Save a Horse, Ride a Stick Pony
An outbreak of a deadly equine herpes virus has corralled rodeos and other events throughout the Southwest—including the Davis County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse Junior Queen Contest, which didn’t let the outbreak send its competition out to pasture. Instead, the aspiring rodeo queens put on their Sunday best ten-gallon hats and competed with … wait for it … stick horses.
Stick horses! Why didn’t we think of that? The benefits of using stick horses instead of horses made of flesh and blood are almost too many to count. And if stick horses break, they can be fixed with glue—instead of being sent to the glue factory.
Being hauled in trailers from one rodeo to the next can leave horses exhausted and susceptible to illness, and horses used in barrel-racing and bucking events can suffer life-threatening injuries—including broken legs, necks, and backs—which is why we would like to modestly propose that all rodeos switch to stick steeds. Wouldn’t you much rather see a cowboy trying to cling to a bucking birch or loop a lasso around a larch?
If you live in an area where rodeos are held, contact PETA for help organizing a protest.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor
