07/07/2025
Thank you Bob Wood Horses For Life
What is the horse's purpose in today's world? In the developed world we no longer depend on horses for agricultural, transportation or military uses, son now what is the purpose of the horse? Why are they still here? Payphones, street corner mailboxes, wax paper, returnable glass bottles, and more after their purposes ended, they are gone but horses remain. Why?
I think it is because after many centuries of selective breeding so that horses could provide needed services for mankind, horses are by now part of the human experience. They are woven into human culture's DNA. But how do horses serve us today? The answer might be that we are still trying to figure this out.
Examples of purposes for the horse today are extensive, although sometimes incoherent. Because almost all of the former needs that horses filled are all but gone, are we just making up new uses? I see purposes for today's horses include awful things like with Andreas Helgstrand the Danish dressage rider and international poster boy for equine abuse. His purpose for horses was to make him a billionaire.
Others have come up with countless exploitations of horses in order to make money from entertainment based riding lesson programs that allow kids to yank horse's around for fun, to drugging horses so that incompetent riders can ride them. All of these appalling purposes, including ruthless competitions that injure and kill horses, have resulted in the rise of organizations like PETA that are dedicated to ending all human access to horses.
On the brighter side, there are still human-equine relationships that bring abundant pleasure and meaning to people's lives. Horses, with their simpler agendas, that are never hidden, are an island of peace in what can be a crazy 21st century world. There are therapeutic programs with horses that heal bodies and minds. And, of course, there is basic riding, driving and other equestrian pursuits that are done with skill and respect for the horse that are a pleasure for horses and people.
In between the good and evil there is the "rest of it", a mixed bag of purposes like the superficial fun that I call "Jackass the Movie" horsemanship popular on social media, horse ownership status, and horse photo ops for social media and Christmas cards. My take on all of these in between purposes is that it's a confusing assortment of new ideas for what horses are good for that totally miss the mark of what horses can offer.
Through it all, from previous historic equine usefulness to today's vast and often contrived uses for them, horses have been extremely patient with us while we try to figure out where they truly belong in our lives today.
I rode with people who were born during the days when it was simple. In their minds the horse was always needed. They experienced the parts of human existence that depend on horses, and they couldn't forget it. Today's young people, who have never met these 19th century riders, cannot understand the level of respect horses once had. I believe this is why abuse of horses is becoming increasingly normalized. Stopping today's abuse and neglect will require a deeper understanding of the horse's purpose.
