Something sad with a happy ending

Yesterday, something rather sad happened. I was on my way to teach my class when I came across five men who were trying to ‘persuade’ a young horse to pull a trap. This was on a busy road with traffic coming both ways so I stopped.  One man was at the front, pulling as hard as he could. The others were behind the horse, slapping, shouting, flicking a whip. They were not being gentle. The horse was clearly terrified.

I have come across this situation once before. Last time I was on a heathland walking my dog.  Last time I asked the men to stop what they were doing. Last time I got into a row with them. This did not help. It certainly did not help the horse. It made them angrier. It severely traumatised me.

Yesterday, faced with a very similar situation, I ached to get out and tell them, ‘this is not the way. Terrifying the horse won’t help.’ But I knew they were unlikely to listen. They didn’t strike me as the ‘listening’ kind. By now, I was holding up the traffic. One of the men waved me past.  I agonised with myself. I thought of that quote, ‘all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’.

But there I was – about to do nothing.

Five minutes later at my class, by now quite upset, I phoned a dear friend. He suggested I might call the RSPCA – or perhaps the police. Was beating up a horse a crime? Were they beating it up? No – not really – although I did wonder what they would do in private – if they were prepared to do so much in public.

Would calling the RSPCA or the police help the horse? In my experience, this was unlikely. Perhaps the authorities would respond – perhaps the men would be angry, perhaps their anger would turn in on the horse. perhaps it would make things worse. I hate feeling helpless. So what should I do?

I believe in karma. I believe that doing something good has to help. And it seemed to me that the best thing I could do would be to help another horse. So this is what I’m doing. I have just sponsored a horse called Gulliver at Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Gulliver looks a bit like that horse last night.

Here is their link. Just in case you want to check out what Gulliver looks like – or maybe even sponsor your own horse.

http://www.redwings.org.uk/

Right – I must stop ranting and get down to some work.  And apologies for going off my writing topic. But I wanted to get that out of my system.

Happy writing everyone.

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