It upsets me that as a species we have a total lack of respect for nature. – When Horses become unfit for our superficial use we disgard them….They are beautiful, intelligent creatures.
I had a revelation while watching a medi-eveil battle film. – Horses have no idea that they are in a film. They are forced to charge at other horses and are expected to fall over. They must be so traumatised. I know that these horses will be trained to fall over by cognitive behavioural techniques – Ie they are rewarded for good behaviour (in this case the stunts for a film). It still must be pretty traumatising for the horse.
Horses owned by the police as a form of riot control also experience trauma…only this is worse because although it makes no difference to the horse if its in a film or in an actual dangerous situation. We as people know that we are putting these horses in a dangerous situation. Its not fair that they should be involved in the quarrelling of humans.
These horses then either get re-homed to a centre where they are given therapy…or they are put down because they are unsuitable to re-home. Horses are incredibly sensitive creatures, they can show signs of stress and trauma through emotional triggers.
I find it brutal and disgusting that race horses are put down when they are old, there might not be anything particularly wrong with the horse but they deemed unsuitable for the track. Even carriage horses after a while are taken away not because they are too old but because they need to look pristine especially if they are for the Queen of England. We want horses in their prime and when they are unfit we abandon them.
Although this example is pretty old in the 1981 film Anna Karenina a horse was tripped with a wire, which is very cruel. Nowadays if a horse is expected to fall whilst running, a hole will be dug in the earth and there will be a soft cushioning under the top layer of earth so that the horse won’t be harmed. Although this is safer I still don’t feel its humane.
More recently in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the rings trilogy Viggo Mortensson who played Aragon, spent a lot of time behind the scenes with his two horses and formed a close bonds. It is noted that he was very dedicated to his role in lord of the rings, he slept in a tent in the wild and hunted his own food. He did lots of research for his role! After the films were wrapped he bought both of them, he loved them so much! Apparently non of the horses in Lord of the rings were harmed. For large battle scenes the horses were CGI.
This evening I was watching Dawn of the planets of the apes in which the apes, and horses featured with in this film are CGI. Normally when I watch a film with CGI I discredit it because I have always thought from an aesthetic point of view it looks ridiculous and film producers could spend less money by hiring real animals than spending the money on CGI software. But after my horsey epiphany I’m quiet glad of it. Especially in a film that is as violent as this.
Although I have mentioned some examples here where the actors have been dedicated enough to their horses to buy them (out of love and concern for their welfare.) And other films avoid traumatising real horses by using CGI. Not every filmmaker will have these ideas and not every actor will make a bond with their horse and keep it afterwards. Most of the time we dispose of them when they are no longer of any use to us. This kills me. It is disrespectful…there are some things that make me very ashamed to be human.
We are greedy, we use and we take until their is nothing left. We panic and then think of more ways to be greedy and take more. We have no respect. We harm animals who are so much closer to nature, sensitive beautiful animals. When really….we are the animals.
We are barbaric.
ecmurrayreflects 
