21/11/2025
“Please Don’t Feed Us”: A Horse’s Story of Life, Loss, and the Humans Who Mean Well but Hurt Us
We don’t ask for much, you know.
Grass beneath our hooves.
Space to wander.
A soft breeze and the comfort of our herd.
We’ve lived this way for generations—long before tourists with cameras and pockets full of snacks began visiting our forests, moors, and fields. We are strong, resilient, and adapted to the land that raised us.
But lately, something has been happening. Something we don’t understand.
Humans keep offering us food.
And horses are dying because of it.
The Temptation We Can’t Resist
When you hold out your hand—even when we shouldn’t—we come.
We come because:
we trust you
we’re curious
we don’t know the food you offer could kill us
and we want to please
We don’t know a carrot can get stuck in our throat.
We don’t know bread swells in our bellies.
We don’t know peelings, apples, grass cuttings, or sweets can twist our gut into agony.
We only know that it smells good…
and we are horses.
We eat first.
We think second.
And sometimes that instinct costs us our lives.
The Mare Who Choked on Carrots
We felt her fear before we saw her.
A mare from the next grazing ground—a gentle soul—lying in the mud, gasping, her eyes wild with confusion.
Someone had left chopped carrots for her.
Hard, round pieces that slipped into her throat and stayed there.
She tried to swallow.
She tried to breathe.
She tried to call for her herd.
By the time help came, it was too late.
Her throat was too damaged.
They took her away, and she never came back.
Humans cried for her.
We did too.
Harmony: A Rare Mare, A Rare Loss
We heard about Harmony from the horses across the hills in Wales.
A proud Cleveland Bay—she carried the old bloodlines, the ones humans say are “rarer than pandas.”
She was expecting a foal.
A new life for her breed.
But someone thought she looked hungry.
Someone tossed food over the fence.
Food her body wasn’t meant to digest.
She died alone in her field, her unborn foal with her.
And we—horses everywhere—lost another one of our kind.
When You Feed Us, You Change Us
You might think it’s kindness, but here’s what happens:
We start waiting by the roads.
We leave the safety of the trees and wander near cars looking for treats. Many of us die under wheels every year.
We begin to approach strangers.
Not all humans are gentle. Some are careless. Some are cruel.
We stop foraging like we should.
Our bodies are made to graze all day. Snacks confuse our instincts.
We trust too easily.
Even when trust hurts us.
We Want to Live the Way We Always Have
We don’t need extra food.
We don’t need handouts.
We don’t need human treats.
We have everything we need in the grass, gorse, heather, and herbs that grow around us.
We need you to walk by, admire us, love us even—but leave us to be horses.
If You Truly Love Us…
Here is what we ask:
Please don’t feed us.
Please don’t give us carrots, apples, bread, biscuits, peelings, or anything at all.
Watch us from a distance.
Take your photos.
Smile at us.
Let your children see us roaming freely—alive, healthy, proud.
Let us raise our foals without fear.
Let us live long enough to grow old in our herds.
Let us graze the way our ancestors did.
Let us be wild.
Let us be safe.
Let us be horses.
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