Guess Who Doesn't Think Horse-Drawn Carriages Are Romantic
Photo Credit: Oscar Nilsson @oscrse
I’ve watched many — many — Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. Besides cheez-whiz content (which I actually love, hence the “many” Christmas movies of theirs I’ve watched), the one thing they nearly all have in common is that when one character is attempting to make a grand romantic gesture to demonstrate his love for another character, he does it by surprising her with a horse-drawn carriage ride. The character on the receiving end of this gesture always seems to find it such a romantic one. But if anyone ever surprised me with a horse-drawn carriage ride, I would assume he had not one iota of compassion in his heart. Any romance he was trying to ignite would be extinguished before it even had a chance to spark.
You know who else doesn’t think horse-drawn carriage rides are romantic? Horses. No horse wants to have a bit put into their mouth, blinders put around their eyes, and reins attached to the bit so a human can forcefully exert control over their every move. No horse wants to be controlled. You know how I know? No, I’m sorry to disappoint: I do not speak horse. I know this to be true because all beings want to be free.
Before a horse can be ridden by a human—let alone attached to a carriage and forced to pull it in suffocating heat, numbing cold, and all other manner of inclemental weather—they must be “broken.” That’s the actual term for it: “breaking” a horse. Can you guess why? Because the process breaks the horse’s spirit and makes it possible for the horse to be controlled. It’s cruelty. It’s forced labor. It’s slavery. No horse does what you see them do when you go to your local stables and head out into the mountains or onto the beach for a horseback ride without being trained to do it.
You could be trained to do lots of things you don’t want to do, too. So could I. But wouldn’t we rather be free, given the choice? Why do we think it’s okay to breed and train horses to serve our purposes, when we wouldn’t like to be bred and trained to meet anyone else’s purposes? Why do we think it’s okay to steal the freedom of other beings when we wouldn’t like our own freedom to be stolen?
Not to mention, many horses pulling carriages—or being kept in stables for folks to ride them whenever they like—suffer health challenges due to the work they are forced to perform. Just this past Monday, the most recent in a looooong series of horses collapsing while pulling carriages occurred in New York City. One died in Italy while pulling a carriage this past August, as well. It makes sense for horse-drawn carriages to be outlawed everywhere in the world. People can bicycle to pull carriages where public transport, individual cycling, scooters, and cars are for some reason not options. Horses should not be used for this or any other purpose. Cities, states, and nations ought to follow the lead of places like Chicago and ban horse-drawn carriages once and for all. We are not living in a Jane Austen novel. Victorians rode horse-drawn carriages because their only other choices were to walk or ride a bicycle. Nowadays, we have a cornicopia of transportation options, and horse-drawn carriages should not be among them. People who still think horse-drawn carriages are romantic (I’m looking at you, Hallmark teleplay writers/producers, prom goers, and bridezillas) ought to consider whether they would find it romantic if the carriage were being pulled by an eight-year old child or an eighty-year-old woman. If not, they should examine their beliefs and question why they think horse-drawn carriages are romantic in the first place.
You—yes, the you reading this post—can help horses enjoy the freedom you and I often take for granted. If you would like to help horses be free rather than enslaved to pull carriages, race against their will, perform in rodeos, and stand around in stable stalls until they are called upon to take riders on jaunts, you can. You can take four simple steps:
Don’t take horse-drawn carriage rides. Don’t attend horse races. Don’t attend rodeos. Don’t go for horseback rides.
Call or email Hallmark and tell them you don’t think horse-drawn carriage rides are romantic and you want Hallmark to stop including them in their shows.
If you live in a city, state, or country where you are permitted to vote and you know that horses are being used to pull carriages, race, perform in rodeos, or take riders on horseback rides, your opinion matters to elected officials. Call or email them. Let them know you want horse-drawn carriages banned. Let them know you want horse racing banned. Let them know you want rodeos banned. Let them know you want horseback riding banned.
Call or email the Bureau of Land Management (a different BLM than the Black Lives Matter movement, another freedom movement) and demand it keep its dirty hands off of wild horses and instead provide them with open, undeveloped, unfarmed space to roam and live freely.
Humans and horses can coexist peacefully. Humans and horses can both be free. And guess what: horses being free is not just better for horses. It’s better for the environment. And ultimately, when we’re playing the long game, it’s better for us, too.
And yes, Hallmark writers and producers, it’s better for you, too. Remember how three years ago you had no interracial or homosexual relationships featured in your films but then masses of viewers protested and now you’ve got several, all of which are making you tons of money? This is like that. Make it stop.