10/17/2026
Copied; The average person knows remarkably little about horses. But thanks to Facebook, that has never stopped anyone from becoming an expert in equine welfare overnight. 😂🐴
Apparently, everything we thought we knew about horses, harnesses, carriages, and basic physics is wrong. Thankfully, the comment section is here to educate us!
Let’s start with bits.
Did you know that bits cause excruciating pain the moment they come within 500 metres of a horse’s mouth? It’s true! According to people who have never actually driven a horse, anyway.
And obviously, nobody has ever spent thousands of dollars trying different bits, or devoted years to developing them in different shapes, thicknesses, weights, materials, mouthpiece designs, and cheekpiece configurations to accommodate individual horses’ needs, preferences, and sensitivities.
Why would they? It’s not like an entire industry exists around proper fit, comfort, and communication.
No, clearly the goal is to make horses as miserable as possible. That’s why we have so many options. It’s a competitive market for cruelty, apparently. 😂
And don’t even get me started on harnesses!
Those are torture devices too!
Harness makers certainly don’t waste time considering anatomy, fit, weight distribution, padding, freedom of movement, or pressure points. They just look at a perfectly good piece of leather and think, “Padding? F**k that. Let’s sew some spikes into it!”
Then some carriage driver walks into the harness shop, takes one look, and goes, “YASSS QUEEN! That’s EXACTLY what my abused horse needs! I’ll take two!” 💅
Never mind the generations of skilled harness makers who have dedicated their lives to designing equipment that distributes pressure appropriately, allows horses to move freely, and lets them work comfortably.
Obviously, all that craftsmanship is just an elaborate cover story.
And THEN there’s the monstrously heavy carriage!
You know, the same one my entire 165 -pound self could push, pull, steer, and manoeuvre into its parking spot BY HAND every single night.
But apparently, the moment you hitch a 1,500-pound horse to it, the laws of physics cease to exist.
The wheels stop being wheels. The bearings become decorative. The axles forget their purpose. And suddenly, the poor horse is dragging the entire weight of the carriage along the pavement like a grand piano with three missing legs.
Because apparently, some people genuinely believe that pulling a 1,000-pound carriage on wheels requires exactly the same effort as dragging a 1,000-pound concrete block across the ground. 😂
But here’s my absolute favourite part of this fascinating interpretation of physics.
Apparently, these carriages are SO incredibly heavy that a 1,500-pound horse can barely manage to pull one at a leisurely walk.
And yet, these very same people are absolutely TERRIFIED of runaway horses!
Wait a minute. I thought the carriage was impossibly heavy?
Are we suggesting that a horse can barely drag one along at 4 mph, but the moment it decides to take off at 25 mph, the carriage suddenly weighs NOTHING?
Does the horse activate some sort of magical anti-gravity system when it breaks into a canter? Do the wheels become weightless? Does the carriage simply float along behind it like a helium balloon?
Because apparently, the same vehicle that’s supposedly crushing a horse under its enormous weight at a walk offers absolutely no resistance whatsoever when the horse decides to run away.
Schrödinger’s carriage: simultaneously too heavy for a horse to pull and completely incapable of slowing one down. 😂
Truly groundbreaking stuff. Someone should notify the physics department at Harvard.
Never mind that humans have spent thousands of years developing wheels, bearings, axles, harnesses, and vehicles specifically to make moving loads easier and more efficient.
What would engineers know? Someone with a Facebook account and a strong emotional reaction to a photograph has already figured it all out.
Now, here’s where it gets really complicated.
Horses are not made of glass.
They’re powerful animals that have been selectively bred for centuries to perform different types of work. Some were bred for speed, some for endurance, some for agility, and others specifically for their strength and ability to pull.
A properly conditioned driving horse, working within its physical capabilities, with suitable equipment and a sensible workload, is not automatically being abused simply because it’s doing something other than standing in a field looking decorative.
Of course, bits CAN cause pain. Harnesses CAN cause injuries. Carriages CAN be too heavy. Horses CAN be overworked, poorly conditioned, improperly trained, or driven by people who have absolutely no business holding the reins.
Nobody with any real understanding of horses disputes that.
That’s precisely why good horsepeople spend so much time and money on proper training, conditioning, equipment, veterinary care, hoof care, and understanding the individual animal.
Because the difference between humane work and abuse isn’t whether a horse wears a bit, has a harness on, or pulls something.
It’s HOW that equipment is fitted, HOW the horse is trained, HOW it’s cared for, and HOW the work is managed.
But apparently, acknowledging those distinctions requires considerably more effort than typing “ANIMAL ABUSE!!! 😡😡😡” underneath a photograph.
The truly fascinating thing about horses is that the less someone knows about them, the more confidently they seem to explain them to people who have spent decades working with them.
Experience, education, practical knowledge, and an understanding of equine biomechanics are all lovely things to have.
But why bother with any of that when you can just have an opinion?
And if anyone needs me, I’ll be out in the barn explaining to a 1,500-pound horse that pulling a wheeled vehicle is physically impossible, despite the fact that his 185-pound driver pushed the same carriage into the shed last night.
I’m sure he’ll be absolutely devastated by the news. 💅🐴😂
