Let’s see Connemara inspections for what they are: bullying
By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.
In her on-air rebuke of email writer Kenneth W. Krause, she reminds viewers that October is National Anti-Bullying Month.
She says to Krause, “You have admitted that you don’t watch this show so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside …”
If only the American Connemara Pony Society could realize that its inspection process is nothing more than superficial bullying — bullying based on a quick assessment of the appearance of an animal by three people with subjective tastes.
The process varies little from the stereotypical school playground, with a few bullies trying to push everyone else around for their own gains.
I don’t believe inspectors’ discriminatory message of “you can’t be part of our group” will stand up against evolution.
Children growing up today don’t label whole groups of people as outcasts. Gays and nerds not only are accepted but in many cases celebrated by younger generations. It’s only the older generations that are unwavering in their bigotry.
The Connemaras being discriminated against in this current wave of inspections are not so different from gays and nerds. They are the more refined, more intelligent segments of the breed, and they are successful.
Younger generations are not going to embrace throwing away good horses because a few self-annointed inspectors said those animals should be thrown out.
The United States of America was founded on the principal that everyone who made it to this land would get equal treatment. True, it’s taken a while to get all the laws in place to protect everyone. But this is where we are now. You don’t get to exclude anyone, certainly based on appearance or success. These laws should extend to our horses.
If Ireland wants to continue to hold inspections, thereby bullying its native horses in its own backyard, those of us in the U.S. can’t do much about it. But we don’t have to let such boorish behavior taint our own shores.
All Connemaras are Connemaras here. Inspections are bullying, period.
It’s time these antiquated inspections join their rightful place in history alongside Nazi rule and segregation.