you didnt name any of the actual bad things in that video you reblogged. just waffled about it being Generally Bad and moving on. sometimes animal videos exist in between "perfect behavior" and "this is animal abuse"
Okay, that is very fair. In the moment I didn't want to shit on the video directly and felt it was more productive to inform people on how to react, but I think you are right and this video does deserve a breakdown. I'll go one by one to highlight the ones that are funny/cute as well. Most of these videos don't actually show any "abuse", but they present certain behaviors as "funny" and entertaining, despite being damaging to the horses' health and stemming from abuse/neglect.
N°1: I don't think I need too much detail for this but a horse in the house is always something that should give you an initial panic reaction when you see it on screen. If the video then shows a calm, collected horse walking around without freak outs, then we can take a breather but it doesn't take a lot to see this is fucking disastrous. The horse was probably injured, the people were in danger as well and not to mention the sheer amount of broken stuff.
N°2: This video isn't as obvious, and it's very normal for horses to be scared/agitated in trailers. However, the horse is tied with a rope halter and if it slips and falls during the trip, which an agitated horse is more likely to do, and pulls on that halter, this can do irreparable damage to it's facial nerves. Stop tying horses in rope halters without safety clips, and especially not in situations like a trailer where you know the horse is uncomfortable in. Add to the horses comfort, and it will add to it's safety. Tho, important to note that the tie itself is very well done and very safe (higher than back height, and short to avoid getting caught in legs/around head).
N°3: I mean it's not abuse per say but was it necessary? No. Did it freak the horse out enough to put it's legs in danger? Yeah. Not to mention the person filming is lucky to be laughing, as they could have easily caught a stray head smack or leg. This isn't abusive, and as you said there is a world between perfect behavior and abuse, but it's too dangerous to find funny in my opinion.
N°4: God this is a pain to watch. The horse is exhibiting clear signs of distress via ticking (head bobbing), facial expressions (ears pinned, clacking teeth, tense face), it's not enjoying this "play". Plus, let's note this is a totally loose horse in an environment that it can very easily just get out of! Nothing is stopping this horse from jumping out, it's bigger than the fence thing, is that really how you want an agitated horse to be kept? I won't say anything about the husbandry because this looks to be like some sort of event and therefore might not be representative of everyday husbandry for this horse but this is a disaster waiting to happen.
N°5: The original video has some context but out of context, this is just somebody posting a behavior that they find funny, while the behavior is detrimental to the horse's health. This is called cribbing: when they bite down with top teeth to inhale a large amount of oxygen through their mouths to get a slight oxygen high. This is done by horses who are incredibly bored and have low/no contact with other horses. This damages teeth, jaws, breathing (as they are constantly over oxygenated and often won't oxygenate correctly during efforts/riding) and muscle/brain health on the very long term.
While yes, there is context that I will talk about, the fact it isn't presented with the videos makes non-horsey people think this is just a funny thing some horses do, and this is how tolerance of these behaviors spread, as cribbing isn't very obvious in how damaging it can be, and leads to "it's just this little thing, how bad can it be" mentality.
The context is that the person filming owns this horse and has bought it from owners who kept it stalled 24/7. The text on the video is edited to seem funnier. He has put the horse out in pasture but the horse still has the cribbing reflex as it's been so long, so through trial and error, he figured that bothering it like this was a good way to get it's attention and pull it away from cribbing.
N°6: The sliding video isn't the end of the world, because clearly the horse is used to it, but come on. It's a deck of wood so smooth a horse can slide down in. What if the gate is closed and the horse slides on by accident/doesn't notice it? Also, it seems obvious to me and most people in the horse world that you should be careful when handling animals that weigh thousands of pounds on elevated decks for obvious falling through reasons. Not abuse, won't call it neglectful as is, but maybe not that funny.
N°7: Is very fine. It's a classing jumping fail, and if the horse is able to hold it's head at that height with a whole rider stuck to it, then it must be strong enough/the rider is light enough for it not to bother the horse. I might be seeing wrong but the rider doesn't even seem to have a crop or whip. The trainers/persons filming are also very reactive, you can hear them gasp when they think it'll be a fall, and there seem to be several people in the lesson ready to help, so overall this one clip is like a breath of spring in the video lol.
N°8: This one isn't too bad, but there is something in the video that makes this more likely to happen. The small, most likely too small to be ridden ponies (these look like young shetlands to me, might be mini-horses with a full coat tho, in which case, even less rideable) are shoed when they live in a concrete yard. Concrete yards are fine, and I get totally why one would want them, they reduce mud so much, but if you have a shoed horse in a concrete yard/facility, you know that horse is sliding around, it's just what happens. Maybe having them barefoot would make them slip less, they probably don't need shoes if they're here for show. The fall isn't that big of a concern: the smaller the animal, the higher you need a fall to cause pain. Though maybe a fence around the tree/blocking that little gap might be good, it's not the end of the world.
N°9: yiikes.... Get these horses out with friends (and not each other) like! Clearly there is animosity created by the stalling here. They're pinning ears and clacking teeth at each other! And the doors being so close that they overlap is a big no-no! It means you can't open a top without giving the other horse ammunition to smack it in the other's face and ruin it's teeth, not to mention it sort of hints at the smalls being pretty small, though that can't be verified so I won't add to this.
Like. We all see the teeth marks on the door, and we all see the other horse only dodging that door my centimeters. What if it doesn't pull back soon enough and get it's lower half of the face between the lower door and top door? And since the top door overlaps the other horse's stall, same thing applies for it. 1: These horses maybe need to not be side by side and 2: THEY NEED TO BE OUTDOORS! This is brought on by too much stalling! And the best amount of stalling you can give your horse is as little as possible. This is another accident waiting to happen that is funny to the person filming for some reason. Won't be as funny when a horse (or them) gets their face caught between the wall and top door.
N°10: It's okay, it just doesn't like the sound and it catches him off guard. Won't say anything about the husbandry because it looks like a temporary show stall, so probably not representative of everyday husbandry.
N°11: Pretty average reaction from whiny horses to seeing their reflection. Might work on how this horse reacts to new horses and laughing leg isn't amazing, can lead to fights or smacks, but overall it's not the end of the world.
N°12: Another breath of fresh air: that horse is outside and is so well mannered, completely relaxed around other horses and it's handler, it's just very nice, and yes, it's pretty funny to trick your horse with an invisible halter, it's a very nice trick.
N°13: So, shetland bowl cut isn't the end of the world by itself. I mean, it looks to be hot and sunny, so I would say to not do that and tie it in a knot for competitions because they need that hair to take flies out of their eyes, but people can use fly spay and masks so eh. However, why in the world would a shetland pony need to be lunged so intensely and unsafely? Let's look more closely: The shetland has a horse-sized Pessoa bit, lunge attached to the centre ring, centre ring attached to a HALTER? and lunge over the head and through the other centre ring. There clearly wasn't a bridle and appropriate bit of the pony's size available, but this is never the solution. I mean, but itself, this lunging method is pretty bad: it tilts the head nose-to-inside and ears-to-outside which is just insane. Try it yourself: walk on a circle with your head tilted with the top to the outside and chin to the inside and feel how insane that position is. This is not going to help your horse circle the curve at all, it's the opposite of what we want. It encourages fighting hand actions (both closed and open rein) which... why would you want that? That's creating problems after.
Secondly, I mean, hijacking materials together including attaching a too-big bit to a halter is just. No! Don't ride with a bit too big, that leads to pinching the tongue and bruising the palate, as well as tooth chipping. And don't tie a bit to a halter, it makes the bit move loosely around the mouth, which is even worse if your bit is too big! Don't have your bridle for XYZ reasons? Lunge bitless, with just the halter, it has it's benefits and it can't hurt your work if you have to do it once due to tack issue.
Overall, why I'm very encouraging of working ponies like horses, after all it's not because they're ridden with kids that they should have bad backs, this feels almost performative because no, your shetland pony and all your biggest and bestest horses, no matter how competitive, won't be hurt by missing a lunge/being lunged in halter because your have a missing piece of tack. It's fine. I say this assuming this isn't how the pony is worked regularly because I am going insane if that's the case.
N°14: A lot of horses like to play with zippers, so I won't equate it entirely to head bobbing behavior. Even if I've personally seen it more in overly-stalled horses than in pasture horses, I wouldn't say the difference is that big, so as of right now I don't think it's a form of head bobbing, I could be wrong but yeah. All I'll say is play this game at your own risk because a horse is definitely strong enough to break a zipper!
N°15: And yeah. Another sign of boredom. A horse standing around and lip smacking for long periods of time is a sign of boredom and shouldn't be treated as a "funny haha" moment, however we should note the horse in question seems to have access to an outdoors and to other horses. Perhaps this was taken at a time with low amounts of grass and the horse isn't currently able to access forage due to other horses, idk. Perhaps this is a behavior it had from previous owners like the cribbing. Without context, we can't tell and therefore I don't feel amazing about this video.
N°16: It's fine, the horse is clearly playing back. It's relaxed, shows no signs of discomfort and this seems to be completely normal to him! Good video and it heals my soul a little.
N°17: The video looks fine, and the horse is playing, doesn't seem overly tense. I will always sigh at western riders who don't wear helmets but at the end of the day, it's one's choice to protect themselves, and doesn't impact the horse. I will say his reins are pretty tight for a western bit, which can be super strong and shouldn't be pulled tight, but I get the rider might be afraid that the horse is going to try and roll in the water.
Overall, as you can see it's truly the little things in some of these clips. My anger isn't about overly abusive videos, because majority of animal abusers don't post videos of their emaciated horses, or horses being beaten. However, a lot of the things I see and talk about here are pretty common: the issue is that people don't know how harmful they are, or chose to ignore it because it looks to them as much less impactful that what someone who truly wished to hurt their animal can do. Most people don't want to hurt their horses, but they refuse to acknowledge discomfort. For most, a horse is only either happy and healthy or hurt and abused and that is not true. Like you said: in between perfection and abuse. This "in-between" is where most horses live, because many owners, riders or carers are willing to sacrifice a lot of a horse's comfort for theirs. We, and I say we because before going to school for husbandry, as a rider I did as taught, and majority of us were taught to ride and care like this, we disregard the small things that don't have direct consequences, or who's consequences are invisible to us.
For example: let's all stop saying that "if a horse is in pain/doesn't like something, you'll know! It'll tell you loud and clear!". This phrase suggest an uncomfortable horse will have a large blow up, but that isn't true. Horses are herd preys: their instinctive reflex is to hide pain and discomfort as long as they can so that they can continue with the herd. Lashing out is a last resort! A horse that lases out has reach overwhelming levels of discomfort and pain, and they can tolerate a lot before they lash out.
Not to mention, when a horse lashes out, we might not be able to identify what led it there. For us, these crash outs might be sudden, because we have been ignoring pinned ears, teeth grinding, tight faces, tack rejection, cribbing, head bobbing, difficult relationships with other horses, overstalled behaviors, tail whipping, pawing, etc... The list of small hints we ignore, whether voluntarily or through ignorance, is long. These are the warning signs, the growling, if you will.
These are sings we need to stop ignoring, we need to take into account, and signs we absolutely need to stop finding funny! Stop posting these signs as "play"! Stop anthropomorphizing and saying your horse's head bobbing is "because he likes metal music", and for the love of everything, stop posting that to the internet with crying laughing emojis for all the non-horsey people to gobble up and then refuse to learn that that funny video they liked was a sign of neglect.
We need to recognize that we are capable of harming our horses. That we have harmed them, that we are harming them. If not, then we can't stop! Stop normalizing these things, stop laughing at them. See them for what they are so that we can slowly find ways to stop them.
