficult, and land is more expensive. When climate affects resources the first animals to go extinct are large mammals. Horses are no longer “useful” to mankind and there is no reason to preserve land for them. There are, in fact, plans to eradicate entire herds of wild horses in the US because they are not native herds, even though the wild horse of the west is iconic to American History. I’m not on their side, I’m just stating facts. Please keep listening.

We are a long ways off from an extinction event that takes horses from us, but there are changes happening in the horse industry where the effect is that the middle class horsewoman is being phased out. Its no longer feasible to be able to afford a horse these days with the rising costs of resources. This is why people are closing their boarding barns. Horse ownership is becoming more scarce; but look; theres still just as many horses. Where do you think they are going to??? Mexico, Canada, and some rescues. This has been made exponentially worse since horse slaughter was banned in the US. Banning horse slaughter in the US versus choosing to regulate it was absolutely detrimental to equine welfare and I would venture to say it is part of a racquet; but I won’t go there quite yet. I’ll save that for another article.  

We are headed towards a future where only rescues and people with a half a million dollars worth of land can afford to have horses. I can’t do much about that but I can do what I am able to by contributing to the industry as a whole. My contribution is my training and behavioral services that aim to keep horses out of the slaughter/auction pipeline in addition to stirring the pot with articles like this. Stay tuned.