All right, so we're going to get into part two of our discussion on economics, and we'll just real briefly just kind of skim through what we already covered on the last lecture in this set of slides. So we talked about what makes the horse industry unique and the fact that it's a luxury item. It's not a necessity, right?
It's the treat yourself category that falls along with entertainment, sports, other recreational activities. So it's... It's more likely to change its demand changes as the economy changes, right?
So we talked a little bit about what kind of people are involved with horses in terms of their income bracket, their ages, what they do with their horses, right? We talked about the breed of horses they have, kind of expenses depending upon if they're a part of different breed or discipline associations, right? And I just want to stress again that we see these, you know, huge changes in numbers with people that are part of associations. And that's just because the people who are part of associations are also more likely to then take advantage of being in those associations by competing more and traveling with their horse and those kinds of things. So it's not that like being a member of AQHA is not expensive.
I think the membership's like a hundred bucks for the year or something. That membership doesn't cost a lot of money. It's the things you do because you're involved in it that cost money. So we went through these numbers and we looked at the differences in some sales numbers from COVID year versus now.
Really interesting to see. And then we ended here by looking at the Keeneland sales and kind of what's going on with those. So now we're going to kind of talk about some issues in the horse industry. And. how that impacts us as equine professionals and what we can do to maybe address these issues or at least discuss them with people in an educated way.
So this here is just a chart that's pulled from the 2021 American Horse Publications. They did a survey of people in the equine industry and specifically horse owners and asked them to um select what are the major issues they think are facing the equine industry. So we have some here.
So most people are concerned with these three issues. Unwanted horses. OK, so that means horses that are people don't want. Right. So they're going to kill pens.
They're going through the sale barns. Right. And then people are concerned about the cost of keeping horses.
Right. It's expensive to have a horse. And then interestingly, this one, loss of trails and riding areas. So as our cities grow, they become more populated and there's more people in them.
Cities grow, neighborhoods grow, right? So that takes up farmland, that takes up trail areas. Even people like a lot of times around like lakes and things like that, there's trail areas for people and horses.
But as people... build houses around those lakes and stuff, right? Obviously that trail space becomes changed into places for people to live.
So that's an interesting concern that made me like, if I was filling out this survey, I wouldn't have selected that as one of my top issues I thought we were facing as an industry, but these people they surveyed certainly thought so. And then this one's a good one. Other owners with insufficient horse experience, right? So We've all experienced that.
Either we've seen it or we've been that person. I know I've definitely been that person before that had a horse but really didn't know what I was doing. Luckily, I had mentors and people around me to help me. But that's definitely something we see. We see people that don't know how to handle a horse safely.
They don't know how to feed a horse correctly. They don't know how to house a horse. They just don't know. And so that's definitely an issue in our industry.
And that's something that my goal for you guys is by the end of this class and your semester's NCTC is you will be an educated horse owner. And so that if you have a horse now, you learn how to take care of it better. Or if you ever go buy a horse, you will have the knowledge to take care of that horse properly and handle it safely. So on my end, like my Ellen Black, like personal hope is that. So I can help address this issue by teaching you guys the things you need to be educated, professional horsemen.
And then some other issues we have here is lack of new horse participants. So lack of new people coming into the industry. And then poorly trained horses and overbreeding of horses. And so I think both of these poorly trained horses and overbreeding kind of can tie into this issue of horses or owners with insufficient horse experience, right?
You don't know what you're doing with the horse. You probably don't know how to train your horse or handle your horse safely. And then a lot of times people get horses just because they want to have baby horses in the barn and they're not really breeding for a purpose.
They're just breeding either because they won't get their... their stallion gelded or because they just they don't mind having baby horses running around they don't do anything with um and in this picture on the right is i'm a herd of mustangs and that kind of ties into our unwanted horses thing so let's just take a look here at some numbers on this unwanted horse issue because it's the top issue i know it says here 43 percent and it's kind of tied with some of these others but in other um Surveys I've looked at, this is people's top issue. And you'll see like the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, they're doing kind of a, not a campaign, but like a training program through 4-H called, I think it's called Homes for Horses.
And they let youth take these horses that people don't want. And then the youth have like a certain amount of time to train their horse and work with their horse. And then they show their horse.
at the Texas State 4-H horse show, and then that horse gets auctioned off. So it's kind of like, if you guys have ever heard of a Mustang makeover, it's kind of like that, but not for Mustangs, just for horses that are in sale barns or things like that. I'm not exactly sure on the way they choose the horses for that program, but it's kind of cool, right? A way to kind of show that these horses still have value and can still be used, even if they originally fell into that unwanted category.
So we see the statistic here in 2007, which something to keep in mind whenever I give you guys statistics or numbers or you're reading an article that has information, always check the year, right? And so 2007 in my mind doesn't sound that long ago because I'm in my 30s. But for you guys, I'm trying to think, surely y'all were all born by then.
I think most of you probably were born by then. But that was almost 20 years ago, right? That was a long time ago. And so here in a second, I'm actually going to Google. We're going to pull up and see what that number is now.
But in 2007, the Unwanted Horse Coalition estimated that there's 170,000 unwanted horses in the United States. And they kind of identified a few different reasons why those horses fall into the unwanted category. And so one is that there's a change in the owner's situation.
So either they're... you know, maybe somebody gets laid off, no longer can afford a horse. Maybe they move and they used to live out in the country and now they have to move to the city. And so they can't afford to keep a horse in town.
Um, sometimes we see a loss of owner interest in the horse, um, or they don't have a use for a horse, right? The use for a horse thing is less common because like we talked about in the last lecture, right? That most people aren't actually using their horses for work or out of necessity. They have the horse because they enjoy the horse. Um, it's a recreational activity, not, um, a labor source.
So, um, we see, you know, changes in people's interests for sure. And that can happen with grownups that especially can happen with kids, right? Um, you know, mom and dad say, I want my kid to learn how to ride a horse. And they put their kid in horse lessons and, um, their kid rides horses for a few years and then they grow up and go to high school. And start playing volleyball.
Or what happens for a lot of people is they still love their horses, they want their horses, but they finish high school and now they're going to go to college out of state, right? And they can't take their horse with them. And so they may sell their horse. So we see that too. So there's lots of different reasons why a horse becomes unwanted.
Number two would be a horse is too old or injured, right? So if a horse is aging, they're kind of in their senior years. Horses generally live to be about 30 or so. And so once they kind of start hitting that late 20s, early 30s stage, like they're getting up there in years.
And some people don't want to pay with the maintenance of an older horse. It's harder to keep an older horse in healthy weight. Older horses, you know, have more health issues, just like older people.
All right. That's common. So all that adds up to money and time.
Or if we have a horse that's injured. So that could be maybe the owner gets rid of them because the horse, they can't afford the medical bills for this horse. Or. The horse is injured, therefore it's lame, therefore it's no longer useful for this person's program, right? So if you are running a really intense performance horse program and your horse is injured and it can't compete at the level you need it to, you're not going to keep that horse most likely, right?
Or number three, a reason is that the horse is unmanageable. So a horse that is not easily trained or it's dangerous, right? And so all those things can tie into this unwanted horse challenge.
And so I'm going to pull up here and let's just kind of see if I can get a more... accurate number here on the number of unwanted horses in the United States. Okay, so if we look here, this is just pulling an article from the NIH, the National Institute of Health, and this is saying, you can see here the dates, this is 10 years later than this date, is saying there's approximately 200,000.
unwanted horses. And so if we look, whenever you guys, I really encourage you guys, we'll just take a second here and kind of talk about like how to look up information. When you're Googling this stuff, right in the land of AI, it's really easy to just be like, oh, and just like pay attention to the first result you see.
But it's good to kind of scroll through and just see and pay attention to like where people are getting these numbers. And so like sometimes I'll just. on these horse things, you'll Google something and you'll see an answer like, oh, that sounds good.
And then you click on it and it's actually just like a horse forum or just like random horse people can comment, whatever. And so we kind of want to pick a source that's more credible. And so this is through an extension.
Let's see here. So this is the extension foundation, cooperative extension. So this has a grant with USDA.
Okay, great. So that gives us some sort of thought on how many are the credibility of this source, right? So this is from 2019. And it says the American Horse Council estimates there are 9.2 million horses.
One to 1.5 are unwanted. So 92,000 to 138,000. So that is less, right, than this number and less than that number. Let's go back. I didn't even look at the date of this.
So this is another one. This is the University of Minnesota extension. So this would be a credible source. It's through an academic institution. And this is saying the same thing we're reading here.
It's probably the same number. And this was reviewed in 2021. Okay. So that gives us some more credibility to this higher number.
Okay. So this is saying, like our original source said, the American Horse Council estimated there's 170,000 unwanted horses. This article and this information was reviewed in 2021. So we can kind of have some assurance that this number is correct.
Okay. There was a fun little side trail on how to kind of suss out sources. Okay. Okay. So what are some economic challenges we face with unwanted horses?
The cost, right? It costs money. to have horses. And so we looked earlier at those other numbers talking about the differences in horse cost depending upon what you do with the horse, right? So these numbers are all pulled from the American Horse Council.
And so they estimate the cost to care for a horse is $1,800 to $2,300 a year. Okay. Now let's go back.
and check out our numbers from our American, or my mind just drew a total blank, the survey that we looked at before. So this is saying 1800 to 2300 a year, but keep in mind that this number is not taking into account what people do with their horses. It's just kind of an estimate.
If we go back here and look at our number, numbers for people that aren't a part of associations, the numbers are a little higher, right? 3,300, 5,000, 3,000, 5,000. And so we would see these, this number is a little low. And something I would consider is that this number, these numbers I pulled here are from, I believe the statistics are pulled from 2021. And so these are, since then, we've had an incredible amount of inflation since 2021. And so it makes sense that the numbers we saw on those earlier slides, those were numbers that were pulled last year in 2023. So it makes sense that those numbers would be higher, right? Regardless of that.
The cost to care for a horse is $1,800 to $2,300 at least, right? And I would say it's probably anywhere from $2,300 to $5,000 a year to keep one horse. That's a lot of money, right?
I mean, $1,800, let's just say it's $2,400. Oops, not trying to pull up word. It's $2,400 a year to keep a horse.
How much is that per month? That's 200 bucks a month, right? And so if we're spending 200 bucks a month on a horse, I mean, that could be a car payment. That could be money people spend on their student loans.
And so that's home insurance payment or whatever. Probably not that low, but it's expensive to keep a horse. And so then because of that, people also, you know, hold.
take their horses to the sale barn and some of those horses end up in kill pens. And people have a lot of different opinions on horse slaughter. Some people are very against it.
Some people are very for it. Something to keep in mind is if horse slaughter is illegal in the United States, it's not like those horses stop going to the kill pen. That's not what happens.
They will get transported to a country that does allow horse slaughter. So they will go um, to Mexico for slaughter. Um, and so that's something to keep in mind is that we hear the word slaughter. That's a pretty intense word, right? Like, oh my gosh, you know, I don't know about y'all.
There's this comedian, uh, Brian Regan, who talks about manslaughter, um, an intense, intense word. Let me fix my little camera. There we go.
I don't want to look like I'm beneath the camera. But when we, when slaughter is not legal in a place, it's, again, it's not like those animals suddenly aren't being slaughtered. They're just taken somewhere that does allow slaughter.
And the problem with making horse slaughter illegal is then, you know, not every horse is going to get bought by a kill pen, right? And so then those horses. will sit around someplace.
Oftentimes then they're not fed. People can't afford to feed their horse. And so then their horse will die from malnutrition or die from a health issue versus being able to be taken somewhere to be slaughtered humanely, which I know like that's a, that's a hard thing for us to think about, right?
Because, you know, a hundred years ago, horses were used for work. They were viewed more as livestock. So it was just like a cow or a pig or anything else.
You know, they were seen as a tool and then So the thought of slaughtering a horse wasn't as like, oh my gosh, as it can be nowadays. But just like with any kind of food animal, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, for us to be good caretakers and stewards of animals, we owe them life quality over quantity. So we owe them a good life.
more than we owe them a long life, right? It would be better to put a horse down humanely while they're not in pain or while they haven't gone through years or months of malnutrition, they haven't been slowly wasting away. It would be better and more humane to put that animal down before it declines in health more and goes out in pain, if that makes sense.
So I know that's kind of a hard topic and something that we don't talk a lot about in the horse world because Horses are not food animals here, right? We don't eat horses in the United States. And so that's just something to keep in mind. So anyways, you can see some numbers here that in 2006, there was about 11,000 horses that were taken to Mexico for slaughter.
In 2016, that number jumped up to almost 85,000. So a lot more horses were taken for slaughter, you know, within that 10-year period. than previously.
So I'll get off my little soapbox on um horse slaughter. I just, it's something I want you guys to think about. And it's, again, it's, it's something that as equine professionals, you need to be able to understand the reason behind those kinds of decisions.
Like, why would we be pro horse slaughter? Why would I be against horse slaughter? Like if you think, still think it's, you know, wrong and cruel, then that, you have your right to your, that opinion for sure.
And so you just need to do some research and kind of see like, you know, can you defend your side if somebody asked you about it? And That's just good in general to be able to, no matter what your opinion, if you like think jelly beans are gross, you know, it'd be good to kind of have an argument as to why you think that. I agree with you.
I don't like jelly beans. But yeah, something, something to think about for sure. We love our horses. We treat our horses as pets. Like for me, the thought of sending either of my horses to slaughter is like, oh my gosh, like I would never.
But in some cases it actually can be the more humane choice. versus letting that animal waste away in someone's pasture. And then the person can't get rid of that horse because nobody wants to buy this horse, right? Nobody's going to buy this horse to use it. And that person, so the person can't get rid of the horse.
And they also, you know, can't send them off to be killed either. So that's hard. Let's look at some other numbers here. So 63% of equine rescue facilities reported that they are at or near full capacity.
And on... average turn away almost 40% of the horses brought to them, right? So there are equine rescue facilities, just like there's, you know, cat and dog rescue places.
And most of them report that they're full, right? Imagine, you know, it's hard enough to get somebody to buy a horse that's healthy and well-trained and well-bred. That's hard enough to do versus trying to get someone to rescue a horse that, you know...
Maybe they can't ride it. Maybe it's lame. Maybe it's, you know, poorly behaved. So even harder to rescue out a horse than it would be a dog or a cat.
And then only 26.2% of relinquished horses were able to be rehomed. So only a quarter of the horses that were kind of saved from pill pens were actually able to be rehomed. So that's a very low number, right?
It's not saying that... that means we shouldn't do it, right? That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to rescue horses from kill pens. It just means that if you're going to rescue a horse from a kill pen, you need to be prepared to pay for that, to, you know, feed and care for that horse for the rest of its life.
Because the chances of it being able to be rehomed are fairly small. Not to say it's impossible, but that's just something to think about. Again, I know sometimes this is a hard topic for people, but it's good to kind of have... I don't want to say a logical mindset, but kind of a practical mindset, I guess is the word. It's easy to get caught up in the emotion of loving an animal.
And we keep an animal around for longer than it should be because we can't handle the pain of letting that animal die. Right. Or we can't handle the pain of putting that animal down.
It's hard on us. And. Because it's emotionally hard on us, a lot of times people accidentally make poor decisions for their animal's health because they can't handle the, you know, the emotions of having to say it's time to put this horse down, which is hard. Like, that's a very hard decision to make. I remember when we put down our first dog and he was like 11, you know, it was time for him to be put down.
And it was still like he'd had a long, happy, full life. And it was still like, it was so hard to do that. To make that decision requires you to kind of sacrifice your own feelings for the sake of an animal's quality of life.
And that's not an easy decision. So, okay, I'll move on. Okay, so what can we do to help this problem of horses that are not wanted? So number one. is develop effective and proactive strategies to manage the health and welfare of the horse.
So what can we do to help the health and welfare of the horse is educate horse owners, right? Teach them how to feed their horses properly, how to care for their horses properly. Teach people how to notice the signs of, you know, hey, your horse is starting to go downhill.
Maybe it's time to talk to the vet about the options, you know? Do we get this horse on some sort of supplement, a different feed plan, or has this horse lived its life out and it's time to put this horse down? You know, a lot of people, rather than, you know, putting down their 28-year-old horse, they'll just take him to the sale bar.
And it's like, what are the chances that horse is going to have a, you know, a happy life? you know, kind of hard to say. Number two, be a part of the positive dialect.
So speaking positively about the potential for these horses, you know, some, I know lots of people who've gotten horses from the kill pen that end up, they're really nice horses that just ended up there through unfortunate circumstance, horses that aren't very old, they're super well-trained or whatever the, you know, whatever their qualities are. And so it's important to be able to speak on the positive sides of these horses that aren't used or aren't wanted and speak about how they're, you know, there can be a place for them for sure. You know, even I see people sometimes on Facebook that they just want a horse to be a companion horse for another horse that they have.
So that's a situation where, you know, an unwanted horse could be a great fit, right? And then prepare for controversial issues or situations, right? get ready to speak about those kinds of things and speak from an educated standpoint.
And so these, what can we do things we're going to go through, these are applied to all of those different scenarios. We talked about the unwanted horse, uneducated horse owners, poorly trained horses, all those issues, we're going to talk about them all together as we look at this slide. and slides talking about what we can do, right? And so even like the issue of the loss of trail areas, right? Riding in trail areas.
How can we speak positively about that and kind of get people to see the good side to having those things? And so one thing we could do is make sure that or try to encourage people to actually use the ones we have now, right? So what's a way maybe we could incentivize people to take their horses out on the trail so that the existing trails and riding areas are being used?
And that, you know, therefore would make it harder for people to get rid of them. Right. Just like anything like we have even out here at the equine center. Right.
If we have which we don't now, we use everything we have. But if we had like, let's say, a piece of equipment we never use and. You know, it's easy for someone to come in and say, well, let's just get rid of that. We don't use it. Right.
Versus if someone comes in and say, let's get rid of that. We don't use it. And then I can say, actually, we use that piece of equipment every single day. And then they're going to go, oh, OK, well, we don't need to get rid of it then.
Same thing for the trail, you know, the trail spaces and things like that. And then preparing for controversial, controversial issues or situations. Horse slaughter is a huge one.
Animal welfare. We're going to talk about that here in a minute. That's a huge issue.
And that's something we need to start getting educated on and teaching people, especially because we're in the ag industry and people nowadays are far removed from our industry. You know, 50 years ago or 30 years ago, or even just, you know, one or two generations before you guys, you know, maybe your dad wasn't a farmer or rancher. But, you know, I bet one of your grandparents was or, you know, they grew up on a farm. And so you were, even if maybe your parent didn't grow up in the ag industry, your grandparents did or your great grandparents, right? And nowadays that's less common.
You know, my dad's a musician. His dad was an engineer. My mom's dad worked in the oil field.
And then so like my great grandparents, they grew up. farming and like in an ag community right but that's i don't i'm not there you know they died when i was 10 i don't really you know it's not like i really know them and it's not like i grew up on a farm and so because of that you know people don't even understand um how animal products are made how animals are slaughtered um and that's something that we won't talk about in this class because horses are not food animals here in the united states we do not eat horse meat um But it's good to be educated on those things that we can speak on them and say, you know, hey, this is why this animal is why we do this with this animal. So for us in the equine industry, animal welfare is a huge thing. People are very critical of the horse racing industry.
They're very critical of the rodeo industry. People have you know, they don't like Western pleasure horses or halter horses or reiners. And certainly every aspect, every discipline in the equine world has its issues, right? Not everything's perfect.
There's always things to be made and improved upon. But as advocates for our industry, we really have to be educated. And so that we can...
speak on those things from an informed perspective and help kind of change the narrative about our industry. Number four here, this is really good. Only use facts and have documentation to back them up. And so that's part of the reason in these slides, you know, I try to give you guys hard numbers where we can and be honest and upfront about where we don't have hard numbers or where things are a little off.
Fix my little camera again. Not where we're off, but like the survey, that survey that just went out, the one we looked at on the last lecture, those numbers just came out and there hasn't been a study like that done in several years. And so when I did this lecture last year, that was something I mentioned was these numbers may be outdated by now.
And now luckily we've got this new survey that went out so we can kind of update all that information, which is great. And then number five here. gather proof of positive measures enacted.
So how can we speak positively? And so that's something, um, you know, people a lot of times criticize the racehorse industry because of breakdowns on the track. And, um, that is certainly an issue, right? And that does happen. Um, but if we actually look at the number of breakdowns on the track that happen, it is very, very small, um, considering how many races are run in a day, how many horses are on the track, you know, obviously the media and, um, People want to see what's exciting.
And it's not exciting to say that, oh, we ran, you know, a thousand horses ran on the track this weekend and one horse fell down and fractured its leg. That's not an exciting number, right? It's more exciting or it's not exciting to say a thousand horses ran on the track and there were zero breakdowns on the track. No one cares about that.
What they want to see is a really intense video of a horse breaking its leg on a racetrack and being hauled off, you know? As sad as it is to say, like, that's what people want to see. And so it's important for us to not be caught up in the media and, you know, the kind of, oh, gotcha, gotcha journalism kind of stuff. And instead be like, you know, talk about how strict racing protocols are, how they do, you know, people talk a lot about racehorses being drugged.
And we can talk about, actually, that's not actually true. You know, there's really stringent drug testing that happens on the track all the time. And, you know, the horses are tested before and after, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, we could talk about those things. And so what I know, I've had students this year, more than ever, students that are involved in the racing industry, which is really exciting. I'm learning a lot about it, things I didn't know before.
And so if that's something, you know, you're interested in racehorses, or maybe you're really interested in reining horses, or you like jumping, or you just want to be a rancher, right? is kind of do some digging and some Googling and read what are people saying about the thing, the part of the horse industry that I love. Right.
And so like, for me, I'm not, I don't compete in rodeo events, but I love rodeo. Like that's just, I just love it. Um, even though I compete in cow horse stuff, like I love rodeo events.
And so, um, you know, people. love to hate on the rodeo industry and talk about how poorly these animals are being treated and how horses are forced to buck or bulls are forced to buck and how they, you know, tie their flank straps around their genitals and things like that. And, you know, all it takes is actually looking at a picture of a bucking horse with the flank strap and you can see it's not wrapped around his genitals and you can also see how loose it is.
But anyways, you know, it just takes a little bit of, on our end, kind of... fleshing out some of the issues that are being said about our industry and and seeing where we can defend our industry and then also being honest and saying you know what actually we can do a better job of xyz you know in our in the equine world and that's something we talk a little bit about in equine science one is some different things that some issues that are happening in certain breeds and how we can advocate for the horse a little bit better in those areas Okay, so what else can we do? So I just kind of talked about this, but educate, right? Teach people as much as we can about what's really going on and what's really happening.
And if you don't know what's going on, you know, you don't know. And if you go to a rodeo and it's maybe, you know, it's your first rodeo or something and you see something, you're like, oh my gosh, like that horse is being treated so poorly, you know? you as a horse person in this class, then it's your job to evaluate how that horse is actually being treated and ask someone, you know, ask and not like, did you see what they did to that horse?
Not like that, but... you know, Hey, like I, I saw this happen. Like, why did y'all do that? Or, you know, I'm trying, I'm new to this. I'm trying to learn, you know, why do y'all put the straps?
Why do you put that flank strap here versus up here? And, um, going at it with a, a mindset of curiosity versus, um, attacking people or criticizing people that helps, you know, that people, I cannot tell you like people that care for livestock. Um, they want their animals to have. good lives and live well because those animals are what makes them their money.
That's their livelihood. And so they, I'm just, I'm so sure they would be very happy to tell you why they do things the way they do and how it actually is good for the animal and good for them. So the next one on this list is engage government officials. So support organizations that are involved in um government. They're involved in laws and regulations.
And, you know, there's lots of different groups that advocate for the ag industry, that advocate for the equine industry to kind of help protect our industry. I'm blanking right now. What is the name?
I think it's Protect Our Harvest. Let's see here. Yes, protect the harvest.
This is a good organization. You guys want to check it out. And so basically they talk a lot about, you know, fighting against extremists and people that are trying to kind of change the ag way of life, the Western way of life and helping to fix misconceptions and things like that. And so.
you can kind of check them out. They have a really cool mission statement and you can look at other things like that if that interests you. And then take part in a census.
So the USDA does the National Agricultural Statistics Service census every five years. You can see this slide. I didn't update it. The next census is in 2022. So that has obviously already happened. And the American Horse Council census happened in 2022 as well.
So you guys can look those up if you want to kind of see that. I keep clicking on that on accident to see that information. Oh, well, you got a little sneak peek there. So the next thing we will talk about is animal welfare versus animal rights. We get these two terms confused and they're wildly different.
So animal welfare. is a belief system that we have the right to interact with animals in the industry, sport, recreation, and entertainment. So we have a right to be involved with animals in a variety of ways. But along with that right comes the responsibility to provide proper care and handling. So animal welfare means that I, as a human being, have the right to interact with this animal to handle this animal, to care for this animal, you know, to use this animal for different means.
But along with that, I have a responsibility to provide proper care and handling. So that means if I don't know how to properly care for this animal, I do not need to be interacting with it, right? If I don't know how to safely handle a horse, I don't need to be interacting with this animal.
And so... This is where people can kind of get confused when they hear animal welfare or animal rights. And so animal rights is a philosophy that animals have rights equal to those of humans.
Animal rights extremists reject the use of animals for any purpose, regardless of treatment. They equate use with abuse. Okay.
And so animal rights extremists think, you know, we shouldn't use horses. for the rodeo. People shouldn't own horses. People shouldn't ride horses.
Um, doesn't matter how the animal's treated. We don't have a right to use that animal for anything or interact with that animal. And so people that are very pro animal rights, they want, you know, all animals to be released and set free and humans not touch them and things like that. Um, and so where you fall on this. animal welfare or animal rights is your own decision, you know.
But most people that are attacking our industry, the ag industry, the equine industry, are people that fall into this animal rights category. And so they don't, you know, they think it's cruel that we ride horses or we make horses jump or we, you know, make horses do sliding stops or work cows. And so that's where, you know, we as people who are pro animal welfare, we can speak on that and, you know, show them how these animals are cared for or show them, you know, how, you know, you it's you can't make a horse. buck, you know, have you ever, I'm sure maybe you have or haven't, if you watch enough rodeo videos, you'll see horses, you know, if you go to a rodeo or you watch videos, some horses, they open the chute and that horse doesn't move, you know, or you'll see horses, horses buck naturally.
That's a natural behavior for horses. Horses that are reiners, if you watch little foals out in the pasture, they're running around and they'll do a little slidey stop on their own. Um, it's, it's a natural behavior for these animals.
Um, and you know, most of the horses naturally jump things. And so, um, as people who are pro animal welfare, it's our job to be able to show how it's not abuse, how these animals are being used for something they are made for. Um, and then also it's our duty to give proper care for these animals so that, you know, we don't, um, We don't look like hypocrites, right?
And that's why if you guys take, those of y'all that take any of my riding classes, it's really important to me that we keep the barn clean, that our horses are clean, that we put up our tack properly, that the mats are swept. You know, it's important that things look and are clean because, you know, that's what the outer world sees. They don't see, you know, they're not always there when we're like rubbing and kissing on our horses.
you know, they see, they're going to be like, well, you say you love your horse, but their water bucket is dirty. Right. And so, um, just buckle up for those of y'all that are going to be in my riding classes.
I'm not like super hardcore. I'm not going to make y'all like pick up every speck of dust, but we do spend time at the end of every day, cleaning things up. We spend time before and after we use those horses, grooming them, um, and, and putting fly spray on them and making sure they're cared really well, cared for really well. Because it's our duty to be advocates for animal welfare. So next slide, we just saw that being professional is very important.
So that's something I'm going to kind of hammer on you guys this year. And, you know, in today's world, I think a lot of people are more casual and conversational. And there's pros and cons to that. But when we are speaking to people in a way that we're trying to educate them, we're trying to inform, we're trying to advocate for something, it's important that we are professional in our presentation because that gives us credibility.
And so this industry operates largely on what? Personal connections. Okay. Your reputation is vital here.
especially, you know, the horse community is smaller than we think. And who you know can help or hurt you, right? Who you know, what that person says about you is huge.
I mean, that's really important in a lot of industries, but especially here, especially in the horse world, it's smaller than we think. You know, the amount of times I've been at a horse show and you're sitting there and you hear somebody talking three rows down and they're talking about somebody, you know, that's happened to me all the time. And you're like, oh, small world. And so you guys that are, you know, doing our associates degree, when we have guest speakers come in and speak, it is so important that you guys present yourselves well, that you present yourselves professionally, that, you know, you make a good impression.
If you guys go and do an internship, And you go work for a horse trainer. It's really important that you guys work hard, that you show up on time, that you say what you're going to do, that you're dressed well, you know, you pay attention, those kinds of things, because you might not get a job from that person, right? You might go work for a horse trainer and think, this is horrible.
I never want to be a horse trainer. That was me, right? I worked for a horse trainer and I was like, I hate this. Some people love it. I did not.
But what that horse trainer might be really good friends. with the guy that runs the feed store down the street and you go apply for a job at the feed store and you put on your resume that you worked for so-and-so trainer. And that feed store calls the trainer and says, hey, I saw that, you know, Ellen worked for you. What do you got to say about her?
That stuff is really, really important. And then your reputation is not just who you are in person. This is really, really important, especially in today's social media age.
And so what you say on Facebook, what you say on Instagram, the TikToks you make, the Snapchats you make and post. Um, that represents you just as much, if not more than who you are in person. Right. I don't, I don't see people in person all the time.
I do see everything they post on Facebook. Right. I don't get to talk to all of my students every day.
Um, but I, you know, I do hear what, you know, so-and-so said so-and-so about so-and-so. Right. That just, those conversations just happen whether you want to be a part of them or not. Um, and so it's, It's very important that you guys have that mindset, those of y'all especially that are moving from high school on to now being in college. You're starting to get out on your own.
And now, you know, before when you're in high school, you're in middle school, your family kind of represents you, right? You're your own person, but you kind of have that covering or that kind of community mindset of you're part of so-and-so family. And now as you go out into college and you either you're moving out of your parents'house, you already have, you move states, whatever you're doing.
Um, you know, you're starting to represent yourself and you don't, you don't always have that reputation following you of, you know, my dad's a really good guy. Like once you start being an adult, nobody cares who your dad is. I've had students do that before. They wanted to, on a resume, say that they're putting on their resume who their dad was.
And it was like, nobody cares about that. I don't care who your dad is. I don't care if your dad's the president, I'm hiring you, not your dad. Um, and so, um, keep.
Keep that in mind. I really encourage you guys. It's really easy nowadays to post something stupid on Facebook, to post something inappropriate on social media. And I just caution you guys to kind of protect yourselves and think about the long run. You know, how do I want to be represented 10 years from now?
You know, do I want somebody to be able to go back and find a really, you know, out of pocket video or something I posted on TikTok? Like, probably not. And then moments that can make or break your reputation.
Some examples of those would be representing a horse for sale. Okay, so you're selling a horse and you know that that horse is cold back. And when you cinch him up, he's going to buck.
And if you're selling that horse, you have to make a decision if you're going to disclose that or not, right? Or maybe you know that that horse is sound right now, but he's got a chronic lameness. And you're kind of like, it hasn't popped up in a while.
Do you say anything about it? Right? And so that's something that's really important.
I've got a really good friend. Y'all are going to listen to one of her interview videos in this class where she sells horses and she is fantastic about being very upfront and honest about what that horse's issues are. She totally checks out those horses and sees what they do well, what they don't do well. And when she posts an ad, she doesn't hide any of it. lame every now and then on the front left she'll say that you know this horse is occasionally lame on the front end only suitable for a walk trot home you know or whatever it is and so that that has served her very well and even though i don't sell horses or buy horses that frequently if i ever do like she's the girl i go to she's the girl i send people to when they're looking for a horse because i know she's trustworthy right another example be something breaks you tell someone Do you say something?
I definitely know people in professional circles who they broke something, they, you know, wrecked something and they don't tell anybody. And that's, that's not the way to be, you know, that's just be upfront. Accidents happen.
You know, I've broken my fair share of stuff, you know, and the best thing you can do in that moment is just address it right away. XYZ happened. I'm so sorry. You know, blah, blah, blah. That speaks so well of you, right?
Being upfront, even if that person is angry when you tell them that you broke something, that is way better than them finding out that you broke something and you lied to them about it, right? And then the last one here, drama or stories in the circles that you run with. You know, you become who your friends are. So if you are hanging out with people that are always involved in drama, they're always having issues, their life is oh so woe, oh my life is so horrible, you know, that's going to impact you. And it's your decision if you stay friends with those people or not.
And, you know, without being too motherly and preachy on you guys, you know, you just need to think about that. It is very hard to not become like the people you hang around, especially in college, right? You're kind of trying to figure out who you are.
You're trying to figure out your personality. What do I like? What are my beliefs? What are my values? And so it is so easy to engage in gossip.
It's so easy to engage in drama. It's very like alluring, right? It like pulls us in like, ooh, you know, what's the scoop? What happened with so-and-so? And that happens a lot in any industry, but that happens a lot in the horse industry, right?
And something I've started saying, you know, people are like, did you hear, oh, do you know so-and-so? And then they'll tell me a bad story about someone. And, um, it's even hard, you know, I'm in my thirties and I'm still learning how to navigate those situations. And something I'm learning how to say is like, wow, that sounds, you know, if it's someone I know and I hear a negative story about them, I'll say like, that doesn't really sound like them.
You know, that that's really surprises me because I've only had good experiences with this person. Um, and so I just encourage you guys to kind of think about what person you want to be, and then that will dictate what kind of people you want to be around. Right.
Um, As I've gotten older, my friend group has gotten smaller and I'm so, so happy. You know, the people that I'm close with, I'm really close with. And they're people that keep me accountable and will say, you know, hey, you're out of line here.
You didn't handle this situation well. But they're also people that are like, you know, they're cheering for me too. So anyways, last thing on our industry thing here is that perception is reality. So what people think they see is what they believe. So if they think you're a slacker, they see you sitting on your phone when you're at work, that even if you're texting back your boss or there's an emergency, they're not thinking, oh, I bet she's got something important to tend to, right?
They think that girl's not paying attention. She's not working. If someone that's not involved in the ag industry at all sees a horse in the show pen or horse in a rodeo that's clearly lame, they're not thinking, oh, you know, I bet they care so much about that horse.
They're thinking that's cruel. Okay. So some examples we have here, this is a very poor looking halter horse.
And this isn't to criticize the people. I don't know who owns this horse. I don't know anything about this horse.
It's just an example of, you know, people that look, that don't know what they're seeing, you know, could maybe think this is an okay horse. People that are in the horse industry can see this is a horse with very straight legs, very poor structure. And so it's easy to get a negative opinion for the public.
And it's just as easy for us as forced people to defend this, right? Or to defend this, right? And so there is a fine line here.
Remember that animal welfare talk about, yes, we have a right to interact with these animals. Yes, we have a right to use these animals for different things, but we are also responsible for their welfare. And so this horse is a product of breeding, you know, a bunch of halter horses, maybe some inbred breeding. I don't know anything about this horse's history, but looking at this horse, we can see this horse is not very functional, right? This horse is likely going to have huge lameness issues.
And so it's my job as a responsible horse person in the industry to be able. to say that I don't, you know, we need to have less horses that look like this. We need less horses that are dwarf horses like this, right? Yes, it's fun to make small horses and breed them small.
And there are people that want that and there's a use for them. And I'm not criticizing the, you know, the miniature horse industry at all. But, you know, people see it as small horse.
Some people think this is really cute. And to be honest with me, it is cute, right? And other people think, good grief, that horse is going to have a ton of health issues. Same with this kind of horse, right? This horse is not a very pretty horse.
Maybe this horse is super useful. We don't know. And so that's just something to keep in mind is what people, uneducated people see is what they believe and even educated people, right? And so it's our job to be able to defend the good, but also address the bad and be able to say this is not a well. a balanced horse.
This horse has a lot of leg issues. We don't need to breed horses that look like this, right? Okay, so our last slide, how do we control perception? How do we control how people see our industry?
And, you know, kind of tying this back into our talk on economics and, you know, horses are a recreational sport. It's a recreational activity. People do this for fun. So how do we promote this and make our industry seem fun and exciting and engaging, but also show that these animals are well taken care for?
There's a high degree of care. We care about the quality of life these animals have. We're professional.
How do we present our industry well? And so some things we can do here, wannabe appearance. So that means, you know, If you guys are in my, this is an online class, but when we go take tours of other classes or other facilities, we have guest speakers. It means that you dress well.
You know, when we go and tour different farms, I have you guys, you know, we're wearing jeans, closed-toed shoes, collared shirts, you know, we need to show up looking like, you know, we've got some professionalism about us. We're ready to be there and present ourselves. Number two is behavior.
Okay, and I'm going to kind of tailor all this stuff to what you guys are going through in class. Like, you could take, you know, these points and apply them to any situation. But that means behavior means, you know, we have a guest speaker.
You are quiet when they're talking. That means you ask good questions when they're done talking. That means when I'm talking in class, you're paying attention.
That means when we're out at a horse farm, you know, and... You see a piece of trash on the ground, you pick it up and throw it away. You're here at the equine center.
You see trash, you throw it away. Reliability. That means you show up on time.
You show up early, right? You're there when you say you're going to be there. If you can't make it, you say something. Competence.
Competence means capability. You are able to do something. So that's a skill set. Those are skills we'll learn in all different classes.
But you need to be able to do a skill. You need to be able to be someone that I can say, I know. You know, I know she can do it. I know she can get that done.
And so that, you know, when we when you guys are in my other classes or even in this class, you know, something we'll talk about is, you know, I'm going to make you guys do kind of the small things over and over. We're going to make sure everybody can tie a certain type of knot. We're going to make sure everybody can bridle their horses correctly and safely. We're going to make sure everybody can write a sentence, a complete sentence with good grammar.
It's really important that we have a high level of competence. Because if you're reliable and you show up on time and you look nice, but you can't do anything, that's not very handy. Right.
And the opposite is not good either. If you're really, really good at your job, but you look sloppy and you don't show up half the time, that also is no good. Right.
And then number number five here, ethics. Right. So that kind of goes into what we were talking about, about, you know, being careful what kind of people you run with presenting, you know, bringing problems or mistakes forward being. honest with people. If you're selling a horse, if you're selling a saddle, you know, whatever it is, you know, having some values and some things you're striving for.
This one, maintain poise. And so that's the ability to, someone's criticizing you, they're criticizing the horse world, they're criticizing whatever. The ability to stay calm, the ability to not get defensive.
And that's a very hard skill, right? And it's something that we can all continually be working on. But the ability to take...
negative energy, not, I sound like a hippie. I feel like when I say that, but to take negative energy, to take negative words, criticism, and remain calm and, and remain professional in your response, right? Communication, replying to people. If you guys, we listen to some of these interviews in this class and you'll hear a lot of trainers and people say like something that helps their business or they're really trying to do is communicate. So when someone calls, pick up the phone or reply back and say, I'm going to call you.
That's something we can take with us in all of life. Organizational skills. So you have your stuff laid out for you guys.
We'll talk, I'm going to do a separate video on kind of like how to kind of organize yourself and get, you know, study well and things like that. But having things organized, having your room organized, having, if you... you know, have your horse stuff, having that organized.
Accountability. So being held accountable is so important. And so that's something, you know, I can only do so much in classes with deadlines and things like that and grades. But have people in your life that, you know, hey, you and me, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna be study buddies. And every Wednesday night from 7pm to 9, we're gonna study equine science one or every, you know, Wednesday from Seven to nine, we're going to watch the interviews for equine enterprise management.
We're going to knock this out. That is a great thing to start now and start building the habit of being accountable. And the last one is self-awareness.
So that's something we're going to kind of try to do in this class a little bit with kind of these personality tests, reflecting back on these different careers and figuring out where. Your skills lie where your weaknesses are, how that kind of will shape and mold what career you take. But being self-aware is so important. The ability to look at yourself and realize that you are not perfect.
You make mistakes. I make mistakes every day. And that's not bad.
That just means you're human. It also means you're trying new things, right? If you're making a mistake, it's probably because it's something you haven't ever done before.
And that's okay. I have students that will call me, they're in a bad situation and they made a mistake and they said something they shouldn't have, or they needed to leave a job and they didn't leave their job very well. And so we'll talk about it and I'll say, I understand why you did X, Y, Z, you're in a tough spot. Next time, here's what we need to do, or here's what you need to do right now. Right now, you need to text this person and say, you know.
I'm sorry that these things ended like this and blah, blah, blah. So having the ability to kind of look at yourself and think, can I, could I have handled that situation better? You know, could I have said something differently?
Could I have been more gracious? Could I have been more honest, right? Instead of just someone says, oh, that horse is, you know, that's so cruel that they're roping a cow off that horse, you know, instead of being like, could I have taken that moment and actually spoken on that topic or, you know.
things like that. So that was a long lecture, I know, but this is a really important thing for you guys. It's why I put this lecture with this class. This is typically one of the first classes people take when they do our degree. The equine industry just needs educated people who are professional and engaging.
And what I found is that a lot of our students are engaging. You guys are fun to talk to. I enjoy, you know, I love coming to work. Y'all are fun.
Y'all are a good time. And y'all are smart too, right? Y'all, I'm always blown away.
Y'all are smart. Y'all ask good questions. And so what we can do to kind of help grow and use this, you know, even if it's one semester or two years here, this is the time to start working on your performance. professional skills to start working on your, your professional reputation.
And so that when you leave NCTC, you know, at the very least you have me, your equine instructor who can say that kid, you know, or that, that student, that student, you know, they showed up on time, you know, they turned in everything. If they missed an assignment, they were quick to send me an email and apologize and get it turned in as quick as they could. Like that goes a long way. So that's kind of my encouragement to you guys is by the end of this, you know, I would love to be able to write an honest letter of recommendation for all my students. Like that would be so cool.
Right. So think of a goal for that for yourself. How can how can you kind of put these things into place even now, even if maybe you're not working?
You know, how can you go ahead and start working on these skills now? So, yeah. So that was that.
And that was the end of our, I think this lecture is called Economics Part 2, but that'll be in your module for this week. And I'll catch you later.