What does horse meat taste like?

springvalley · #81 07/03/10, 11:19 PM

As I have said on here before I would never eat a horse unless starving, I do not think the ban on butchering horses was good, it has made the hauling horses to Mexico a nasty ride to hell. I have raised a lot of horses in my life and some have more than likely ended up in a slaughter house. I don`t want to know this, I also know people that have fed horses for slaughter, not my idea of making a living. There are also horses that need to go to slaughter, the nasty, mean and unwanted have to go someplace. I have several of my first and dearly loved Belgians buried in the horse pasture and I have one more 25 year old Belgian gelding that will be buried out there, but I hope to sell the younger ones off before they get to that age from here on out as I just can`t bury many more. I feel if they have served me all those years, working or pleasure, they have just as much right as I do to be taken care of till to old and be put down when they need to be. That is why I will never eat horse meat, >Thanks Marc

Ernie · #82 07/03/10, 11:29 PM

Well, I find that eating a good horse, or an old or faithful horse, would be like using gold bars to prop your kitchen door open. A complete waste.

Problem is that poor animal husbandry has led to a surfeit of bad horses in the United States. I've seen so many sway-backed, slipper hooved, bow legged horses standing around in pastures that I'm ready to pull my hair out. Who the heck is breeding these?

Both you and I were paying close attention to a thread the other day where a guy was giving away some horses. Turned out they were uncut, unbroken, and untrained adults and I guess neither one of us figured they were worth a trailer ride to go get. What's going to happen to them?

I wish like heck that some good horseman would get them and do something worthwhile with them but I'm not going to break my neck trying to do it, nor risk the lives of one of my children having them on my place. They'll end up at a rescue where some well-heeled bleeding heart will feed them alfalfa until they die of old age, or until that bleeding heart loses THEIR job and those horses get moved on again to some other rescue. Or they may end up getting sold for parts across the border.

Horses got the bum end of the deal. For ten thousand years they helped us tend our herds, spread our civilization, and fought our wars. They broke legs for us in prairie dog holes and bled for us on battlefields. Yet here at the end they're little more than a novelty for most people, like a big dang pet.

Eating them is a minor thing compared to the way humanity has treated them as a whole.

tinknal · #83 07/03/10, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

Both you and I were paying close attention to a thread the other day where a guy was giving away some horses. Turned out they were uncut, unbroken, and untrained adults and I guess neither one of us figured they were worth a trailer ride to go get. What's going to happen to them?

Actually those are the easiest to train. No man made bad habits. Getting a halter on them and getting them snubbed up can be a rodeo, but after that cast them, cut them, and get them sacked out, gentled down, saddled, and ridden before they heal up. Fastest training method hands down if you know what you are doing. Still a lot of work to do, but most of the danger is gone if you do it right.

**Shrek** · #84 07/03/10, 11:42 PM

Horse steak is sweet tasty and tender. My father introduced me to it on a trip to Quebec when I was a teenager. In later years when my employer would send me to our Canadian plant , knowing that I would be able to enjoy a horse steak during the trip on the company per diem made the assignment more tolerable for me.

Horse meat is lower calory and more healthwise than beef is.

The American indians ate grass fed horse all the time when their ponies were no longer suitable for use as riding stock.

Navotifarm · #85 07/04/10, 11:17 AM

This is a bit of thread drift but the Fairfield County Hounds in Connecticut and other fox hunting clubs used to have a truck which would transport old, injured or downed horses and cattle to be humanely shot with a quick bullet to the brain and butchered and fed to the hounds. Romantics like me believed it was an honorable kind end to a good old hunter jumper that, transmuted through the belly of the hound, the horse could continue to enjoy the glory of the hunt

Heritagefarm · #86 07/04/10, 11:23 AM

Interesting...

Toads tool · #87 07/04/10, 11:55 AM

In Joliet Il. there used to be a Mexican resteraunt that sold "beef" tequitas for a quarter a piece. Being in college at the time I ate ther often. The food Inspectors closed them down for using Horse meat.
They reopened a month later. The price of tequitas went up to .89.
The new beef tequitas sucked in comparison to the Horse ones we used to get.
The meat lends itself well to spicy dishes.

ozark_jewels · #88 07/04/10, 03:57 PM

Having seen more dead and starving horses in pastures and lots since they shut off the butchering of horses in the US......I hope they make it legal again. Much better that they get butchered than left to starve to death over months. PETA hasn't a clue about the real facts of life.

springvalley · #89 07/04/10, 07:13 PM

P-people
E-eating
T-tasty
A-animals

>Thanks marc

Heritagefarm · #90 07/04/10, 07:25 PM

PETA -
People Endangering The Animals
Pathetic Egotistical Tofu Afficionados
Pompous Entomologists Try Anything

jennigrey · #91 07/04/10, 08:05 PM

The Belgian (as it exists in Belgium) is a meat breed of horse, tailored for its ability to efficiently put on weight. The Jabe and Jinzhou horses are also meat breeds. There's a few meat breeds of horse in Japan as well.

Pony · #92 07/04/10, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

Now does grass-finish mean to pump 'em with grain and then FINISH them with grass, or to raise them on grass to the FINISH?

'Round here, the beeves are on grass from start to finish.

Heritagefarm · #93 07/04/10, 10:26 PM

They're still fed grain supplement, costing about $100 per cow.

Patt · #94 07/05/10, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

My father was of the "never let anything go to waste" camp. I remember eating two horses when I was younger. The first one broke two legs trying to cross a cattle guard (fool horse) and the other turned aggressive.

"The Horse Whisperer" my father certainly wasn't. He thought the best way to rehabilitate an animal was in a pot with potatoes, carrots, and some salt.

I have rehabilitated a few animals that way myself, although not any horses. Don't own any and never eaten any but I have friends who really like it.

geo in mi · #95 07/05/10, 08:28 AM

I heard a rumor that Quarter Pounders were made from quarter horses.......

geo

Pony · #96 07/05/10, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

They're still fed grain supplement, costing about $100 per cow.

To the best of my knowledge, all the neighbors surrounding our 'stead (literally: front, back, and sides) feed their beeves hay in the Winter, and they free-range on the grass.

I have seen them put out mineral/salt blocks, but never grain of any sort.

I'll ask them next time I see them, though.

**GREENCOUNTYPETE** · #97 07/05/10, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geo in mi

Nowwaitaminute! Grass fed beef is supposed to be more tender than that feedlot stuff! At least that's what everybody has been saying....

geo

well like anything it depends on the grass , the best ad the worst can be grass fed it has to do with the quality of the grass. if its lush green high sugar grass it's good , if it is brown scrub grass , not so good

tinknal · #98 07/05/10, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GREENCOUNTYPETE

well like anything it depends on the grass , the best ad the worst can be grass fed it has to do with the quality of the grass. if its lush green high sugar grass it's good , if it is brown scrub grass , not so good

Well..............

Montana is covered with short grass prairie. After July it is brown, and looks pretty scrubby, but it has great feed value and makes excellent beef.

tinknal · #99 07/05/10, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geo in mi

I heard a rumor that Quarter Pounders were made from quarter horses.......

geo

OH NO!!!! What are Little Wendys burgers made of?

Heritagefarm · #**100** 07/05/10, 12:43 PM

Ooh! Gotta try some now!