LOL…Horses*** is not “eco-friendly.” Modern romanticism coupled with ignorance of history have allowed us to deify that mode of transportation as “natural.” However, the truth is that horses at its own impact on the environment that had to be addressed.
First, horses needed to eat. A lot. A horse is not a small animal. Some people estimate that a single horse had to eat somewhere around 1.4 tons of oats and 2.4 tons of hay per year. This means that each horse consumed the product of five acres of land, a footprint which could have produced enough to feed six to eight people. Try to imagine how much land had to be cleared of its natural animal life and vegetation so that it could be cultivated to feed horses. Think about how much water had to be diverted to water that land. I imagine that had a considerable negative impact on the natural ecosystem.
Of course, what goes in, must come out. Horses produce between 15 and 30 pounds of manure per day. Each horse also produces about a quart of urine per day. Imagine a city of say 150,000 (that’s around 500,000 people) families each with one horse. That would mean around 3 million pounds of manure and 40,000 gallons of urine created per day.
Now, try to imagine if you will, what it must have been like to live in this city. The roads were filled with horse droppings. The smell would have been omnipresent and walking down the street would have required the greatest of care, like walking through a mine field, carefully navigating your way around s***. If it rained, all that poo would dissolve into rivers of muck. Dry weather turned the manure to dust and wind whipped it up…ahhh…the sweet breath of horse crap filling the lungs of young children everywhere.
Of course, while manure is not a major health risk in and of itself, it does harbor tetanus spores and is the favored breeding ground of the house fly. While we see flies as just being annoying pests, they are actually much more dangerous. Flies pick up bacteria and other pathogens on their feet, hairy appendages, and proboscides, then transmit them as they fly between filth and humans and their food. They also deposit germs through their feces and vomit. Flies transmit dozens of diseases, and studies have found that nineteenth century outbreaks of deadly infectious maladies like typhoid and infant diarrheal diseases can be traced to spikes in the fly population.
The truth of the matter is that there are always trade-offs. Personally, I prefer automobiles where you can regulate emissions and control pollution through engineering and human ingenuity. Unless you are God, there is not much we can do to a horse to make it more “eco-friendly.”
Randy calm down dude
WOW, I’m glad I’m not in a debate with Randy…
^ All hail the gasoline engine!!
We need MORE HUGE SUVs so we can run down the last remaining evil horses before we all die of horseshit!
plop, plop, plop
I kind of like the smell of horse poopy…..
I was raised on a working ranch and I never fed one horse that much in a year. When the human ingenuity exists to regulate emissions from automobiles I think the comparisons will be more relevant. Right now, not so much.
LOL…Horses*** is not “eco-friendly.” Modern romanticism coupled with ignorance of history have allowed us to deify that mode of transportation as “natural.” However, the truth is that horses at its own impact on the environment that had to be addressed.
First, horses needed to eat. A lot. A horse is not a small animal. Some people estimate that a single horse had to eat somewhere around 1.4 tons of oats and 2.4 tons of hay per year. This means that each horse consumed the product of five acres of land, a footprint which could have produced enough to feed six to eight people. Try to imagine how much land had to be cleared of its natural animal life and vegetation so that it could be cultivated to feed horses. Think about how much water had to be diverted to water that land. I imagine that had a considerable negative impact on the natural ecosystem.
Of course, what goes in, must come out. Horses produce between 15 and 30 pounds of manure per day. Each horse also produces about a quart of urine per day. Imagine a city of say 150,000 (that’s around 500,000 people) families each with one horse. That would mean around 3 million pounds of manure and 40,000 gallons of urine created per day.
Now, try to imagine if you will, what it must have been like to live in this city. The roads were filled with horse droppings. The smell would have been omnipresent and walking down the street would have required the greatest of care, like walking through a mine field, carefully navigating your way around s***. If it rained, all that poo would dissolve into rivers of muck. Dry weather turned the manure to dust and wind whipped it up…ahhh…the sweet breath of horse crap filling the lungs of young children everywhere.
Of course, while manure is not a major health risk in and of itself, it does harbor tetanus spores and is the favored breeding ground of the house fly. While we see flies as just being annoying pests, they are actually much more dangerous. Flies pick up bacteria and other pathogens on their feet, hairy appendages, and proboscides, then transmit them as they fly between filth and humans and their food. They also deposit germs through their feces and vomit. Flies transmit dozens of diseases, and studies have found that nineteenth century outbreaks of deadly infectious maladies like typhoid and infant diarrheal diseases can be traced to spikes in the fly population.
The truth of the matter is that there are always trade-offs. Personally, I prefer automobiles where you can regulate emissions and control pollution through engineering and human ingenuity. Unless you are God, there is not much we can do to a horse to make it more “eco-friendly.”
Randy calm down dude
WOW, I’m glad I’m not in a debate with Randy…
^ All hail the gasoline engine!!
We need MORE HUGE SUVs so we can run down the last remaining evil horses before we all die of horseshit!
plop, plop, plop
I kind of like the smell of horse poopy…..
I was raised on a working ranch and I never fed one horse that much in a year. When the human ingenuity exists to regulate emissions from automobiles I think the comparisons will be more relevant. Right now, not so much.