Americans love horses. The bond we share with these magnificent animals runs deep, going back thousands of years to their domestication on the Eurasian steppes.
Horses symbolize beauty, strength, and freedom. Their images fill our art and advertising. We name our cars and sports teams after them. But we owe them far more than admiration—we owe them everything. Modern civilization, and the America we know today, would not exist without horses.
As historian Timothy Winegard observes in The Horse, “the horse dominated every facet of human life and shaped the very scope of human ambition… and we still live among its galloping shadows.”
The Year of the Horse begins on the Chinese New Year, February 17. It offers a moment to ask whether we are honoring the debt we owe to horses and whether we are treating them with the respect they deserve.
Horses are woven into the American story. Our nation was literally built on their backs. The history of America runs in their blood—from the horses Indigenous peoples integrated into their cultures long before Europeans arrived, to working breeds like Morgans and Standardbreds that plowed our fields and carried settlers west.
And then there are the mustangs, still surviving today in remote corners of the West. They powered the Pony Express and were captured from the American West and sent overseas to battle World War I and other European wars. Today, their grazing helps restore degraded landscapes, reduce wildfire risk, regenerate soils, and even make surface water available in arid areas, supporting hundreds of other species.
Despite this history and our enduring bond, federal policy is failing horses. Whether abused in show rings, rounded up from public lands, or shipped to slaughter, these highly intelligent, sensitive animals endure suffering that is entirely preventable.
Tennessee Walking Horses are deliberately injured with caustic chemicals, chains, and mechanical devices applied to their hooves to cause pain and induce the exaggerated high-stepping gait prized in “Big Lick” horse shows. This practice, known as soring, was prohibited by the 1970 Horse Protection Act. Yet weak enforcement and reliance on industry self-policing has allowed it to continue, subjecting horses to cruelty for the sake of winning ribbons.
Nearly 20,000 American horses each year—many abandoned by the humans they loyally served—are shipped across our borders to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. They endure grueling transport in cramped trucks without adequate rest, food, or water on journeys that can exceed a thousand miles. At foreign slaughter plants, they face brutal deaths, butchered into horsemeat for overseas markets in Europe and Asia.
America’s wild horses, federally protected as living symbols of the history and spirit of the West, are captured by the thousands each year in helicopter roundups—despite proven, cost-effective fertility control alternatives. Rounded-up horses are transported to crowded holding facilities funded by taxpayers, where many will spend their lives in confinement. While some are adopted into good homes, far too many end up in the slaughter pipeline.
Horses are among the most intelligent, sensitive, and intuitive animals on the planet. They remain loyal to us even when we fail to return the favor. The Year of the Horse calls us to finally honor that loyalty. The political moment to do so has arrived.
Recent animal-welfare initiatives by the Trump Administration, alongside bipartisan action in Congress, reflect a growing commitment to ending cruelty. This momentum creates an opening to pass the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, the Safeguard American Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act to end horse slaughter, the Wild Horse Protection Act to end helicopter roundups and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Wild Horse Protection Act. The administration can also act immediately to strengthen enforcement of existing laws and end costly, inhumane wild horse roundups in favor of proven fertility-control solutions.
These are not fringe causes or partisan issues. They reflect core American values: stewardship of our national heritage, fiscal responsibility, and respect for the animals that helped build this nation.
The debt is overdue. It’s time to pay it.
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