Horse Manure

I got my first horse (a four month old Shetland pony we named Lucky) for my first birthday. 

Lucky was a thief – he poked its head through the fence and nursed off the neighbor’s milk cow – and he once broke into a storage bin where he ate so many sweet potatoes it caused him to founder.  One of my most vivid memories of my early childhood was of helping my dad give  that pony a life-saving enema with the garden hose.

It was a daily adventure getting the eggs back to the house without him knocking the basket out of my hands.  Lucky knocked me down a few times, and stepped on my foot more than once, but he could never have been called vicious.

Several years ago (2006) in Connecticut, a little boy tried to pet a horse named Scuppy at Glendale Farms in Milford.  The horse reached across the fence and took a bite out of the kid’s cheek. 

No, I don’t know if the kid had “apple” cheeks or not.  I do know that the parents sued the farm and lost.  The farm owner testified that Scuppy had never bitten anyone before. 

In a ruling that could never have happened in Texas, the appeals court reversed the earlier decision, ruling that “Horses are a naturally vicious species.”

Today, the Connecticut Supreme Court will review that decision.  If allowed to stand, it could mean horse owners in the state would not be able to purchase liability insurance.

Horse farmers and equine enthusiasts, who cite 2005 statistics saying that the horse industry contributes about $221 million a year to the state's economy in boarding, training, lessons and breeding businesses, are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the Appellate Court's decision.

The Connecticut Farm Bureau and Connecticut Horse Council filed a friend of the court brief saying that under common law viciousness generally is judged individually according to age, breed and gender, not as an entire species.

Fred Mastele, acting president of the state's horse council, said it is encouraging horse owners to attend the hearing Tuesday and support the Glendale Farms.
"In our opinion, horses are not vicious animals," he said. "They are certainly not attack animals."

I’m not making this up.  You can read the story HERE .