Would you eat a horse?

Tasty

Horse meat has the look of venison but tender, less sinewy, and without a gamey flavor. Feedlot beef, the bulk of US beef, tastes a bit sour compared to horse. I lived and worked in central Asia for a number of years and horse meat was a treat and a break from lamb. Camel is not too bad either but in central Asia a camel has more value than a horse due to milk production so it is not on the menu as often as horse.
 
Yes, I did in Europe, France does not have a monopoly on it. Chances are if you wandered around a beer fest in Germany, and ordered a Ross Wurst sandwich, you just ate horse sausage.
 
I've tried it and its very good. I dont know if it was grain fed or grass fed, but it was some of the tastiest meat I've ever had.

Chances are, some of you have had it and didnt know it. I dont know for a fact, but I've heard from a couple very reliable sources that they use to use alot of it in restaraunts around Chicago and New York.

Sounds like a good way to get rid of some of the wild BLM horses around here. They do the adoption thing, but the odds of getting a decent ridable horse is unlikly. I only know of about one guy that was happy with his horse. The rest were all so screwed up in the head that they never would calm down and staighten out.
And the horses were worse.:D
 
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In France what is offered on the menu as 'bif stek' is usually really horse. I'm certain I have eaten it several times.
As for the horses on the plains, I favor elimination. Time has come to let reason prevail over the wails of the extremist animal lovers.
 
The French love horse meat.
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And with good reason. It's excellent when properly cooked. I lived in France for a while, and ate horse meat regularly; I'd eat it now if it were available.

It's an interesting question which would taste better, "farmed" horse meat, or meat from wild horses shot as game. I'd love to do the experiment... :)

As a practical matter of population control, though, I wonder if rounding up wild horses, pasturing them for a bit, and then slaughtering them for meat, wouldn't be more effective than opening a hunting season on them.

Get them off BLM land and farm them for meat, say I. People farm-raise bison, elk, caribou, etc., etc., for meat -- why not horses?
 
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Get them off BLM land and farm them for meat, say I. People farm-raise bison, elk, caribou, etc., etc., for meat -- why not horses?
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"Because they're such beautiful animals"...... :rolleyes:


I'm with many of you: Sell tags. Bring in more hunting revenue.


They're not even a native species....
 
Only if I was starving.
To me the Horse, and the Dog, are sacred animals, I just couldnt do it.
But would like to have a Mustang to ride, and hunt off.
 
I don't know, I guess I would. I'm pretty convinced that a lot of those "steaks" served in the mess halls when I was overseas were horse. They sure didn't taste like beef, but they weren't bad.
 
" A white man will ride a horse 'til it drops. A Comanch' will get that horse up, ride it another 20 miles then eat it..." John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers".

There is a big mess up in Nevada between the cattle ranchers and the horse lovers... A few years ago, a couple hundred horses were found shot to death in a canyon. Allegedly, someone had herded them up into a canyon lined with people with rifles...
 
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Well it seems to be an issue with sustainability caused by the governments short sighted policies. Instead of being slaughtered for meat they are being left to starve to death.

I see no problem with it if what was said in the OP is true. The humane thing to do would be to hunt them to get the population down to a sustainable level.

There is nothing "Humane" about letting an animal starve over the course of weeks/months. Nor whit letting an animal suffer for years from malnutrition due to overpopulation. If an area can support 50 horses and there are 75, then all 75 will endure prolonged suffering. If 25 endure a quick death it means the other 50 will no longer have to suffer from effects of overpopulation.
 
Eat
Horse yes
Dog yes but not till 'hungry'
Cat No unless starving.

Beatles, crawfish, snake and squid all seem undesirable, but I have enjoyed them all without knowing what they were.
 
The horse meat I ate was a bit tough, but way better than emu if you want to have a beef-like taste. I’d rank it as good as or better than bison or beeffalo. As good as Goat or Sheep, better than dog (don’t ask), not as good as cat (gee this chicken on a stick tastes just like rabbit.. a week or so later the restaurant was busted by the health dept.:eek:)
All of the above are far superior to a milk cow … yeah, I fell for "you can have it if you want it" on a dry-udder moo-beast once and thought it would be worth the wrestle into the trailer and trip to the butcher. Should’ve known something was up when the dude wouldn’t butcher it "on halves" and insisted on payment in cash. If you do get a "deal" like this, I’d suggest making the whole thing into sausage and heavily seasoned hamburger … unless you can figure out a way to make shoes outta steaks. The ribeyes were about as tough as my work boots and had a bit of a smell to ‘em too.

Weird stuff…
Ants are pretty good, chocolate covered ones are best. Eels are superb kabayaki. Rattlesnake is decent. Gator can be the best thing you ever tasted. Mealworms are just odd. Sea urchin gonads are something I can’t decide if I really like a lot or despise, maybe it depends more on the mood I’m in or how fresh they are. Jellyfish is really good. So is dried cuttlefish, but the wife won’t allow it in the house, or kiss me for a few days after eating it. I was once VERY fond of agave worms, but never ate one sober …:D
 
Would I eat one? Sure. Why not? They're made of meat aren't they?

Would I hunt one? I don't know. Probably not. I guess if I was hungry enough, and I'm sure a wild horse would be hard to hunt, but right now I can't get past the idea of sneaking up on "Ol Paint" out in the back pasture.

I'd hate to have to drag that critter out too, but I guess moose and elk hunters do it.
 
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As mentined earlier, it's a cultural thing and therefore a matter of personal preference.

http://www.rangemagazine.com has and has had articles on the wild horses of our western states. The mismanagement programs of BLM et al have created enormous problems.

As a bit of a clue about how an overpopulation of horses can hurt range country, remember that a horse will generally equal three cows for food requirement.
 
I accidentally ate a horse steak in France when I was 11 - its gross, and no, not because I later found out it was horse. I don't care much for horses, it was just not a good tasting meat.
 
As I've been an avid horseman for over 40 years, I guess I'm a bit biased, but I think the horse deserves more reverence than our national symbol, the Bald Eagle.

While the eagle has really done nothing to aid in the development of these United States, the horse carried settlers West and soldiers into battle, yet we made it illegal to possess even an eagle feather, and we serve up horses for dinner :rolleyes:.

reloader28 said:
Sounds like a good way to get rid of some of the wild BLM horses around here. They do the adoption thing, but the odds of getting a decent ridable horse is unlikly. I only know of about one guy that was happy with his horse. The rest were all so screwed up in the head that they never would calm down and staighten out.
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Maybe getting a bit off topic, but natural selection has made the Mustang one of the toughest, most reliable horses in the world. Their hooves are like iron and they rival the Arab for endurance. Once you've owned a good Mustang, you'll never go with any other breed. As far as being "screwed up in the head", they generally have strong and independent wills, but the vast majority are trainable, and turn out to be willing and reliable.

To quote world-renowned trainer John Lyons, "There are no bad horses; only bad trainers". ;)
 
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