This is Wee Pat, my brother's half Shire Dressage horse he had in the late 1970's - Pat had been going to the Killer's... we bought him before he went to auction.
This is Summer Wine and her filly, Misty. Summer was a 1/2 TB show pony I had bred and sold who ended up on her way, pregnant, to the sales - I heard about it and ran across the state to get her.
This is Price Love, off of the track TB I bought at a horse dealer's before he went to auction. He was frightened, hot and had some neurological problems. I retrained him and found him an understanding home.
This is Big Red and Dusty, both were headed to the Clovis sale/processing plant - we bought them and they became school horses at our Fox Fire stable in Tucumcari.
This is Mink, my first horse who was a misunderstood and rather unpredictable gelding that had been on his way to the auction:My first horse to actually own had been on his way to the "Killer" when the Gypsy's saved him and healed him. I bought him (well, my Mom did) from a stable where we boarded him until my parents got a stable built at our home. Through my life I have owned over 170 horses and worked with many hundreds more. Easily, half of the horses I've owned have been "saved" by me from the Killer sales or from bad situations of neglect or abuse.
The photos with this post are of some horses that were headed for slaughter (these are from my past, over a few decades). Some became school horses, some became personal horses, some went on to careers and a couple of horses returned to me (one pregnant) when I found out they were heading for the auction...
My personal story about a horse that was slaughtered is so hard to talk about, but in case it might help people understand why we feel so strongly about this issue, I will try to tell it now...
Nestle was a lovely dark brown mare raised by a young woman who became a student of mine. She boarded her at my Briarwood Dressage barn back in the 1980's. In time, her owner moved her to a boarding barn closer to where she lived. This barn also offered "Horse Motel" overnight boarding for travelers. One of the things we had worked on was Nestle's loading into a trailer - she hated trailers and we had patiently helped her gain confidence.
Nestle was stolen one night from the stable that boarded "overnighters" and the stable and her owner immediately got the police, sheriff and livestock inspector out. Details are not important here except for this one fact - the authorities called the "packing plant" / slaughterhouse that killed horses back then in Clovis and asked if a mare fitting her description had come through there - the Killer plant said, "oh yes, she did, we just processed her"...
I went berserk. I was involved because of my friendship with the owner, my student, and my fondness for the mare. I couldn't believe that the authorities called the packing plant instead of the Clovis police and livestock inspector. I have no proof, but I sure suspect that the mare might have still been alive when that call went through. On a personal note, had it been me, I would have been at the Killer's as soon as my speeding car could have gotten me there. I would have been there for this mare, too, had I been privy to the facts at the beginning. I still shake thinking about it.
For people who think Nestle was just a horse - I tell you she was my friend. I had smelled her sweat, touched her chocolate colored coat, taught her and cared for her and loved her even though she was not "mine". Can you imagine how her owner who loved her even more was crushed by this brutal, unconscionable act?!
The two cowboy assholes who stole her were caught. They went to trial and were found guilty. I was at the trial, I testified as to the value of the sweet mare, now rendered. I cried and held my own mental health together as we all tried to make sense out of it - of course there was no sense. The cowboys had been very drunk (I was scared shitless they were going to get off because they were incapacitated), but the judge was just as offended by that fact on top of their crime. It all worked out to get them imprisoned. I got a byline in the Las Cruces sun News (then it was a real, local newspaper) to tell this mare's story. I spoke of the dewormers and the Bute, etc. all the things we are now discussing about the slaughtered horses intended for human consumption.
It can all seem so overwhelming and it can even be held at arm's length unless you have known an equine friend taken in the darkness from her safe stall, loaded into a trailer after being taught (by you - dear God... by me!) to trust a trailer and driven into the night far away to be callously killed for the few dollars considered her value by the pound.
I will never forget her. I will never think about Nestle nor write about her without sobbing. I shouldn't ever become so insensitive that her memory would not hit me in the chest and remind my heart of her dignity. I have more stories to tell. I cannot face them tonight. I want to just remember that little mare and hope she forgives me for teaching her to load in a horse trailer...
These are the names of some horses I/we have saved from slaughter and owned and loved:
Mink
Summer Wine
Misty
Wee Pat
Big Red
Dusty
Lonesome
Goldie
Sam
Punkin
Jake
Midnight
Gray Scale
Meihle
Halftone
Cockleburr
Ginger
Smokey
Pica
... and more
Please forgive my profanity above. There is no other way I could have said what I needed to say.
