Frank Martin has been around horses his entire adult life. Today, he serves as secretary of the Missouri Equine Council. “My wife Dianne actually got to talking with the director of the council and offered me up for a position on the board, but I’m very happy to be involved,” he smiled.
Dianne and Frank Martin currently live on 140 acres near Peace Valley, Mo., and are in the horse breeding business. “Crow’s Nest Stables started from Dianne’s backyard horse. Now we have 30 horses being trained and sold.”
They raise Rocky Mountain, Kentucky Mountain, Spotted Saddle, Caspian, Missouri Fox Trotters and Tennessee Walkers. “We raise gaited horses (with the exception of Caspians, which aren’t gaited), and when we first started we used other studs to build our herd. Now we have our own.”
According to Frank, the horse industry is facing some challenges right now. “The poor condition of the economy is an issue to horse breeders,” he explained. “Because many horses are backyard horses or belong to hobby farmers, when the economy is bad and people need to cut expenses, horses are the first to go.”
This leads into the second concern the industry is facing – there is no longer a horse processing industry in the United States. “The last two horse processing facilities were closed in 2007, and that has caused an increase in the number of unwanted horses in the country,” he explained.
“The purpose of the horse processing facility was to allow the U.S. to export meat to countries where it is considered a delicacy, for example France, Belgium and Japan, and to China and Mexico, where it is a staple in diets,” he explained.
“Processing facilities closed after animal welfare and rights organizations pressured the Department of Agriculture not to fund inspectors for the plants. Without federal inspectors, the facilities were forced to shut down,” said Frank.
“This has led to hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses,” he reasoned. “Horse processing allowed the old, sick and lame horses a use after their recreation and riding life was over.
“Statistics from 2005 projected the total cost for current unwanted horses is $220 million annually,” he added. “Most of the horse rescue groups around the country, and there are 60 large organizations, are about full. That’s where people donated old and lame horses, but there is no longer room for them,” he said.
“Commercial farms like ours and the industry as a whole, from hobby farms to the large production farms, have taken a market hit because of the challenge of animal rights groups. Many of these groups would rather see horses qualified as pets instead of livestock such as cattle, pigs and sheep,” he explained.
“While the idea of ensuring humane treatment probably started out as a good one to stop cruelty to horses and extreme mistreatment, it has backfired,” Frank said.
“The number of unwanted horses in the country is on the rise. The old, sick and lame horses can no longer be sent to processing facilities for other purposes,” he said. “The estimated average nation-wide cost to euthanize and properly dispose of a horse is around $1,800 and too many owners can’t afford that, so they keep the old, lame and sick horses on the farm, many times uncared for until they drop dead. This is the ultimate cruelty these groups were trying to prevent in the first place,” he explained.
The Missouri Equine Council is one of the many organizations in states across the United States focused on the well-being of the horse industry. “This group includes all breeds, stretches across all horse activities and is charged with promoting the horse and protecting them through legislative activities,” Frank said.
“Of course we would like to see an economic recovery for many reasons including a rising market for horses,” he said. “More responsible breeding of horses is also a concern we need to be aware of for the future. With the numbers of unwanted horses rising, we have to be aware of this and diligent in our breeding programs.
“We also want the horse industry recognized and treated like any other livestock industry, in which humane treatment, proper care and general welfare of the animals is left up to private owners and not to government supervision beyond what is necessary,” he explained.
Finally, Frank hopes to see a reemergence of horses as sources of recreation. “I want to see kids get up off the couch and away from the computers and video games and come out and learn to ride and be responsible for the animals. We want to offer kids a chance to get back to the reality of life and animals and away from the virtual reality so many know now.”
For more information about the Missouri Equine Council visit www.ozarksfn.com.
