Most of you have probably seen Facebook posts about “Death Row” dogs; usually in the bigger cities, the headline of the post will read something like “Needs out TONIGHT”, or “Scheduled to be PTS (Put to sleep) TODAY”. But have you ever seen a post about a horse that reads “Ships to slaughter tomorrow”?

Yes, people eat horses. Not in this country, but in many others. There’s a secret group of people who are referred to as “Kill Buyers”. These individuals go to auctions where horses are sold and buy the ones they know they can make a profit off of by selling them for food. I’m not going to go into the politics of it, but it is perfectly legal, as long as the horses are not actually killed on US soil.

However, there is another secret group of people who like to refer to themselves as “Horse Warriors”. Some kill buyers will allow these saintly individuals to try and rehome these horses before they are in danger of being shipped - as long as they are making a profit. Most buyers don’t want to see these horses get shipped to their death, but business is business to them.

These horses don’t have names, and for most of them, the history is unknown. They only have numbers. Some are old, some are lame, some are retired work horses, and a lot are perfectly trained riding horses with a lot of good years left on them.

Being horse crazy since the day I can remember, I decided I was finally in a place – financially and geographically - where I could have my very own horse. So for my 29th birthday I decided to buy myself a very costly and large gift. One simple PayPal transaction, and #128 was marked “Safe”. The 12 yr. old Haflinger gelding was mine and I had no idea what to expect.

Fast forward 4 months, #128 (now Rio) is currently away at “Boot Camp”. He was not exactly what most would refer to as “the perfect first horse”. It’s been a challenge and a learning experience, but when I am finally able to ride him, I think it will be that much more rewarding than if I was able to ride him the day he stepped off the trailer with that yellow sticker adhered to his hip, marked with #128.

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