I wondered if any voice commands are given to horses. If so, perhaps someone in the crowd yelled something to make them turn "gee". Anyone know if these horses ever use voice commands?
There are a lot of articles about the Clydesdale's docked tails. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ydesdales-Mutilated-Beer-King-PETA-Expos.html "Tail docking' has traditionally been done to prevent horses' tails from interfering with carriage equipment. In some cases a scalpel is used to sever part of the horse's spine. Or a tight band is used to restrict blood flow, causing it to die and fall off. " Not sure what any of that has to do with what happened in San Antonio, though.
Draft horses have shorter tails than other horses as this was bred into them, hundreds of years ago. The Clydesdale has one of the shortest but they can grow some long hair which is why they trim it back for harness work. Nothing! Just PETA claiming the horse fell because its balance was bad from having a docked tail. Just BS to put out false narratives and gain support for banning rodeos. There is no evidence that docking tails affect the balance of draft horses or sheep where such is common practice. The tail is usually docked 3 vertabrae down. It had no bearing on what happened in San Antonio.
Here is a Clydedales skeleton with an undocked tail. It looks to me like the Budweiser Clydesdales have had their tails docked, but I would still say it doesn't affect their balance as team horses. It isn't a cruel practice. I have docked maybe a hundred or so lambs' tails and they didn't seem to mind using the band method. These Budweiser horses live better than many people do and get better medical care than I do. If I fell, would 6 guys run fast to my aid?
I actually gave a voice command to one of my horses, from the rail, being shown by a friend. But I wondered if a rein jiggled and got caught somehow in the rigging because the driver saw and could do nothing to straighten the team out.
Docked lamb tails were done to protect the sheep from getting brambles and brush caught up in them through life. Docked draft horses happened to keep them from getting caught up in rigging. Peta does not have a clue. Don't get me started. What upsets me is when farmers literally snap off the tails of milk cows so they don't get swatted during milking.
And, I remember on our small hog farm, we had to put a ring or two in small piglets noses to keep them from rooting up the ground. Lots of little pig "squealing" done, but the job had to be done. And, just like Mary, don't get me going on PETA!
Probably, people see meat at the grocery store differently because the animal is killed for food, as opposed to being mistreated for entertainment.
I think there is a variety of opinions what is animal mistreatment. I think keeping dogs and cats in apartments or confined indoors is mistreatment. Leaving dogs alone in kennels is mistreatment. It is true that a few involved in rodeo may mistreat animals from time to time in order to win a prize, but it isn't the normal. Humans receive more mistreatment participating in rodeo than animals. I find more folks these days have problems with killing animals for food than they do with any mistreatment at rodeos. Also things like boxing, hockey, and football are sports where humans are intentionally mistreated for entertainment profit yet no groups protest those sports like they do rodeo.
Big difference between violent sports like boxing, hockey & football: Humans choose to do it. Animals have no choice; they're forced to do it & suffer. "Tradition" doesn't automatically equal "Right." And, it's impossible to call this anything else but abuse: .
Taking a few examples of videos posted by PETA activist, isn't representative of 99% of all rodeos. PETA have folks at every rodeo looking for anything they can to ban rodeos and also cattle ranching. Tie down roping has been stopped at many rodeos because of observers that don't understand that calves are not fragile and not being hurt except in cases of a few idiots that no cattle rancher would have working on their ranch. In women's roping in many rodeos, tie down has been replaced with breakaway. The noose never tightens much because a fine sting holds the rope at the saddle and it breaks putting no strain or pain on the calf. However this doesn't appease the hard core activist and now they claim the calves are terrorized and tortured forcing them to run. A mild electric shock does not hurt a calf. In the case of bull riding and bucking broncs, the animals are bred to buck and preform and they love it. i could go on, but it is such a waste of time since critics of rodeo in general aren't experienced ranch folks and don't know what they are talking about. The biggest abuse I see in pro rodeo is with a few team ropers that will jam their horses up in order to save a few seconds and win a belt buckle. Most observers don't see this since they are not knowledgeable about ranch horses trained for roping or working cattle. There is a right way and a wrong way to bring a horse to an abrupt halt after roping.
Federal Laws were passed to prevent slaughter of horses within the US. We used to have horse auctions near here where lots of horses were traded and found new homes. I got a couple ponies there myself. Those that were past use were sold and travelled just to Milwaukee where they were put into Braveheart dog food quickly. We knew the hauler. Then PETA got involved and convinced Congress of the cruelty of killing the poor horses. No more killing. So, if the horses were not left to starve in someone's back lot, since they could not be auctioned, were transported to Mexico or Canada. Old and crippled horses trailered for maybe thousands of miles and, if let off the trucks into lots, had to fight for pecking order each time because, that is what some horses do, Blind and crippled horses do not do well this way.
We still had canner horses sold at auction when I lived in Idaho, but they were shipped up to Canada to be killed, so basically, they were just horses sold at auction, like any other horse auction, but the new owner was someone who shipped horses out of the country. I think that it was better when they were sold for dog food and did not have to be shipped for days first. Some of those horses had suffered abuse and starvation before they went to the canner buyer, and they actually had food and water enough to be satisfied before they were killed. It is a hard thing either way, but otherwise some of those horses would have starved to death if they had not been sold. PETA does not even like us to have our dogs and kitties for pets, and can’t see the difference between having a pet and animal cruelty. As @Faye Fox pointed out, rodeo stock is well cared for and live an easy life, basically. The horses that work cattle really do enjoy what they are doing, and the top cutting horses just go out there and do it and about all the rider has to do is hang on. Even Robin’s little pony loved herding the goats , and Robin would go out and ride in the pasture at night and Precious would have fun “cutting” the goats away from where they were at.
The thing that most folks don't know about professional rodeo is how it differs from actual ranch work. Originally cowboys obtained all their skills during their daily ranch work. Roping is a good example of how a ranch skill became a practiced sport. One Hall of Fame roper I know, grew up on a ranch where his father bred steers for roping. He spent his days running the steers in an arena and roping them. Now compare that to the cowboy that roped at branding time and on a few other occasions requiring an animal to be roped for medical treatment. The working cowboy is a better roper in actual ranch practice, but can't compare to the rodeo cowboy that ropes in a timed event he/she has practiced with less regard for their horse or calf/steer safety. The idea of running cattle is taboo on a working ranch. At branding, vaccination, etc., many calves are roped standing or just slowly moving. Now with squeeze chutes and calf tables, many ranches never rope a calf. Sadly ranchers are judged, by those that don't know, by the few abuses they see at pro rodeo by contestants that will do anything to win a prize.