Sometimes when I'm just hanging around out in my paddock, I think about all the horses who don't have a nice life like I do. I love my life. I have a nice comfy stall with lots of shavings to lie down in, and I have my paddock so I can go outside whenever I want to. I have nice neighbors and my ball toy and I get fed good food. I know I sometimes complain about my food but that's just because I like to eat so much. I know I really do get plenty of food. I get my grass hay in the morning and then Mom comes and gives me an alfalfa hay snack. I get more alfalfa at night and I also get carrots and cookies and treats. I'm not a skinny horse and I'm not actually hungry all the time. I just like to eat.
I have a mom who loves me and who comes to see me every day. She keeps my stall and my water bucket nice and clean, and she grooms me and keeps my feet picked out and healthy. She makes sure my stall is safe and that all my tack fits me right and is comfortable. She is never, ever mean to me and she takes me out every day and makes sure I get enough exercise. She turns me out with friends and lets me play. And she is teaching me how to be a riding horse.
Mom says that it's very important that I learn good manners and how to be a nice riding horse and a Good Girl. She says that if anything bad happened and I needed a new home, she wants me to be the kind of horse that anyone would want to have. Well, I don't want anything like that to happen and neither does she but if it did, I can understand why a person would want a nice horse rather than a horse that didn't know how to do anything.
But some horses don't have people who take good care of them. All us horses have seen that kind of thing. Horses whose feet are in awful condition or who are sick but their people don't call the horse doctor to help them. Horses whose people never come to see them and they just stand around in a stall or paddock all the time. You might think that a horse would like doing nothing all the time but not when they don't get any exercise or get to play or have fun. Horses like to do things. Some people don't even feed their horses enough and they get really skinny. Or they don't take care of their teeth so the horse has trouble eating.
There are people who are mean to their horses and hit them or make them do things when they're hurt. Or people who have too many horses and can't take care of them all. My mom says she would like to rescue all the poor horses out there but she can't because she knows she can't afford more than one horse. She wants to be sure she can take care of me properly. I'm glad but I sure do feel sorry for those other horses.
Horses just don't have any choice about where they go or who is going to take care of them. They just have to hope for the best. When I was at the racetrack, I heard about horses who got sent away to be killed just because they got hurt or they didn't run fast enough. When I got put on a trailer to leave, I didn't know what was going to happen to me but I tried not to be scared. I was lucky but I wonder about the friends I had there. I hope they were lucky too.
If I could tell people one thing, I would ask them to please not get a horse if they can't or don't know how to take care of it. And if they have to sell a horse, please make sure it's going to a good home with people who will be nice to it. We depend on you to take care of us, after all.
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