Horse meat

[jinman]

When talking about eating horse meat, it always seems that old or lame horses are talked about. If you compare it to beef, wouldn't you eat the younger animals? Wouldn't 2-yr old geldings be a lot better than an old mare or certainly a stallion? What would you feed them for the best taste? We feed beef a lot corn for taste and fat marbling. Could the same things be done with horses? I don't have anything against eating horse meat, but certainly when any animal becomes somebody's pet, it fits into a different classification. Nobody wants to spend hours and hours training and grooming an animal just to slaughter them. However, wild animals or herds of animals like livestock could provide food. What would be the economics of raising horses in herds for slaughter?

I am not fond of mutton or goat meat because those were not common foods when I was young. I just never acquired a taste for them. In the US Navy, we had lots of fried rabbit that I believe we got on board ship in Australia. It was delicious. In Greece, they used to serve gyros on the pier going back to the ship. I'm pretty sure they were made from mutton and I couldn't eat one even after a few beers. It always seems to me that if my first experience with a new food is positive, then I'll like that food the next time I eat it. In Barcelona, Spain, I had snails served in a nice wine sauce and they were delicious. I would not hesitate to try them again. I just think it's all relative to where you are and how food is fixed.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

When talking about eating horse meat, it always seems that old or lame horses are talked about. If you compare it to beef, wouldn't you eat the younger animals? Wouldn't 2-yr old geldings be a lot better than an old mare or certainly a stallion? What would you feed them for the best taste? We feed beef a lot corn for taste and fat marbling. Could the same things be done with horses? I don't have anything against eating horse meat, but certainly when any animal becomes somebody's pet, it fits into a different classification. Nobody wants to spend hours and hours training and grooming an animal just to slaughter them. However, wild animals or herds of animals like livestock could provide food. What would be the economics of raising horses in herds for slaughter?

I am not fond of mutton or goat meat because those were not common foods when I was young. I just never acquired a taste for them. In the US Navy, we had lots of fried rabbit that I believe we got on board ship in Australia. It was delicious. In Greece, they used to serve gyros on the pier going back to the ship. I'm pretty sure they were made from mutton and I couldn't eat one even after a few beers. It always seems to me that if my first experience with a new food is positive, then I'll like that food the next time I eat it. In Barcelona, Spain, I had snails served in a nice wine sauce and they were delicious. I would not hesitate to try them again. I just think it's all relative to where you are and how food is fixed.

Around here goats go for good money and I asked at one of the auctions why the price was so high and they told me the goats get shipped to the Hormel meat plant in Pa to make pepperoni for pizzas ? anyone know if thats true ?

 

[mjarrels]

I'm like Andrew Zimmer, I'll eat most anything. Spent 21 years in the Navy, ate weird things all over the world. Four years living in the Philippines, hard to tell what I ate. As a old school iniated Chief Petty Officer... that food was the worst!

mark

 

[MossRoad]

What would be the economics of raising horses in herds for slaughter?

I think we can pretty much assume that if is was proffitable, it would have been done already. There's probably more meat faster on a cow than a horse, so that's why we eat beef mostly.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

A local supermarket chain stocked horse meat in the '70s. I tried it. It was a very mild meat, and sweet. It was also very lean, so not recommended on the grill, but great for stews, Stroganoff and dishes like that. Of course, you can't get USDA inspected horse meat in the USA, so nobody stocks it any more. Buyers ship US horses to Mexico for slaughter, and you can still find horse meat in the markets there.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Around here goats go for good money and I asked at one of the auctions why the price was so high and they told me the goats get shipped to the Hormel meat plant in Pa to make pepperoni for pizzas ? anyone know if thats true ?

This time of year the price for goat is high because of Passover and Easter. Chevon and lamb are interchangeable and a traditional seasonal meal.

 

[hosspuller]

I think we can pretty much assume that if is was proffitable, it would have been done already. There's probably more meat faster on a cow than a horse, so that's why we eat beef mostly.

Cows will/can eat stuff that will kill a horse. Notice the hay sales that say horse quality vs cow quality. High quality Alfalfa a dairy cow needs will founder (hoof condition) a horse if over fed)

 

[jerrybob]

...and then there's the $5 furlong sub!

Now that's funny! Is it truly a furlong or 11 inches like Subway??:drink:

 

[charlz]

When the slaughter houses closed we would see so many old and injured horses at the local auctions go unsold or tied to a post and left there ,also you would see poor families come out of the hills and buy these 7-900 pound animals for $40.00 and take them home for slaughter , I would rather see them used than left to suffer or starve .There was a rumor that 100's had been set loose in an area of Kentucky so many that they were starving and had little water and dieing a hard death because people couldn't afford to feed them a few years ago when hay prices were high .I have also heard that some of the slaughter houses have quietly reopened to deal with the unwanted horse problem ?

I believe the last horse slaughter plant in the US closed in 2007. The industry was shutdown under pressure from animal rights groups and pending legislation to ban the practice. The bills never made it to law so it is still legal to slaughter horses. Any new horse slaughter plants would face a lot of pressure from animal rights groups though.

We have wild horses in this area so when hay prices spiked we had problems with people dumping their horses in wild horse areas. Domestic horses do not know how to forage so they typcially starved.

I don't remember the exact circumstances, I think hay was way up and milk was way down but we also had a few incidents of people abandoning young dairy calves around the same time.

I still see plenty of 'free to good home horses' on craigslist now and again. With no slaughter market there isn't much of a horse market for 'pasture pets' that are untrained, too old or otherwise not good for anything but looking at.

 

[reb]

Horse meat was offered in Phoenix area markets back in the '80s, as I recall. We tried it. As I remember it was ok, but nothing special; possibly because, as someone else mentioned, the horses butchered were probably old.