Living in Integrity with Ren Hurst Episode 1 Is horseback riding vegan

Hi,I'm stormy May,producer of the documentary,The Path of the Horse.I'm here today to introduce you to my friend Ren Hurst. We've been following a similar path of horsemanship for the past few years and I'm pleased,humbled,honored to say that she lives in full integrity with her message of not causing harm. she does her best every day to create a better world. I'd like you to help us by sharing this video, talking about it with your friends, commenting on it, reading her book, Riding on the Power of Others, supporting her sanctuary foundation, the New World Sanctuary and hum, sharing kindness in this world. ... ... In a world where conformity rules, ... ... One woman ... ... looked within ... .. and found herself. ... ... ... ... A woman who became a trailblazer. ... ... Living in integrity with Ren Hurst. Hi, I'm ren,this is the New World Sanctuary Foundation, located in southern Oregon. We're a vegan farmstay and horse sanctuary and i've come here today to address the issue of horse and veganism and answer the question: "Is horseback riding vegan?" A lot of people don't make the connection between horses and being vegan because they don't really understand that veganism is more than a diet. Veganism is a philosophy and a lifestyle choice to not use non-human animals. So, when you're thinking about horse back riding, the quick answer to the question is "no" Horse back riding is not vegan because it's "using" the horse. And i know a lot of people will probably get in an uproar about that because they think of the magical friendship they have with their horse and how that involves climbing on their horse's back. Well, i used to be a horse trainer, i'm very proficient in many of the gentlest methods that you've probably ever heard of and that path and my journey with exploring all the methods that were available to have, this so-called "gentle" method of relating to horses led me to becoming vegan and to starting this sanctuary where the horse live in total freedom and have actually truly become my friends finally. This is Honey, she wants to be in the show. To make you understand a little bit more about what is harmful about riding or what would make it non compliant with the vegan lifestyle. There's so many facets to that, i probably can't get into all of it in this one clip so we'll probably just make a series. We can address the science and the harm first of all and that it's actually physically damaging to the horses to be ridden. There's an enormous amount of evidence to prove that beyond any shadow of a doubt and i encourage you to research it. From limited blood supply to the tissues and muscles in the back to the obvious weight on an elongated spine to what equipment you use to ride. If you're placing a piece of metal in your horse's mouth and you've created a story about how that isn't harming them, it really is a story, and there's just so much evidence to show the harm that goes into physically putting a human weight on the back of a horse, especially for a prolonged period of time.But we can get into all the details of that or you can just consider the basic fact that horses are conditioned to be ridden. They're trained, they are taught to accept it. This is not something that they come from a free place and say :" Hey, climb up on me and let's go gallivanting around." Thank you Honey. So there's just so many ways that we can get into this topic but at the end of the day, horseback riding is exploitation at best and i've documented my entire journey with horses including all the different avenues that i explored ans learned and put them in this book, Riding on the Power of Others, for people to understand what it's like to come to these conclusions after truly being very much engaged with the depths of the industry, i've trained hundreds of horses. I've probably caused more harm to more horses than any of you watching this will ever think about so it's not coming from a place of judgement, it's coming from a place of truly experienced truth and i hope that anyone watching this video that is interested in exploring veganism or being vegan would have an open enough heart to explore this topic more fully. And i'd highly recommend reading my story at least and then doing a ton of exploration on your own. You can order the book, Riding on the Power of Others, on Amazon.com or through Vegan Publishers or you can request it anywhere books are sold. And depending on the input i receive from this video, I would be very open to continue a series of videos like this to answer some of the more pressing questions in details, like "What is the harm in riding horses?" and "Is it psychologically damaging?" and i have a lot of strong opinions but most of them are answered right here through my unique and very in-depth experiences. Thank you for taking the time to watch this today and getting to meet a little bit of my herd and i look forward to bringing more to you on this topic.