
I recently had a privilege of watching a documentary called
“The Horse: Crucified & Risen”.
Terrifying and beautiful at the same time, this documentary is a
masterpiece.
Created by Alexander Nevzorov, a
Russian horse trainer who created Haute Ecole, a training school for horses
that does not use metal rops or whips but love and patience with amazing
results. He created this
documentary to reveal the true nature of equine sport and what horrors the
horses endure during their short lives within this sport. I won’t go into much
detail here, I really suggest you buy this DVD and watch it if you can.
Seeing the scope of pain inflicted
on these gracious, intelligent beings really drove it home. As a child I was mesmerized by horses,
I never feared them, but always felt that they are these magnificent creatures
with intelligent equal to our own.
A few years back I went to a petting zoo with my friend and her little
son who wanted to see the animals.
I saw a gorgeous black horse in one of the corners and as I approached
it the horse came up to me and put her head on my shoulder almost wrapping me
with its neck as if hugging me. I
closed my eyes and for several minutes all thoughts left my head. I felt deep peace and union with this
animal, there was no separation, and at that very moment we were one. To this day just a memory of that
experience brings tears of joy to my eyes. 8 years ago I became a vegetarian
because I could no longer eat meat and feel good about myself afterwards.
I was never a fan of horse races
being quite aware of the pain and physical strains being causes to horses. I
knew that most of the horses died early from disease and traumas. However, when it came to equine sport,
I never made that connection.
Somehow I believed that the sportsmen truly cared about their horses and
that sport was more about a union of a man and an animal.
Boy, was I wrong! The equine sport may just as well the
cruelest sport there is out there that involves animals. The documentary showed the unbelievable
pain that is caused by the metal rods in horse’s mouth, the whips, the
unnatural twisting of a horse’s neck for “pose” that caused muscle tears,
spinal injuries, and eventual painful death to an animal. Most veterinarians
agree that the horses are inflicted insane amount of pain during competitions
and that the equine sport is cruel and violent and should be stopped.
So how did we come to this point?
When did we, humans, become so disconnected from nature that causing unbearable
sufferings to other creatures we consider entertaining and fun and even worthy
of awards? I can hardly imagine one team member of a football team beating the
hell out of another just so that teammate would perform. We act “civilized”
towards other people, why don’t we do the same towards other intelligent
creatures?
I have no doubt in my mind that
the hardening of our hearts came from our dietary choices. The first kill a man made for food
separated himself from nature.
This was the true fall of humanity, not a Biblical apple. For hundreds of years, at least, a man
treated animals with respect and even when killing them for food there were
rituals performed and gratitude was expressed towards the animal who was sacrificing
its life for a man’s. However, the
growth of agriculture and meat/dairy industry brought even those practices to
end. The more animal products we consume, the more disconnected we become from
our consciousness and nature.
We’ve reached the point where we commit mass murders of animals on a
daily basis and pretend that nothing is happening. I think it was Gandhi (I may be wrong) who said that as long
as we ate meat we would know no peace. Peace on earth is unattainable as long
as we cause torture and death to other creatures that share this Earth with
us. As the violence of dead flesh
enters our body, the violence of our thoughts and actions exits. Americans consume more meat than ever,
and look at the state of affairs we have: wars, teenage violence and school
shootings, gangs, hate, domestic abuse, violence against women and children –
where do you think all this is coming from? Can you deny the connection?