Joel Plaskett kicked butt at the East Coast Music Awards.

Which were not televised. Possibly CBC didn't want to go up against the Grammies (which I ignored, but presumably other people watched) or maybe the show was too expensive to mount. But I always thought the stuffed-with-music ECMA show was the best awards show going for just that reason. And CBC's assurance that they'll give a much better feel for the weekend with a one hour special televised next month is just silly. And I have nothing against Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, but why again is he hosting? Barenaked at the ECMAs may indeed prove to be a fun show, but it's hard to believe they can show more in one hour, including the celebrity host stuff, than they used to in three.

It's hard to pick an icon for this post, since I am variously disappointed and pleased!

I just decided not to respond to a post on a community about horses. Yes, here I am displaying unusual maturity, but now I am going to Ruin Everything by posting about it here.

See, someone posted a message about a rescue called The Animali Farm, which supposedly works to find homes for PMU horses now that the Premarin industry has collapsed. A lot of those farms are in Canada (which has led to some nasty comments on other horse communities I no longer frequent, about the moral fibre of Canadians. Which leads me to ask, was it only Canadian women who ever took Premarin? But I digress.)

Okay. There was a PMU rescue down here in Nova Scotia for a while, and they placed a bunch of young horses in the aftermath of the initial collapse. I contributed to them. As far as I can see, they're no longer active. And there's a lady down by Liverpool who, as far as I can tell, has done a nice line in buying PMU horses, starting them, and selling them on at reasonable prices. (I thought of contacting her about a couple of youngsters before I met Mitzi.) TeePee, Mitzi's boyfriend, is a PMU baby, as was Dallas, a Paint who lived in our barn. They weren't rescues, though, they were babies who were born to PMU mares and then sold to someone who brought them to Nova Scotia and resold them.

Which brings me back to this rescue. If you look at the site, there are sale horses, including broke Canadian (the in-demand breed) geldings, listed there for several thousand dollars, as well as a lot of other horses who might get sent to an auction if they aren't sold privately, and the thing is, the site seems to assume that any horse run through a sale in Canada is going to end up dog food.

There are big production sales all over the US, and breeders on lists I'm on have complained at different times about the glut on the market and the low prices youngsters, and even broke horses, are bringing. Why does nobody assume American horses are going to end up at the killers? I mean, putting a horse through a sale is always risky. And yeah, I've heard that there are no equine slaughterhouses in the US, but there is such a thing as a big truck.

This California rescue? Seems to me confused about the difference between adoption and sale. And they also seem to be engaging in a little incitement of panic by suggesting that a horse sold in CANADA is obviously going to end up meat.

Which does not exactly make me feel like getting out my wallet.

I asked the question: "Do they also rescue horses in the US from being sold at auction"?

Because it's not exactly the same thing as delivering the horse directly to a packing plant.

And I would be willing to bet that they don't ask who buys these horses at sales in Canada. I would be willing to bet they assume all purchasers in Canada are killer buyers.

I do not need to begin my day all pissy and defensive.

As I say, I do not need to begin my day all pissy and defensive.

Therefore, my surefire antidote:

Joel!


And!


Bunnies!


Aah. Better.

Buying a PMU baby is not automatically rescuing it. The Nova Scotia rescue site said clearly, "This is a rescue, not a place to buy a cheap horse." Okay, but the production sales of PMU horses? And the folks who bought them for resale, as people will do at any other production sale? Definitely sales of inexpensive (sometimes) horses.

If you go to a sale and personally outbid the killer buyer, you're rescuing that horse (sort of, since you are also purchasing the horse.) If you go to a sale and plain old buy a horse, you plain old bought a horse. If you divert a herd that was being shipped directly to the packers to your rescue, you rescued those horses. If you offer to list them for sale on your site as an alternative to the owner sending them to auction, you're listing them for sale. You aren't rescuing them. I do not see the point of people subsidizing the sale price of these horses through contributions, so somebody else pays less when they buy the horse. That isn't rescue work by any definition I can imagine.

We had two new horses arrive over the weekend, and one more coming this week. One is a big black Morgan gelding called Stryder (so of course I asked if it was a Lord Of the Rings name--and I'm not even that big a nerd!) Stryder yelled the place down, apparently.

Which may have scared Scout ("Scout's Honour"), a big bay Hackney who was so quiet in his stall I am pretty sure he was afraid someone was going to eat him. Mitzi was like that when she arrived, and she seems to be making friends with him since he's in the stall next door.

Tia, a young thoroughbred mare, is arriving this week.

I'll get pictures as soon as I can!

No, really! I was singing in the car the other night and it occurred to me--

Those of you who jump, and especially if you're good enough to handle jumps in combination, you know all about timing and everything, right?

Well, if you watch about the first twenty seconds of this video, you'll know what happened here:



Essentially, the band got him to the first line in good shape, and then he breathed wrong, missed a stride, crashed through the first line and then got it together and handled the rest of the verse just fine.

No, really!

Some of the things I think of while driving make me think I really should consider the pedestrian option.

The original post that got me all annoyed this morning? The one that worried about horses going to auction in Canada ending up at the killer buyers?

I just noticed the initial post claimed the broodmares could end up slaughtered--or else "broodmares in the slaughter industry."

Does that even make sense? No, really. Anyone out there who knows more about horse slaughter than I do--does anyone actually breed horses for meat in North America? I mean, it's not like we eat much of it over here.

Or should I just get all pissed off all over again?

I mean, seriously--WTF?

Edited to add: My initial post addressed the Web site I posted, and I perceive that I have now crossed the line into remarking on what someone in the community said, outside of the community. I don't know if that's kosher or not, but I don't really want to go back and start a fight. I just wanted to point out--WTF?

In trying to find out whether there is, in fact, a breeding-for-slaughter industry in Canada...

...I learned that contrary to what I read some years back, there are now horse-slaughter sites in the United States.

Which I guess means the rescue that pissed me off this morning had better start keeping track of all production sales all over the US, too. I mean, if you assume that all horses sold at auction end up at the killers... that is a lot of auctions.

And now I am nearly as tired as you all are, so perhaps I can let this one go.

We can all live in hope.

Edited to add: See comments for correction on this one. Turns out what I read some years ago was actually correct.

No, not in the flesh. But apparently there is a listening party for the Trews' new CD at the Seahorse tonight. I'm meeting someone there who has a spare invitation, so that should be fun.

Depending on how late it goes I may go directly to Tribeca for Adam and Rob's set, or I may come back here for a bit. I'm sure I'll find something to do.