Would you eat a horse?

[birdshot]

yeah i would give it a try if there was a season.
off topic. any species will breed to average if left to their own devices. through selective breeding you get breeds like thouroughbreds, or quarterhorse which are better suited for their designed purpose.

[TheNatureBoy]

Only if I had to. I've probably eaten some already but just don't know it.

[Scorch]

Horse meat is very good, slightly sweeter than beef and leaner. I would eat it in a heartbeat. 600 lbs of mustang on the ground is going to look mighty tasty all wrapped up and packaged in white paper with the letters FLICKA in bright red on the paper.

When I lived in NV I knew people who had lived through the Depression (the one in the 1930s, not the current one), and yes, they ate horse meat. They also used horses for target practice and ballistic testing, as well as shipped them off for dog food.

[markj]

Guy here in Iowa butchers one every holiday season.

Resturants in France are taking it off the menus, it is harder to get horse meat now the US quit killing them. Lots of horses for free around here, or very cheap. Hay is high too.

We raised race horses, the ones didnt make it on the track went to the killers, not a good idea to give a race horse to a person that isnt up to the task so we sent them there. Some made a lot of money. Some didnt make a dime.

[Daryl]

I can't imagine why they aren't more popular to own. People are funny though, just like dogs - everybody wants some expensive and inbred papered dog rather than the healthy mixed mutt from the pound.

Would I eat horse? Sure, why not? Would I hunt them? Nope.

Ever rode a wild bronc?

A horse born in captivity, that's been around people all of it's life isn't bad to break. You work with them from the time they're small, and when they reach about 2 years old, they're ready to start riding. It can hurt you if you don't know what you're doing, but it's not TOO rough to get them to come around to your way of thinkin'.

A horse that's reached 5-10 years of age in the wild is another story. That critter has NO reason to trust you, and only knows that you're the one keeping it penned up, tormenting it with your silly ideas every day. That sort of cantankerous critter can hurt you now matter how smart you think you are. They're a handful for the most experienced trainer.

There's an ol' boy that lives a couple of miles from me who has several of those crazy mustangs. Last time I talked to him, he'd been thrown 4 times that day from three different broncs. Most of them weren't very big, maybe some bigger than a great dane, and ornery as all get out. His biggest one was maybe 14 hands, and weighed in at maybe 800 lbs. That's still a pretty small horse.

I felt sorry for him. Not for getting thrown, but for the effort he'd been putting into those critters for the last few years trying to break and train them. Even if he managed to get them rideable some day, they just weren't big enough to amount to much.

At that time, I had a big registered Morgan that I was riding. I could ride ol' Chance all day long, day in and day out, and never wear him down.

I'd imagine he ate somewhat less than the 10 or 12 pint sized critters Tom had. On the odd times when Chance would buck a little, it was mostly because I was making him do something he didn't want to do. He'd come around to it, but sometimes had to test who was boss first. If he'd really wanted to, he could have thrown me. I've no doubt about that, but he never did.

I'm old enough now that I'll leave breaking a horse to the younger fellas, and if I'm going to keep one, I want it to be one that's worth the price it costs for maintenance and feeding.

I view eating a horse sorta like eating a rattlesnake. If it's there, and I'm hungry, I'll sure eat it. I won't go too far out of my way to find either for dinner though. A good buffalo or elk steak is more to my liking, and I have a buffalo steak in the 'fridge from last night. I think I'll go eat it for lunch.

Daryl

[Microgunner]

Would you eat a horse?

Hellll yeah. Why? You cooking one up this weekend?

[kodiakbeer]

A horse born in captivity, that's been around people all of it's life isn't bad to break.

Question answered!

[JackL]

Not only would I eat horse, I can think of two or three I'd like to start with.

[ZeroJunk]

We got one of those mustangs years ago. I broke him mostly out in a wet plowed field where it didn't hurt so bad when you hit. Ugly old thing with a Roman nose.

If they were as pretty as the actors they use on TV for a wild mustang they could find a home easily.

[THORN74]

it wouldnt be my first choice, but the way i look at it: MAN is the top of the food chain, so everything else is possible food source.

[fisherman66]

I'm not a picky eater but I can't imagine hunting horse. I guess Zebra must taste pretty similar to horse. I guess I have a cultural block against shooting a horse. I'd be pretty upset to hear that a "game" ranch had domesticated horses on a shoot list.

[Buzzcook]

Beef prices were real high in the 70's and horse, along with buffalo and beefalo were marketed as alternatives.

People didn't know how to cook the lower fat meat, so it tended to be pretty dry. The flavor was fairly close to that of beef.

I did eat some and didn't mind it. Wouldn't eat it again unless it was cost effective.

[banditt007]

So figure 180 grains out of my 30-06 would work? I do like horses, but i distinguish with all animals. I distinguish between an animal that is a pet and one that is out there for the sport of the hunt and the meat it provides. For example, if i had a pet rabbit, i would still go rabbit hunting, and take them home to eat. Though it seems a bit strange to some, I have no problem with it, because to me they are two seperate animals, one is a pet the other is a game animal.

Thinking logically, I would have to try horse meat first, before i killed one. I would not feel good about killing one, all the work to get the meat to the freezer, and find out i don't like the taste!!! In fact to take that one step further, I'd need to find a few friends that liked it and would take it. Because i simply could not use that much meat before it got freezer burned/too old to eat.

So lets talk about the hunt? Are these wild ones hard to stalk up on? Do they act like moose where they just stand there sometimes when shot, or do they take off like a deer for 100 yards while we stand there in amazement knowing they don't have any lungs left!? ect ect

[more forty fives]

My grandfather used to feed it to his dog.It came frozen, looked just like a nice rib-eye to me.Fire up the grill!!

[Kreyzhorse]

I'm not a horse lover so I wouldn't mind trying it and certainly would if I had the chance. Dog? Not a chance.

[30-30remchester]

Yes I have.

[Tuzo]

Horse meat has the look of venison but tender, less sinewy, and without a gamey flavor. Feedlot beef, the bulk of US beef, tastes a bit sour compared to horse. I lived and worked in central Asia for a number of years and horse meat was a treat and a break from lamb. Camel is not too bad either but in central Asia a camel has more value than a horse due to milk production so it is not on the menu as often as horse.

[moosemike]

As a horseman I would not be eager to. Things would have to be pretty bad.

[Gunplummer]

Yes, I did in Europe, France does not have a monopoly on it. Chances are if you wandered around a beer fest in Germany, and ordered a Ross Wurst sandwich, you just ate horse sausage.

[reloader28]

I've tried it and its very good. I dont know if it was grain fed or grass fed, but it was some of the tastiest meat I've ever had.

Chances are, some of you have had it and didnt know it. I dont know for a fact, but I've heard from a couple very reliable sources that they use to use alot of it in restaraunts around Chicago and New York.

Sounds like a good way to get rid of some of the wild BLM horses around here. They do the adoption thing, but the odds of getting a decent ridable horse is unlikly. I only know of about one guy that was happy with his horse. The rest were all so screwed up in the head that they never would calm down and staighten out.
And the horses were worse.

[Rifleman1776]

In France what is offered on the menu as 'bif stek' is usually really horse. I'm certain I have eaten it several times.
As for the horses on the plains, I favor elimination. Time has come to let reason prevail over the wails of the extremist animal lovers.

[Evan Thomas]

The French love horse meat.

And with good reason. It's excellent when properly cooked. I lived in France for a while, and ate horse meat regularly; I'd eat it now if it were available.

It's an interesting question which would taste better, "farmed" horse meat, or meat from wild horses shot as game. I'd love to do the experiment...

As a practical matter of population control, though, I wonder if rounding up wild horses, pasturing them for a bit, and then slaughtering them for meat, wouldn't be more effective than opening a hunting season on them.

Get them off BLM land and farm them for meat, say I. People farm-raise bison, elk, caribou, etc., etc., for meat -- why not horses?

[beardenbc]

It worked great for Genghis Khan's army.

[FrankenMauser]

Get them off BLM land and farm them for meat, say I. People farm-raise bison, elk, caribou, etc., etc., for meat -- why not horses?

"Because they're such beautiful animals"......


I'm with many of you: Sell tags. Bring in more hunting revenue.


They're not even a native species....

[James R. Burke]

Only if it was a life or death matter. I guess we eat weirder things but I just could not do it.