blue star equiculture

All horses are beautiful.  A horse working happily in harness is especially beautiful.

Blue Star Equiculture encourages everyone who appreciates the beauty of a working horse to stop and let that horse's driver and anyone nearby that that horse is a "BEAUTIFUL HORSE!"

The "Beautiful Horse" campaign was started by Blue Star Equiculture in response to the singer Pink, who famously opined that the New York City carriage horses were somehow being abused (for a refutation of this spurious claim, click here) and that anyone who saw a horse-drawn carriage should stop and yell "ANIMAL CRUELTY" at the top of their lungs.  Despite a lack of any evidence of cruelty - indeed, folks who agree with Pink believe that the very act of wearing harness constitutes "cruelty" - the practice of rolling down a car window or zipping past on a bike and screaming "ANIMAL CRUELTY" gained a sizeable following across the country. Carriage drivers, suffering from the strain of being called animal abusers day in and day out, continually get battered by this form of emotional abuse. This strategy espoused by Pink and other animal rights activists is not to tell the truth, but rather to use labels, such as "cruelty" and "abuse," to alienate carriage horse owners and to provoke carriage drivers to react angrily (the activists, having prodded carriage drivers to respond negatively through hurtful and hateful treatment, then turn around and ask "Why are you being so defensive?  You must have something to hide!" when the carriage driver is merely insisting on the truth - that they do not abuse their horses, whom they love like family).

Blue Star believes that we can change the toxic atmosphere anti-carriage-horse groups have worked hard to create.  By making a sign and holding it near where carriage horses are working and holding a pro-carriage-horse rally, by making it popular to shout "Beautiful Horse!" in appreciation of getting to see such a magnificent animal at work, by saying "Thank you!" to a hard working horselover for bringing his or her horse to work, we can change the culture.  We can make it normal to appreciate a Beautiful Horse in harness.

This is an easy thing to do.  It's a HAPPY thing to do.  So the next time you see a carriage horse, yell "Beautiful Horse!"

You'll notice in our pictures from New York City that Pam is holding a sign that simply says, "Beautiful Horse."

Blue Star Equiculture is launching our "Beautiful Horse" campaign.  What, you may ask, is the "Beautiful Horse" campaign.

Blue Star Equiculture's co-founder, Christina Hansen, explains:

Last September, Blue Star Equiculture participated in the Tub Parade in Lenox, MA.  The Tub Parade, sponsored by the Colonial Carriage and Driving Society, is a carriage parade that harkens back a Gilded Age tradition of showing off fine horses in harness at the end of the summer season in the Berkshires.  Blue Star brought Daisy and Kelly and our 1890s-era vis-a-vis, and had gotten them all gussied up and ready to go. The farm where we parked the trailer was a good mile and half away from the center of town where the parade was to be.

Justin was driving the girls, and I was up on the driver's box as well.  We were gussied up ourselves, in standard carriage driver wear: top hats, tails, the whole nine yards.  As the girls approached the edge of town, where the "neighborhood" started, Justin and I spotted, in the distance, a pair of 20-something young women holding a posterboard.  Now, mind you, Justin and I are both former carriage drivers from Philadelphia;

Daisy and Kelly are BEAUTIFUL HORSES at the Tub Parade.

in our experience, there is only one reason anyone shows up around horses with a posterboard, and that is to protest the alleged "slavery" or "abuse" of the carriage horses.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.  Seriously?" Justin grumbled, as we both sat up stiffly, and the tension level spiked.

"Keep driving," I said.  "I'll take care of them if they give us any trouble." [Remember that carriage drivers have not only been verbally attacked, but have also been physically assaulted by anti-carriage-horse protesters.]

Justin and I were prepared to protect Daisy and Kelly from these women with the posterboard by whatever means necessary, when we got close enough to read the sign.

It simply said, "Beautiful Horse."

The women started clapping.  "Beautiful horses!" they exclaimed.

Conor's horse, Rosie, is a BEAUTIFUL HORSE.

I just about burst into tears.  The whole way through the Tub Parade, the crowd at Lenox was applauding all the horses.  I heard so many "Thank you"s and "Beautiful horse"s...  It was such a change from the usual experience that working carriage drivers like Justin, Pam and I have been through. When carriage drivers do the EXACT same thing as at the Tub Parade - that is, drive healthy, happy horses in harness - they hear "ANIMAL CRUELTY!" shouted at them out of car windows.  Carriage drivers who would risk everything they have to protect their horses are routinely called "animal abusers" and "slave drivers."

As advocates for working horses, Blue Star Equiculture is working to change that. It's time for the emotional abuse of horsemen and horsewomen by people who are deliberately misled to end.

We want signs held up around carriage horses to read "Beautiful Horse!"  We want what gets shouted at carriage drivers by bystanders to not be the grossly-misinformed "animal cruelty" but the TRUTH -- which is that a happy working horse in harness is a "BEAUTIFUL HORSE."

Follow us online to find out how to join the "Beautiful Horse" campaign and continue Blue Star Equiculture's work to draft a better future for horses, humans and Mother Earth.

Pam and Christina in front of a row of BEAUTIFUL HORSES on the Plaza in New York.

By Eva Hughes

I'm here at the auction, don't know a soul
My owner... couldn't keep me, I have to be sold
She lost her job, and money is tight
...She said she was sorry, sent me off in the night

I wish I were a carriage horse, with a nice steady driver
Work days at the park, and at night I'd retire
To a warm bedded stall and plenty to eat
Vacations in the country, a gig hard to beat

I'd delight passerby and customers alike
I'd do honest work, get fed carrots by tykes

I'd be in movies and books and on TV shows
Cause a NYC carriage horse everybody knows
Is an icon, a star, a piece of the City
And never in need of anyone's pity

A horse is a horse of course, they all say
But a horse needs a place in this age and this day
As in eons gone by, alongside his friend
Man and The Horse go hand in hand

I wish I were a carriage horse, contented and useful
They wouldn't call me homeless, they'd all call me BEAUTIFUL.

Below you will find all our posters, handouts, brochures, and business card size handouts. Feel free to download these files and print them out for distribution at your Beautiful Horse Events. We ask that you print them as they are with the Blue Star Equiculture logo and website address.

Thanks