A meat horse, or slaughter horse, is a horse bred for its ability to yield meat. Coming from draft horses formerly used for agricultural work, these horses are threatened with extinction by the mechanization of agricultural activities. This state of affairs has prompted breeders to look for new economic outlets. Breeding for meat horses was very popular in France in the 1980s, helping to safeguard these breeds. It has developed in Italy and Spain, but is declining in France, due to the further reduction of work activities with draft horses. Meat horses are selected for their speed of growth and fattening, as well for the mares' fertility and maternal qualities. This selection process is very different from that prevailing in a draft horse, and results in vulnerability to specific health problems. Meat horses are generally neither trained nor socialized by their breeders: they are slaughtered as foals, between six and thirty months old. This type of farming makes it possible to enhance the value of grassland in difficult or declining areas, including cattle and sheep. It is also controversial due to the societal rejection of slaughtering horses and the practice of eating horse meat (hippophagy).
Definition The notion of "meat horse" is a French specificity: this term designates a livestock animal, the horse raised for the production of meat. Rural historian Marcel Mavré analyzes it as a degradation of the draft horse, the meat horse being a direct descendant of the draft horse, which is a working animal. The development/evolution of the meat horse is very similar to that of beef cattle, since draft cattle are used as beef cattle.
History in France The history of the meat horse is an example of "keeping breeds in business by changing their orientation".
Origin
Its origins date back to the 1960s in Europe, and particularly in France. Breeders of draft horses were no longer able to sell their livestock for farm work, and are left with animals with no commercial value, rendered obsolete by the tractor. Looking for ways to continue breeding these breeds, those in charge of the Boulonnais and Ardennais horse breed registries decided to direct them towards meat production. This new orientation became official in France on July 23, 1976, then published in the Journal officiel de la République française on August 24, 1976, when the cheval de trait (lit. draft horse) officially became the cheval lourd (lit. heavy horse).
Positioning In the 1970s and 1980s, the French national stud farms encouraged breeders to convert their draft horses into meat horses, based on the beef cattle model. They introduced a number of measures. Horses suitable for draft were no longer distinguished in breeding competitions. Breeders were encouraged to present horses with heavy musculature, which enabled them to obtain good prices at slaughter. The result was a significant physical transformation of these breeds over a period of twenty years. According to Marcel Mavré, the breeders were criticized in more ways than one. In 1981, for example, a Belgian breeder of Ardennes horses declared that one doesn't need to be a good breeder to produce meat horses because they're no longer required for draft work. The opening of the Italian market in the 1980s, a major consumer of young horse meat, led to a wave of interest in outdoor meat horse breeding, especially in Brittany, with the local draft breed, the Breton. This breeding model was exported to the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. In 1984, as the gaits of butcher horses were no longer taken into account, the gait test for the Postier Breton (the lighter of two subtypes of Breton) stallions was abolished. The distinction between the two subtypes "Trait Breton" and "Postier Breton" became less obvious in the Breton breed. In 1985, the Hennebont stud sent a huge butcher-type breeding stallion named Oscar to Bannalec in Finistère. By 1985, French meat horses had become much heavier and fatter than in the past; almost unsuitable for draft work. Breeders of the new meat horse structure derisively nicknamed the previously lighter draft horse structure "bicycles". The construction of the "horse industry", officially named "relaunch" in the 1980s, made it possible to link breeding and marketing of heavy foals on a European scale, on the model of the bull calf. These measures were effective in halting the decline in numbers of draft horse breeds and brought about a new culture among breeders. They also allow the revival of the equestrian agricultural economy in Brittany.
Since the 1990s In the 1990s, a movement to bring back draft horses began in France, putting the brakes on its transformation into a specialized meat animal. This left a feeling of failure for those breeders who were late to start breeding, and benefited from agro-environmental premiums for endangered horse breeds from 1992 onwards, particularly those in the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. The identity of the draft horse is changing in European perception, dissociating itself from the slaughter animal. Furthermore, since 2010, the Italian market has been less dynamic, with the price of fuel significantly increasing the cost of exporting live horses. In 2013, horse meat was traded between €1 and €1.50 per kilo by the merchant from the breeder, still mostly to Italy. In some breeds, such as the Breton and Comtois, the meat horse model predominates among breeders (2015), to the detriment of the draft horse model. Draft horse breeders find it difficult to promote their animals in breeding competitions, as they are considered too thin compared to meat horses, which are objectively overweight and even obese.
Description The characteristics required in a horse intended for carcass weight are not the same as those of a draft horse, these two orientations being mutually incompatible. According to Bernadette Lizet, fattening meat horses leads to "abnormal deformation of the animal's body". A meat horse is selected on the basis of its growth and fattening capacity, and the maternal qualities of the mares. Heavy foals are generally slaughtered between 6 and 30 months of age. For fattening, they can be fed natural hay (ryegrass) but also silage corn, grain corn, dehydrated beet pulp, concentrated feed and lupin. Some breeders try cross-breeding several breeds (e.g. Breton and Comtois) to obtain better-adapted horse models.
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