DO YOU THINK PONY RIDES SHOULD BE ALLOWED AT FAIRS??

[Baymule]

How many 100 year old people look like they did when they were 18?

 

[drdoolittle]

I disagree, there are far too many laws and it is getting ridiculous. You are going to have idiots, that will not change making more and more laws only harms those that do right. We now have more laws protecting animals than humans. Recently a law was passed.... trying to recollect the state/county.... escapes me at the moment.... no outside dogs. PERIOD. So those of us with livestock are screwed and cannot have LGD's? It is always a busy body that decides that something is so horrible we need a new law.

You're right about the laws hurting those who do right.....I am worried myself about the "No outside dogs" issue. What I meant is that the fairs allowing pony rides should have guidelines for the ponies. They should require proof of vaccines/worming and check the animals health conditions. I'm just glad this woman closed her business.

 

[Bunnylady]

require proof of vaccines/worming

But which vaccines? And how often? The manufacturers seem to think once a year is enough, but vets recommend at least twice a year in areas where mosquitoes may be active year-round. A lot of people save money by buying the vaccines and doing the shots themselves, but who knows if they are doing it right or even telling the truth about doing it at all?

As for worming - you really opened a can of worms (pun intended) with that one. A lot of worm populations are showing a growing resistance to wormers (for example, I've heard that the goat parasite known as the barber pole worm is completely unimpressed by Ivermectin in a lot of areas; similar things are said about Panacur and Strongid in horses). In an effort to slow this trend, one protocol calls for a fecal test before worming, and only worming animals that have a significant worm load. Somehow, "here's the lab report from (insert date here) that showed that he only had a few worms, so he didn't need worming" seems to me unlikely to fly, and a receipt from the feed store for a tube of wormer doesn't mean you gave it to this particular horse (plus, I can worm all three of my minis from one tube, as long as it's not Moxidectin). . . so, are we going to be required by law to get vet bills for that, too?

You can't just single out pony ride ponies; that's discrimination. You'd have to apply this to all horses that are going to fairs or other public events (as you doubtlessly know, we already need proof of an annual Coggins for any time our horses leave our property). While people who spend mega bucks on elite bloodlines and extra-fancy tack and enter big shows probably wouldn't blink at the extra expense, the small-time horse owner that only wants to enter local shows would probably howl at having to pay for a farm call, etc, several times a year, for good horse health care that they probably are already doing anyway, themselves.

 

[promiseacres]

But which vaccines? And how often? The manufacturers seem to think once a year is enough, but vets recommend at least twice a year in areas where mosquitoes may be active year-round. A lot of people save money by buying the vaccines and doing the shots themselves, but who knows if they are doing it right or even telling the truth about doing it at all?


You can't just single out pony ride ponies; that's discrimination. You'd have to apply this to all horses that are going to fairs or other public events (as you doubtlessly know, we already need proof of an annual Coggins for any time our horses leave our property). While people who spend mega bucks on elite bloodlines and extra-fancy tack and enter big shows probably wouldn't blink at the extra expense, the small-time horse owner that only wants to enter local shows would probably howl at having to pay a for a farm call, etc, several times a year, for good horse health care that they probably are already doing anyway, themselves.

100% agree! Other than at this time Indiana does not even require coggins to move a horse, which is required in many surrounding states. And having lived in Amish country they'd raise a big stink of any vaccine requirements to take their horses off their property. It's absolutely no suprise that EE is in the North Eastern Indiana with the many Amish living there.
If I was going to be running a festival or fair then it's my right (and responsibility) to require a vet check or coggins for the animals coming in. Every year the state fair has pony rides and all ponies look fat, sassy and only kids riding that I've seen. And fairly sure it's the same people bringing them year after year. I'm sure if they had issues it wouldn't continue.

 

[Baymule]

But which vaccines? And how often? The manufacturers seem to think once a year is enough, but vets recommend at least twice a year in areas where mosquitoes may be active year-round. A lot of people save money by buying the vaccines and doing the shots themselves, but who knows if they are doing it right or even telling the truth about doing it at all?

As for worming - you really opened a can of worms (pun intended) with that one. A lot of worm populations are showing a growing resistance to wormers (for example, I've heard that the goat parasite known as the barber pole worm is completely unimpressed by Ivermectin in a lot of areas; similar things are said about Panacur and Strongid in horses). In an effort to slow this trend, one protocol calls for a fecal test before worming, and only worming animals that have a significant worm load. Somehow, "here's the lab report from (insert date here) that showed that he only had a few worms, so he didn't need worming" seems to me unlikely to fly, and a receipt from the feed store for a tube of wormer doesn't mean you gave it to this particular horse (plus, I can worm all three of my minis from one tube, as long as it's not Moxidectin). . . so, are we going to be required by law to get vet bills for that, too?

You can't just single out pony ride ponies; that's discrimination. You'd have to apply this to all horses that are going to fairs or other public events (as you doubtlessly know, we already need proof of an annual Coggins for any time our horses leave our property). While people who spend mega bucks on elite bloodlines and extra-fancy tack and enter big shows probably wouldn't blink at the extra expense, the small-time horse owner that only wants to enter local shows would probably howl at having to pay for a farm call, etc, several times a year, for good horse health care that they probably are already doing anyway, themselves.

 

[mystang89]

The few people that I have personally known that did pony rides/petting zoo services took excellent care of their ponies and all animals. They also had a weight limit. The pony rides were for children only AND if a child was acting ill toward the animal the child was removed immediately. Both people I know had the highest respectability and the one was booked generally 2 years in advance for events. The one had an employee that was seen by the trailers smoking and he was immediately fired. She had a strict policy.

Are there bad apples? Sure, but every time there is one then people want to destroy the whole. That is not ok.
So IMO should pony rides be allowed at fairs? YES. However the fair should be hiring those that are reputable and have healthy animals with the proper parameters in place.

When my children were young getting on a pony for a short ride was a highlight for them. They loved it and looked forward to it, outside of a local fair there wasn't much opportunity for them.

What she said.

 

[microchick]

I don't post often here....lurk yep, post no, in fact, this is my first post on BYH. Hi everyone! A lot of you know me from BYC as microchick and know the story of the 5 cattle dog pups DH and I rescued last April from an Amish neighbor's puppy mill.

We have lived in the middle of a heavily Amish populated community for 10 years. In that time we have seen horses being worked with harness galls, some through the outer layer of skin and raw with the horse still in full harness that hasn't been padded. Black and dark brown horses standing in the sun and 90+degree heat in full harness. No water, no shade. Horses 'staked out' with electric wire pens at the shoulder of a gravel road to 'graze' down the shoulder without shade or water visible.

When my husband first saw the ACD pups they were in a small pen with a large dog house, covered with mud, the only food available was a dead goat kid that they had thrown in the pen with them as the man of the house wouldn't provide them with dog food any longer. They were about 12 weeks old. My husband came home more upset than I've seen him in a long time and kept asking me what we were going to do. I told him we'd sleep on it, do some praying and decide in the morning. We woke up the next morning and without hesitation I told my husband, lets go rescue some puppies. He asked me which ones, I told him all of them. When we got there they still had a dead goat to gnaw on, but one of the sons had tossed in a wild rabbit for good measure and they were playing pull toy with it's remains. I have no idea if the rabbit was alive or dead when it was given to them although I suspect the way these youngsters look at cats as being 'pull toys' I would suspect alive. To make a long story short, I talked the guy down to 5$ per pup if we took them all and the next thing I knew we were loading 5 rambunctious, completely clueless, heathen pups into the van for the trip home.

It's been an ordeal, both wonderful and trying. The pups are great dogs, now 9 months old and their only flaw is that they are aggressive to cats. Nobody has been killed. It's a weird aggression. I don't know if their herding instincts kick in with them or their earlier experiences with small game as food has something to do with it. There have been many trips to the vet for sutured up cats and to doctors for infections from cat bites suffered while rescuing the cats who are a bit brainless at times and as the old saying goes about curiosity and cats sometimes, their judgement is flawed. We, in the meantime have become expert cat wranglers.

The point is recently we talked to somebody who had a child who worked for animal control and asked why they weren't doing something about the Amish Puppy Mills after telling them about our 5 rescue pups. They told us that they, the animal control people, were more interested in the registered and licensed breeding kennels than the 'amateur' Amish ran establishments.

So yes, how can you make more laws when the old ones are not being enforced? It's impossible! To the Amish around us, and I can't say all, but lets say 80% look at animals, whether they be cats, dogs, horses or cows....chickens too, as being livestock. Expendable livestock and as one told us one day, if ya got live stock sooner or later you are going to have dead stock.

We didn't turn our neighbor in for animal abuse. Should have. Didn't. We have to live here as the old saying goes. And DH asked me once what we were going to do if we ran across another situation as we found with our 5 ACDs? I have no answer. We currently have 7 dogs, 5 cats and 40 assorted chickens on our hobby farm. Does that represent a herd? I keep telling DH we need some cows for our cattle dogs to wear out their energy on but as he said, we'd just be stitching up cows every time we turn around.

Is their as solution? I dunno. I've threatened to do what the OP has done and drag a pony or two home when I see it fenced in with electric tape and no water available. I told DH that if one ever showed up at our gate loose it would mysteriously find its way in and I would put it in the back pasture or barn where it would be pampered and spoiled for the rest of its days.

But in the end we can only do so much as responsible pet owners and 'herd' keepers and try our best to intervene when we can and do what we can. My hat's off to @drdoolittle for rescuing the two ponies. If I lived near I probably would have been hitting DH up to rescue a couple myself. If there is room in your heart, there is room in your house/barn!

Hopefully sooner or later the laws will be enforced.

 

[Baymule]

@microchick glad that you finally decided to sign up and join the conversation. Stick around, dogs, cats and chickens are herds too!

 

[microchick]

Thanks @Baymule. I plan to!

 

[Ron Bequeath]

Some of you know that I recently brought home 2 former pony ride ponies. I bought them from the woman who owned the pony ride business and had decided to get out of it. When I first went to see the ponies (in July), they were ALL terribly emaciated and so sad looking (except for one very healthy one she was keeping ).
She excused their condition saying, "Hay was hard to get this past winter." and proceeded to tell my friend how one pony actually starved to death during the winter.

I had found photos of some of her ponies on her Facebook page for her business.....I have to share them, they disgust me as the ponies weren't even then in good condition and the woman allowed people to ride them who were CLEARLY too big.

I am sickened thinking of how these ponies were exploited and View attachment 66744 View attachment 66745 View attachment 66746 View attachment 66747 View attachment 66748 View attachment 66749 View attachment 66750 View attachment 66751 View attachment 66752 View attachment 66754 used to make money while they suffered at her ignorant hands. I'm just relieved she decided to sell them all, hopefully all the others got good homes (there were 6 or 7 total).

The final photo is of the 2 year old filly who starved to search this past winter....photo is from summer of 2018. I also included (in the first comment) other photos including a photo that she took to use as a Christmas pic.....the pony does NOT seem happy and all that crap on him is just HORRIBLE!
I HATE these type of pony rides and hope they will soon be a thing of the past!

I may not make some people happy by my response but here goes. We, having amish or not in my ancestry, had draft work horses on the farm as I was growing up. They where feed a half bale of hay in the morning 2 ears of non gmo corn, and a gallon of oats. Similar ar nihht and all the water they wanted. Harnessed and would work all day pulling hay and grain wagons, binders, plows, hay mowers and rakes. Of course it was a much slower pace than the guy with the large tractor planting gmo grains and beating down the good earth with the heavy equipment. After my grandfather and uncles passed the 3 year old team was turned out to pasture and we went to small tractors. Probably because we where to lazy to put harnesses on the horses. With in a couple of years the team was sick and died although it is our family practice to give our stock the utmost care possible. We where told by the vet and old timers that the horses died because they did not receive the used for which they where created. I have a neighbor who raises icelandic horses, a beautiful and noble breed. It is my belief that they have inbred these qualities out of the horses and further I believe and have seen that they over pasture the horses confinement area letting noxious weeds grow and had not given the horses any supplimental hay for 4 1/2 months. Lossing one mare and leaving her orphaned 6 week old foal to survive on her own with the herd. When the humaine society was called to investigate they apologized to the Pittsburgh owner and did nothing to correct the situation, anymore than leaving the 14 horses in their 4 acre jail and seeing that they are thrown 3 bales of hay periodically while being under the watch of many passerbyers. Two examples, who was worse. If you see abuse, go to the fair board and complain, picked the ride, discuss the situation with passerbys or friends and neighbors of like mind. Do something. I have seen horserides given with healthy horses, clean and neat facilities and an allowance guide posted for child height and weights. It's great to see the line of children getting to experience a farm activity that has been brought to them. It sheds a positive light on what you do. As for decorating the horse that's the owners privilege and if we don't like it do what you did, buy the horse. Problem is they usually go out and buy another. We as homesteaders, farmette owners, or that person who has a pony, goat, cow, etc. should be smart enough to require our county, locality, or area to adopt safety rules and requlations. To protect the animals and yet allow for the experiences to be had. And, and this is the big one, ENFORCE them, the laws are usually there we, WE just don't follow up and see that they are followed. Hope I haven't stepped on to many toes.