Retorts

Food for Horses

I was very interested to read the article on the Kaimanawa wild horses ["The Culling Fields", Sep] after having to sit through all the emotive hogwash that passed for informed media comment on the issue. I agree that horses are beautiful creatures and the idea of them running free with manes and tails flying in the wind is a wonderfully romantic ideal, but it is also important to look at the reality of the situation.

Just two pages back from the Kaimanawa horse article is a short piece on proper nutrition for horses ["Pasture for Horses", Quick Dips, Sep] which points out that not all pasture makes good food and some is actually toxic to the animals. It appears that the wild horses show signs of malnutrition -- could it be that the endangered tussocks are in fact not good for them? Maybe it is cruel to allow them to continue to range over greater areas in a desperate search for enough suitable food rather than restricting them in sustainable numbers in an area where more palatable foodstuffs are plentiful?

Madeleine Calvert, Christchurch