A few years ago, I got involved in finding a home for two Standardbred ex-racehorses whose owner had died. Neither were broke for saddle, they were getting up in years and they’d been together for most of their lives, so this wasn’t going to be easy. As it happened, we did find a home for both of them as companion horses in a small herd. But in the course of all this, I learned a couple things about horses and people.
Meat Buyers
First thing we learned was beware of meat buyers. Not knowing any better, we advertised them as “free to a good home.” Their eventual new person and others told us do not do this. “List them for sale at least at their dollar value as meat.” Unfortunately, there is a market for horses to be sold for meat and “free” just means more profit for horse meat brokers.
While thinking about how to find a good home for these two lovely horses, one day in Aylmer, I saw a horse and buggy on the road. Aha, I thought, there’s the answer! What could be better for a Standardbred than life on a Mennonite farm! A job for the horses without having to race, without having to get used to a saddle and rider, a job of value where they would be respected as important members of a way of life. If anyone would treat animals well, I thought, it would be Old Order Mennonites. So I was thinking about how to find out if anyone in the Old Order colony near Aylmer wanted a couple of horses.
Sulky to buggy?
Then I began hearing the second thing I learned. Every horse person I knew said, without my asking, “whatever you do, don’t let them go to the Mennonites.” This truly surprised me. At first, I thought it was individual xenophobic distrust, prejudice against the “different.” But too many people said it, including people I thought of as fair and unbiased. I started asking more questions. I was told some Mennonites – some said the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – were ok and treated their horses well. But, people told me, too many others do not care for them properly.
Instead, horses are regarded as pieces of equipment that you use up and replace when worn out. To explain it, especially in a case of free or cheap horses, people made comparisons to the old ‘beater’ cars that many of us have, where you don’t bother spending money fixing them, just drive them until they die and buy another old cheap one. That, I was told, was the attitude of many Mennonites to their horses.
Rode hard, put away wet
The objection these people had was not that the horses were used for work, it was that they were not cared for properly. In the words of one horseman, “the horses are run hard and put in the barn wet.” That is a good way to get a sick horse, and something no responsible horse person would ever do. I still find it hard to believe that anyone who relies on horsepower wouldn’t treat that horse well. It’s in their own self-interest to do so.
I see the horses and buggies in the parking lots of Aylmer stores, in shade if shade is available. Along #73 Highway and the side roads near Aylmer I see them trot. I watch draft horses pulling plows in Mennonite fields. I look at the horses turned out to pasture at well-tended Mennonite farms. And I wonder.
Puppy Mills
I see puppies and kittens at Mennonite stalls at the local farmers’ market. They are all breeds and types, but they all look healthy and well-cared for. I’ve never asked “how do you treat your horses, do you run a puppy mill?” How do you ask that?
Mistreatment of animals doesn’t stop with horses, I was told. Many of the small scale puppy mill operations here are in Mennonite areas. I started paying closer attention to the Dogs for Sale ads in the paper. Yep, “no Sunday calls” and a phone number with an extension – something found where one central phone services an entire community.
I read in One Nation Under Dog about Amish dog breeders in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Author Michael Schaffer seems to have the same dilemma as I do about this. He writes that, for the Mennonite farmer, dog breeding provided a new livestock market or crop when small scale farming was being battered by agribusiness and coming out on the losing side of economies of scale. But the dogs are being raised as livestock outside in barns and cages, even though the intended ‘market’ for them is the inside of homes with dog beds and squeaky toys.
Rehoming a Standardbred
There are a lot of Standardbred racehorses in South Western Ontario. Thousands of them never make it to the track or retire every year. They still have a long life ahead of them. They need homes. Old Order Mennonites need horses for transportation. Trotters and pacers are ideal. It seems like a match made in heaven.
But the horse people I talked to, harness racing people and others, all said they would not send a Standardbred or any horse to a Mennonite farm. I was saddened by this, and felt disillusioned about the ideal of Mennonite life I’ve always imagined: of people and animals united by a fundamental connection with nature lost to most of us in the modern world, and a spiritual injunction to care for all God’s creatures.
Windy Moody
16 Jul 2021Dear Dorothy,
We have horses all the time. My husband is a cowboy. We are looking for a good solid mare who loves to work. must be saddle broke. Our horses are well taken care of and they even have a vet on-site for cattle and horses. My husband works at a feed yard, going through pens every day, we sometimes go roping and other things. Do you have a good mare?
Dorothy
16 Jul 2021Hi Windy, we now have two geldings. I don’t know of any mares available. I hope you find a girl you like. Sounds like she’d have a good home with you. 🙂
Courtney Nathan
10 Jan 2013Looking for a standardbred horse at a reasonable price.
Dorothy
10 Jan 2013Hi Courtney, you probably already know of it, but in case not, if you’re near Ontario check out the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society (link ). They have horses from the track at various stages of training for saddle. There are similar groups elsewhere in the country. Hope you find a horse and thanks for writing.
Dorothy
4 Jan 2012Somehow, in reconfiguring my pages & posts, comments on this disappeared from the site. I don’t know how to make them visible again, so will reproduce them.
On Nov 21/10 Amber asked “Did u ever find a home for the Standardbreds?”
I replied “…Yes, a nice woman with horses of her own took them. She was one of those who told us to never ever advertise horses for free. I saw her, and the horses, several times after that. They were doing well, hanging out with her herd. They were both very nice horses.”
Dennis, on June 3/11, wrote “Thanks for posting your article I found it very interesting. I am a horse lover too, living in Manitoba. Like yourself I too am disillousioned with the mennonite lifestyle if it is true what you say about how they treat their animals. I wish we could get a reaction from them. All in all happy you found the horses a home and they are doing well.”
And I replied “Hi, thanks for writing. Hope you weren’t affected by the flooding. That sounded awful for a lot of farmers. I recently heard some more horror stories about horse ‘breaking’ methods that really do sound like breaking rather than training. But I also was told of a guy who took his harness racing horse to a Mennonite farmer he knew to train her. She had a bad habit of just taking off, from the training track or anywhere across fields, creeks or wherever, with the sulky and driver behind her! Not good. Anyway, this farmer harnessed her between two draft horses and she pulled the plow with them for a week or so. That was all he did, and she never ran off the track again when she came home. She had a good career on the track and a good retirement.
I wouldn’t want to paint any group of people all with the same brush – whether good or bad. I don’t assume all people showing horses actually treat those horses well or that all show jumpers respect their horse partners, and I also don’t want to assume all Mennonites treat their horses badly. But I also will not assume that they all would treat them well. I too would like to know more about the Mennonite attitudes to animals and their treatment. I’ve never found myself in a position where I could really ask. If anyone is reading this and can shed some light, I’d appreciate hearing from you.”